SMT Industry Trends in 2025: Automation and Artificial Intelligence.

As the electronics manufacturing industry moves towards flexibility and intelligence, the SMT industry is undergoing a profound change. In 2025, the combination of automation and artificial intelligence is reshaping production processes, improving production capacity and yields, and helping domestic and foreign manufacturers cope with global competition and labor shortage challenges. There are three trends and some future challenges worth having a discussion about. In this article we will dive deep into these topics and give some insights about it.

First trend we want to discuss is from semi-automation to full-process automation. The reason behind it is because prior to this, many small and medium-sized factories originally relied on manual loading, line replacement and quality inspection, which was not only inefficient and costly, but also prone to errors. In 2025, a large number of SMT high-end head companies will begin to introduce automated systems, including but not limited to intelligent feeder feeding system: used to automatically identify component barcodes and complete rapid refueling; online SPI+AOI inspection: used to form closed-loop control, quickly Discover offset/missing welding problems and automatic board mounting and unloading robot: used to interface with the MES system to realize line change immediately after order. At Nectec, there is a real case where one of our customers introduced one of our fully automatic SMT mounter production lines in 2024, reducing its manpower by 40% and increasing its production capacity by about 51%. Through the automatic loading system, they save 2.5 hours of refueling time per day and greatly improve the efficiency of delivery of small batch orders.

Second trend we want to discuss is the fact that AI is reshaping intelligent placement and quality control. The reason behind it is because the application of artificial intelligence in the field of SMT mainly reflects several practical aspects in reality, which affect the efficiency and quality of factory production of SMT patches. First of all, the first application scenario of AI in SMT is AOI visual recognition: its role is to accurately identify irregular defects and reduce the false alarm rate by 70%; the second application scenario is mounting path optimization: its role is to dynamically calculate the shortest path, mounting efficiency is improved by 15%; the third application scenario is predictive maintenance: its application scenario is to warn of problems such as nozzle clogging and track sticking in advance; the fourth application scenario is process optimization analysis: Its role is to analyze historical data and automatically adjust process parameters. A real-world example is a former Nectec customer whose BGA solder defect rate dropped from 0.5% to 0.09% after using a mounter with AI vision. Nectec’s engineering team used AI feedback data to adjust the mounting force and angle, improving product consistency and stability, and also gaining support and recognition from old customers.

Third trend we want to discuss is smart devices have become the mainstream selection direction. The reason behind it is because SMT equipment manufacturers are no longer only concerned about placement speed, but about the coordination and intelligence of the overall production line.

With this development prospect, Nectec, one of the SMT equipment manufacturers, is also introducing the following intelligent features: first, remote diagnosis and debugging functions: this feature is suitable for real-time connection support even in multinational deployments; then, support for automatic wire changing/hybrid production: this feature is suitable for adapting to the trend of small batch and multi-variety electronic manufacturing; and finally, the modular structure: This feature is suitable for customers who can upgrade high-speed heads and vision modules on demand or expand placement stations. One real-life scenario was that after purchasing our new generation of high-performance and high-precision smart mounter NT-T5, an old customer of Nectec remotely checked the device status through the cloud platform, and our Nectec engineers remotely assisted in repairing the moving unit failure within 48 hours, avoiding line stoppage losses. The success of this case has won customer support and high recognition for Nectec’s SMT mounter products.

Moreover, there‘s still some challenges ahead of the development of our SMT pick and place machines. The reason why there‘s still challenges ahead is because intelligent implementation on the SMT machines still requires systematic thinking. But somehow most SMT manufacturers lack this instinct. The first is that the initial investment is high: because the price of smart devices is generally 20 – 40% more expensive than that of traditional devices; the second is the technical threshold: because AI systems need stable data sources and parameter training; the third is system compatibility: because in many cases, multi-brand devices can be difficult and incompatible to dock in the same system, and the standards are not uniform. 

Fortunately, there‘s some recommended and possible solutions to these challenges as provided by Nectec. For example, we will prioritize the deployment of key links on our mounter, such as the docking of AOI and MES, which will gradually advance; there is also a solution that can freely choose equipment that supports standardized interfaces, such as SMEA and IPC-CFX protocols; finally, we can choose to use the local service team of the equipment supplier to conduct customized deployment.

To conclude, automation and AI are no longer high-end options in the year of 2025, but new standards in the SMT industry. The sooner you invest in intelligent systems, the more you can build long-term competitive advantages in terms of delivery, quality, and cost. If you need to learn about our AI-enabled mounters, AOI testing equipment or intelligent solutions for the entire line, please contact us at Nectec for product manuals and quotations.