Tape & Reeling

Action Circuits specialise in the tape & reeling of surface mounted electronic devices. We can tape and reel all package styles using standard carrier tape. If your part requires a custom tape to be manufactured, this can be organised with minimal lead time.

In today’s complex and ever changing world of electronics manufacturing, the highest quality standards must be maintained to properly tape & reel your devices. Our many years of experience and ISO 9001:2015 approved quality standards ensure that every chip or component that you send to Action Circuits will have been processed and package onto tape to the highest quality standards. Our SMD taping service is controlled by strict ESD standards to protect devices from static damage.

If your requirement is for tape & reeling of prototype quantities or high volume production, we can offer a high quality fast turnaround service to meet your production requirements.

Our Tape & Reeling process is simply transferring components from tube to tape, from tray to tape or from tape to tape.  Having the components in the correct packaging for your production process could save many hours of time and improve production efficiency.

We operate a full range of component reeling machines, including an ST595-2 with integrated co-planarity inspection functionality. The other machines include a Vtek TM-50 and ST495, ST60, MT30 and MT50 with integrated vision inspection. These machines include automatic and semi-automatic feeders to accommodate tube to tape, tray to tape, and tape to tape. We can also arrange to load loose mechanical devices into our vibration hopper, which gives high speed reeling of difficult to handle parts.

In addition to the standard SMD component package styles, Action Circuits has the experience to put virtually any component package onto a reel.

We have produced special tapes to handle contacts and springs, screening cans, PCBs, test points, transformers, coils etc
We hold in stock a full range of SMD carrier tapes to allow the tape and reel of BGA, MSOP, PLCC, QFP, SO8 to SO32, SOIC, SOJ, SOT23, SOT89, SOT223, SMB, SMC, SSOP, TSOP, TVSOP, 0805, 1206. This is just an example of some of the package styles available. We hold tape widths 8mm – 56mm and can reel onto 7” and 13” reels.

The format we use to reel components onto smd tape is covered by international standards and specifications. Please refer to our quality page for further details. For SMD components, the tape format of packaging has established itself as the most common packaging type for feeding SMD placement machines. Our tape and reeling machines can take bulk components from a bowl feed, or in the case of delicate leaded components direct from the component’s trays or antistatic tubes. Our ST60 tape & reeling machines takes component sticks, stacked in the tube magazine feeder, and can automatically reel 3000 devices without operator contact. Our ST595 tape & reeling machine takes a stack of trays, and again can reel a full reel without operator contact. Carrier tape is available in 8mm, 12mm,16mm, 24mm, 32mm, 44mm and 56mm standard widths, with 84mm wide tape for connectors.

Tape & reeling of surface mount components can range from IC’s used in mobile phones to computer chips. They are all reeled using the same process, with carrier tapes available from stock to match any package size and quantity.

For surface mount placement of small parts such as contacts, springs, DC-DC converters, switches, screening cans, we can offer a full packaging service. If a custom tape is required, this can be manufactured to your drawing, allowing your small parts to be supplied on a reel, making real savings in production assembly time.

If you have components that require reeling, we can offer a quick turnaround service, and as a tape & reeling company based in Luton, are centrally located to meet your needs. Contact us here to discuss your specific requirements.