Southern Machinery S7900 odd form insertion machine on the THT line

Component Data and Editing on an Odd Form Insertion Machine | Southern Machinery

Every odd form insertion machine is two systems in one cabinet: a mechanical inserter and a database. The mechanics decide how fast and how hard the head can place a part. The database decides what the machine believes the part is - its body size, its lead pitch, its height, which tool picks it up, how far the leads are pushed into the board and how the leads are clinched underneath. Get the database wrong and the machine will insert the wrong part, in the wrong place, to the wrong depth, at full speed and without complaining.

Lesson 3 of Southern Machinery's odd form machine training series covers component data and editing - the layer of the program where individual parts are defined, stored and maintained. It is the counterpart to Lesson 4's PCB data and mark points: PCB data tells the machine where the board is, component data tells it what it is holding.

The training lesson is embedded below.

Direct link: watch Lesson 3 of the odd form machine training series on YouTube

What is this machine used for?

An odd form insertion machine is the THT station that handles what the rest of the line cannot. Transformers, relays, connectors, fuse holders, terminal blocks, radial electrolytic capacitors, inductors, lamps and optoelectronic parts are neither radial tape, axial tape nor SMD. They arrive in trays, tubes, vibratory bowls or loose bags, with different lead pitches, asymmetric bodies and no shared presentation standard. A radial inserter cannot be pointed at them, and manual insertion gives you one operator, one part, one board at a time.

An odd-form machine picks each part with a nozzle or a gripper, presents it to the board, seats the leads into the programmed holes to a programmed depth and clinches underneath, so the board can continue into wave soldering without being re-handled.

That sequence only works because someone described the part to the machine first. Component data is that description, and the editing functions are how the description is created, corrected, copied and kept current as the part list changes.

As a reference point for the equipment class, the documented specification of the S-70LD odd form insertion machine describes four insertion heads with four adjustable feeders (tape or vibration plate), a 4,000 CPH insertion speed (3,800 CPH noted for radial resistor insertion), ±0.05 mm insertion accuracy, components from 3×3 mm to 30×30 mm and up to 50 mm high, PCBs from 50×50 mm to 300×300 mm at 0.8–5.0 mm thickness, a 220 V AC / 0.8 kVA supply, air at 0.4–0.6 MPa, noise at or below 75 dB, a machine weight of roughly 1,000 kg, and an industrial computer with vision guidance that recognises lead geometry. Southern Machinery's odd-form platforms, including the S7900 series, address the same class of work at different board sizes and throughput levels.

What component data actually contains

A component record is not a part number in a spreadsheet. It is a set of parameters the motion system consumes directly:

Body geometry. Length, width and height, so the machine knows the clearance envelope around the part and can sequence insertions without the head or a neighbouring component colliding.
Lead pattern. Lead pitch and span, lead diameter and length, and the number of leads. This is what the insertion head aims at, and what determines whether the part can be seated at all.
Orientation and polarity. Which way the part faces and how a reversed part is detected - critical for electrolytic capacitors, diodes and parts with a defined pin-1.
Insertion depth and height. How far the leads are driven into the holes, and the target seating height of the body above the board. This is the parameter that decides whether a part sits flush or "floats high" after soldering.
Clinch parameters. Inward or outward clinch and the clinch force, which is what holds the part in the board on its way to wave soldering.
Tooling assignment. Which nozzle or gripper picks the part up, and the pickup reference used to grasp it - the link between component data and the nozzle data covered in Lesson 2.
Feed presentation. Which feeder station supplies the part, and in what format.

Editing is the discipline around that record: creating a new component entry from scratch, copying an existing entry for a similar part and adjusting only what differs, editing a value when a vendor changes the part, and - most importantly - verifying the edited record on a first article before it goes into production.

Why the editing workflow matters more than the data entry

Two plants can buy the same machine and get different results purely from how they manage the component library:

Copy-and-edit beats type-from-scratch. A family of relays or terminal blocks shares most parameters. Copying the closest existing record and changing the lead span and height is faster and safer than entering twenty values by hand.
A wrong parameter does not stop the machine. A lead pitch that is 0.5 mm too wide does not raise an alarm - it bends a lead, seats it badly, or misses the hole. The defect is discovered after wave soldering, which is the most expensive place to find it.
The library is a changeover asset. On a high-mix DIP line, the component library is the first thing an engineer touches on a repeat order. If it is maintained and versioned, a returning product is a program load, a quick verification and a run. If it lives in one operator's memory, every repeat order is a re-teach.
Part changes are silent until someone notices. When a supplier ships a marginally different body or lead length under the same part number, the library entry becomes wrong without anyone editing it. A verification step after incoming or engineering change is what catches that.
Back it up and export it. Component data, like board data, should be exportable and restorable. A library that only exists inside one controller is a production risk.

Typical applications

1. Home appliance control boards. Air conditioners, washing machines, rice cookers, induction cookers and microwave boards carry relays, connectors and transformers, often with the same component family repeated across many SKUs - exactly the case where a well-maintained component library pays back fastest.

