Delivering mounting capacity of 10,000cph, the latest RX-8 high-speed compact modular mounter by JUKI Corporation reinforced the company’s smart solution portfolio to significantly improve productivity. The company has earlier put to market the RX-7 and RX-7R high-speed compact modular mounters with a mounting capacity of 75,000cph, which delivered promising sales for mounting of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for smartphones and other electronic devices.

In the mounting process of PCBs, the RX-8 mounts ultrasmall components, such as chip components measuring 0.4×0.2mm to 5×5mm×3mm, and compact ICs, at high speeds using two heads.

Each mounting head of the latest model has 20 nozzles compared with 16 nozzles of the RX-7 and RX-7R. Therefore, the RX-8 can pick up greater number of components at a time.  Like its predecessors, the RX-8 features a compact size with a width of 998mm, and yet, achieves high-speed mounting of 10,000cph, 1.3 times that of the RX-7 and RX-7R, and the highest area productivity in the two-head mounter class. 

The new P20 planet head suits the production of not only chips and small ICs but also PCBs for lightings and panels that use light-emitting diode (LED) edge lights that require high accuracy, as well as the production of wearable devices.  Combined with the RS-1R high-speed smart modular mounter enables flexible construction of lines and supports a wide variety of production items.

Using JUKI’s JaNets SMT Total System Software enables production management in the SMT line and the linkage with the backbone system, thereby visualizing the progress of production and operation conditions of equipment, and errors in the mounting site. Thus, JaNets supports speedy actions and optimum operation of the production line. 

The up-and-coming fifth-generation (5G) communications and the prevalence of other leading-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and sensing, have further advanced electronic devices, such as smartphones and wearable devices, as well as electric vehicles (EVs) and service robots. In the mounting of PCBs, the installation of mounters and machines with high process capacities, construction of mounting lines that flexibly support diverse production items, and the creation of smart processes of the entire factory by linking with the backbone system have been pursued.

With the release of the RX-8, JUKI now has in its portfolio, a high-speed mounter, a general-purpose mounter, a solder paste printer, PCB inspection systems, automated warehouses, a mounter for the post-process, and integrated software. The reinforced portfolio boosts the company’s JUKI Smart Solution.