Feeder Assignment Problem of Placement Machine Assembling Printed Circuit Board

Feeder assignment problem is one critical problem of placement machine assembling printed circuit board (PCB). It affects placement machine's product efficiency directly. An optimization model for it was provided, in which, it is constrained that one type of components is contained only by one feeder. In addition, set of components of each pickandplace cycle is regarded as a whole. The object of the model is the minimum moving time of placement heads picking components from feeders along feeder slots. A heuristic algorithm based on the model was presented. Components are divided and grouped into each set of components of each pickandplace cycle, then feeder positions are assigned to make picking simultaneously as much as possible according to the placement positions of these sets of components. Experiments were done on a four head placement machine, which show that they can reduce total assembly time greatly.