Abstract: An adjustable conveyor for use in the manufacture of printed circuit boards to interconnect workstations separated by varying distances, which has a pair of longitudinally extensible belts for edge supporting such circuit boards, with a tensioning adjustment on each belt, and which has a lateral adjustment to accommodate circuit boards of different widths as well as to perform other operations.

Abstract: An assembly machine (10) has a plurality of slots (22) each of which hold a feeder (24) containing a component reel (30). The assembly machine (10) automatically assembles a printed circuit board from these components. When a changeover occurs the assembly machine (10) determines which components need to be added (104), which need to be removed and which can be moved (106). The assembly machine (10) then instructs an operator to first perform all the remove operations, then to perform all the move operations and last to perform all the add operations. A combination of scanning a component ID (32) and a feeder ID (32) verifies the correct component is placed on the appropriate reel (30). The location of reel (30) among the slots (22) is verified by a proximity sensor (28).