EIA-481 is not a paperwork standard. It is a mechanical tolerance contract between carrier tape, feeder, and placement head.
Every SMT feeder indexes components using fixed 4.00 mm sprocket pitch geometry. Any deviation introduced at a splice becomes a mechanical error amplified at speed.
EIA-481 compliance ensures:
Most splice failures blamed on “feeders” are actually splice geometry failures.
Common non-compliance failure modes:
These failures do not appear at low speed. They surface only when production ramps.
A compliant SMT splice tape must:
If the splice changes geometry, it is not compliant regardless of claims.
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