Depaneling information

Depaneling or depanelization is a process step in high-volume electronics assembly production. In order to increase the throughput of printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing and surface mount (SMT) lines, PCBs are often arranged in a process called panelization so that they consist of many smaller individual PCBs that will be used in the final product. This PCB cluster is called a panel or multiblock. The large panel is broken up or "depaneled" as a certain step in the process - depending on the product, it may happen right after SMT process, after in-circuit test (ICT), after soldering of through-hole elements, or even right before the final assembly of the PCB assembly (PCBA) into the enclosure.