2. Power supply and adapter PCBA. Vehicle power supplies, energy-saving power supplies and ballasts use large, heavy transformers and radial capacitors whose pin patterns leave limited positional tolerance. Correct lead pitch and insertion depth in the component record is the difference between a seated transformer and a bent lead.

3. LED drivers and lighting electronics. Long, narrow boards and luminous-character panels push the extremes of the machine envelope and often use optoelectronic parts with defined orientation. Orientation and polarity data in the component record is what prevents a reversed part reaching the customer.

4. Automotive and vehicle electronics. Car audio and vehicle power supply boards mix SMT and THT content and carry polarity-sensitive parts, where insertion depth and polarity consistency are reliability characteristics rather than cosmetics.

5. EMS and ODM plants running high-mix DIP assembly. Where one line builds many board variants sharing component families, the component library and its editing discipline decide how many changeovers the line can absorb per shift.

How it fits into a complete PCB assembly line

Component data is created at one station, but the assumptions inside it travel the whole line:

SMT block first. Stencil printing, SPI, pick-and-place and reflow build the SMD side. Southern Machinery's SMT range covers this stage - stencil printers such as the SP-1008 and SP-1200, semi-automatic platforms such as the S-530L for lens and LED component mounting, higher-volume placement on the S-DU800 series, SMT intelligent reel storage for traceable FIFO kitting, and SPI/AOI inspection.
Component preparation. Radial taping, lead forming, bulk capacitor taping with polarity check, axial-to-radial tapping and lead cutting convert loose parts into insertion-ready format. No component record can compensate for badly formed leads.
Feeding. Tape, tube, tray, vibratory bowl and belt presentations determine what the component record can describe. Southern Machinery's feeder range covers these formats, and feeder selection belongs in the same conversation as component data - a presentation change mid-project invalidates part of the library.
THT insertion block. The odd-form inserter works alongside the S-3010B radial inserter, the S-3000 radial insertion machine for DIP assembly, the S4000 axial inserter and the S7020 Series PIN/eyelet/terminal inserter. Each station defines its own component and board data, so consistent naming and parameter conventions across machines are what let one product definition travel between lines.
Soldering and lead finishing. Inserted boards move into lead-free wave soldering - the S-WS450, or the PC-controlled dual-wave S-WS350B - then to the S-320AT inline auto lead cutter, with the S-500G dip soldering machine and the S100B desktop selective soldering machine covering smaller or mixed-technology batches. An insertion depth error is not contained at the insertion station: it shows up as floating-high or non-seated parts after soldering, across the whole batch.
Cleaning and inspection. Stencil and pallet cleaning, SPI, AOI, online wave-solder appearance checking and X-ray equipment catch what insertion produced. The further a component-data error travels, the more the rework costs.
Board handling and support. Magazine loaders and unloaders, conveyors such as the SBF330 wave solder input conveyor, turnover units and buffer storage keep the line flowing while a new component record is verified. The service ecosystem behind it - spare parts across Panasonic, Fuji, JUKI, Yamaha, Samsung, Siplace, DEK, TDK and Universal platforms, custom nozzles and grippers, repair, retrofit and operator training - is what keeps the component library usable over the machine's working life.

Key selection parameters

The table below lists what to confirm in a quotation. Where a documented figure exists for the S-70LD platform it is shown as a reference; everything else is a category to verify against your own build.

| Parameter | Documented S-70LD reference | What to confirm for your build |

|---|---|---|

| Component database | Industrial computer with vision guidance | Whether a part library exists, how records are searched, copied and edited, and who can change them |

| Component data fields | Vision-based lead-geometry recognition; vision inspection before insertion | Which fields define a part (body geometry, lead pitch/span, height, polarity, depth, clinch) and which are learned by the machine |

| Component envelope | 3×3 mm to 30×30 mm, up to 50 mm high | Your largest and heaviest odd-form parts and body-to-body clearance |

| Lead handling | Insertion accuracy ±0.05 mm | Hole-to-lead clearance and positional tolerance in your board design |

| Insertion depth / height | Programmable on the platform | How seating height is set and how it is verified on a first article |

| Clinching | Documented on the odd-form platform | Inward or outward clinch to suit your solder process and IPC class |

| Tooling per component | Custom nozzles and grippers available | Which nozzle or gripper each part family needs, and the lead time and cost per family |

| Editing functions | Covered in this lesson | Copy, edit, import/export and versioning of component records |

| Insertion heads / feeders | 4 heads, 4 adjustable feeders (tape or vibration plate) | Head count, feeder mix and presentation formats your part list needs |

| Speed class | 4,000 CPH (3,800 CPH noted for radial resistors) | Required rate against components per board and changeover frequency |

| PCB range | 50×50 mm to 300×300 mm, 0.8–5.0 mm thick | Your smallest board, largest panel and maximum panel weight |

| Data backup | Export and restore on the controller | How component data, programs and libraries are versioned, exported and restored |

| Line interface | Inline station with SMEMA handshake | Conveyor height, direction and handshake with your existing DIP line |

| Utilities and environment | 220 V AC, 0.8 kVA; air 0.4–0.6 MPa; noise ≤75 dB | Site power, air supply, noise specification and floor loading |

| Footprint / weight | Approximately 1,000 kg | Access for setup, maintenance and feeder loading |

Beyond the specification, confirm what comes with the machine: a written component-data procedure, a naming and versioning convention your team actually follows, training that covers editing as well as normal operation, and a first-article verification rule that is documented rather than remembered.

