Depaneling PCBs is a critical step in surface mount technology assembly, especially when the boards are small, circular or require tight tolerances. Some electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies have found a UV laser to be an effective tool for depaneling these types of boards.

EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation recently shipped a custom-built depaneling cell to a leading Tier 1 automotive supplier. The fully automatic cell loads circuit board panels from standard magazines and depanels them using servo-driven router heads. The individual boards are then loaded into trays, which are automatically stacked.