Abstract: An apparatus for automatically equipping printed circuit boards with components includes at least two equipping heads arranged stationarily at a distance from one another. A printed circuit board displacement apparatus moves corresponding printed circuit boards simultaneously into corresponding equipping positions relative to the equipping heads. Each equipping head is actuated when the printed circuit board allocated to that equipping head is moved into the corresponding equipping position. After the equipping program has been executed, the printed circuit boards are clocked for work by one equipping head division so that an unequipped printed circuit board is supplied to the first equipping head in the conveying direction and a completely equipped printed circuit board is discharged from the last equipping head. This spatially separate, serial equipping of the printed circuit boards enables the equipping heads to be reloaded when they are not actively engaged in executing an equipping event.

Abstract: An automatic SMD equipping unit utilizes a rotatable and displaceable multiple equipping head (1) with plural suction pipettes (2) and a device carrier (7) that contains processing stations (8). The multiple equipping head (1) executes a collecting event via delivery units (4) whereby it picks up components. The equipping of the printed circuit board (5) from the equipping head occurs in a second procedure, whereby the multiple equipping head (1) need not move back and forth between delivery unit (4) and printed circuit board (5) after every placement of a component (3) onto the printed circuit board (5). The components that were picked up by the suction pipettes (2) are processed by processing stations (8) after the collecting and before the equipping. Here, the components are centered, contacted, measured and tested.