METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONFIGURING, AUTOMATING AND CONTROLLING OPERATIONS PERFORMED ON PCBS

摘要

A method and apparatus (10) for configuring, automating and controlling the various operations performed on different products, e.g. the testing and/or repair or printed circuit boards (19), is presented. The apparatus (10) includes one or more work stations (11, 15), and conveyor units (12, 13) to transport products and other components required to perform the operations on such products between such stations (11, 15). The products are mounted in standardized carriers (20) which facilitate intermixing different sizes and shapes of products without requiring adjustment to the conveyor units (12, 13). The other components are adapted to also be transportable by the same conveyor units (12, 13). The apparatus (10) further includes buffering stages (16) associated with each station for temporarily storing products and other components, and a distributed control system to facilitate the parallel processing of different types of products in accordance with a dynamic priority rating system and a preemptive scheduling technique.