ROI and quality perspective

From a buyer's perspective, component data and editing sit exactly where engineering discipline turns into production money:

Editing time is front-loaded, then reused. Copying and editing a record takes minutes; the record is then an asset re-used on every repeat order. On a high-mix line, the difference between a maintained library and a re-taught one is visible directly in changeover hours.
A bad component record produces silent, repeatable defects. A wrong pitch, depth or orientation does not stop the machine, so the error repeats on every board until inspection or the customer finds it. Automatic insertion removes human variability - Southern Machinery's published analysis documents floating-high, mis-insertion and reverse insertion as the recurring manual failure modes - but only if the data behind the placement is right.
Defects found late are defects found expensive. Southern Machinery's analysis of the cost asymmetry is blunt: for a transformer with six to ten pins, a single non-seated pin can become a field failure costing many times the board's assembly value, and reworking odd-form defects after wave soldering and cleaning takes several minutes per board with a real risk of damaging adjacent components. The component record is the cheapest control point in that whole chain.
The manual baseline is expensive in ways that do not show up on the labour line. Southern Machinery's published analysis notes that hand-inserted odd-form parts take approximately 4 to 10 seconds each depending on operator familiarity, part orientation and presentation, and that across 5,000 boards with four odd-form components per board that variability can add hours of unplanned labour. Automation only delivers that saving when the component data is correct from the first article.
It is a traceability asset. As customers push for documented process control and ESG-style reporting, knowing which component revision, tool and program produced a batch is the difference between an answer and a guess - and it decides whether the machine is still supportable years after installation.

Model it with your own numbers: distinct odd-form parts per board, boards per order, new parts per quarter, programming and editing hours per new product, present mis-insert and rework rates, and the cost of a defect discovered after soldering. In most plants the arithmetic favours a platform with a real component library and a team trained to edit it - long before it favours more manual stations.

FAQ

What is component data on an odd form insertion machine?

Component data is the machine's stored definition of each part it can place: body length, width and height, lead pitch and span, lead diameter and length, orientation and polarity, the pickup reference, insertion depth and body seating height, clinch parameters, the nozzle or gripper assigned to it, and which feeder supplies it. It is the part-side counterpart to PCB data, which defines the board.

How is component data different from PCB data and nozzle data?

PCB data defines the board - dimensions, origin, panel layout and mark points. Nozzle data defines the tool. Component data defines the part itself and links the two by recording which tool picks the part and how deep it is inserted into that board. All three are separate lessons in the odd form machine training series precisely because they are separate controls.

Why does editing matter if the machine has vision?

Vision helps the machine recognise lead geometry and check the part it is holding, which catches many presentation and orientation problems. It does not know that your supplier changed a lead span under the same part number, or that an engineer entered the depth for the wrong variant. Editing discipline plus a first-article verification step is what keeps the stored record true to the part actually on the feeder.

Can component records be copied or reused for a new product?

Frequently yes - a new board that shares component families with an existing one can be programmed by copying and editing the closest records rather than building them from scratch. How far that reuse reaches depends on the platform and on whether your team applies a consistent naming and versioning convention. Ask to see records being copied and edited during a demo.

What should a buyer ask to see before purchasing an odd-form inserter?

Ask to see a new part defined from scratch and then edited - including how the record is verified on a first article, how records are searched, copied, exported and restored, and what happens when a wrongly edited value reaches production. A prepared demo program with perfect data does not answer any of those questions.

Do operators or engineers need to maintain the component library?

With a documented procedure, a naming convention and training, a senior operator or process technician can create and edit records, with engineering control over changes that affect yield. The critical requirements are documented procedures, controlled access to the library, and a verification step after every change.

Contact Southern Machinery

Southern Machinery (Shenzhen, China; established 2011; 237+ global customers) designs and manufactures SMT, THT and PCB assembly automation - insertion machines, wave soldering, board handling, cleaning, inspection, feeders and nozzles, and the spare parts, training, retrofit and repair services around them.

For help evaluating an odd-form insertion machine, building or editing a component library for your part list, training your operators, or reviewing a complete SMT/THT line, contact the team:

Email: [jasonwu@smthelp.com](mailto:jasonwu@smthelp.com)
Website: www.smthelp.com
Catalogs, manuals & documents: file.autoinsertion.com
Product images: ph.smthelp.com
Machine operation manuals & training library: SMT/THT machine operation manual library on smthelp.com

Watch the complete odd-form machine training series on the Southern Machinery YouTube channel, including this lesson on component data and editing.