I have firmed up a deal with a PCB factory - they will fit the micro and a few other key parts to the blank PCBs and then we will populate the rest of the parts and solder them in-house on our new PCB assembly line. Some parts are simply not made in through hole any more so we have no choice in this but are determined to use through hole where possible to keep the boards as repairable as possible.
This video shows one of two new machines this place has purchased. They are state of the art, 12 head machines and can (running at max speed) pick and place up to 136,000 parts per minute. The head grabs the part, spins it to the correct orientation for the board, places it on the previously silk screened solder paste then stops - looks to make sure it is centered on the pads (tweaks the position if required) then pushes it into place - all at 136K parts per minute!!!!
The thing sounds like a machine gun when you see it running. Our boards will probably be assembled on one of the 16 other two head machines in the factory that run a lot slower.
