Production splicing occurs at or near the SMT placement machine, often while the line is running or during brief intervention windows. Its purpose is to maintain uninterrupted component feeding without halting machine operation.
This form of splicing is fundamentally mechanical in nature, as the splice is rapidly subjected to operational forces immediately after formation.
Adhesive systems are therefore evaluated under dynamic load conditions, where time-dependent behaviors such as creep and viscoelastic deformation dominate performance.
Production splicing differs from kitting splicing in several key mechanical dimensions:
The splice experiences:
Unlike prototype or kitting environments, production splices are exposed to:
The mechanical demands are cumulative rather than instantaneous.
Production splicing failures often occur after prolonged operation, not immediately upon startup. This leads to misdiagnosis, where the splice is assumed to have been correctly installed because it initially functioned.
Engineering analysis must account for:
Without this, corrective actions focus on operator behavior rather than mechanical root causes.
