A common misconception about manufacturing (especially among the general public) is that it’s void of innovation. The fact is, new assembly technologies are constantly being developed and introduced to the marketplace. Sometimes, however, an innovation must be modified to become mainstream.
Such is the case for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly. From the early 1940s to the early 1990s, nearly all PCB components were attached with one of three methods: point-to-point soldering, wave soldering or reflow soldering.