Efficient operation of a surface mounting machine with a multihead turret

Abstract

We consider the problem of minimizing the time needed to assemble a PCB using an automatic surface mounting machine equipped with a multihead turret. We solved the problem by using the problem with one head as an approximation to the multihead case. We devised a heuristic algorithm to solve the problem with one head and used it to solve the multihead problem. Computational experiences on some real world and randomly generated problems show that the algorithm for the one head problem also solves the problem with a multihead as well.