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Tuesday, April 24, 2018

VOLUME - NUMBER

Clean and Efficient Recycling for SMT/PCB Metals Waste

By Jack Scott, Ph.D., Steve J. Butler and Thomas Mitchell, Conecsus, LLC
From solder dross to paste residues on consumable products, such as used stencil wipes, solder paste jars and syringes, electronics manufacturing produces metal-bearing residues and wastes in all kinds of forms. Even though RoHS has taken most of the lead out of the PCB manufacturing ...

Coating Complex Electronics with Flexible Dispensing Systems

By the Equipment Staff of Specialty Coating Systems (SCS), Inc.
The use of conformal coatings and materials is rising, offering the protection necessary for complex electronic products to function in harsh environments. To provide that protection, numerous conformal coatings and materials are available, such as acrylics, silicones, epoxies, urethanes ...

Intelligent, High-Speed Component Counting with X-Ray Technology

By Dr. Jan Richarz, Research and Development, and Bernd Will, Product Manager, optical control GmbH & Co. KG
Downtime should never be caused by poor planning and inventory control. Downtime on the line should only ever occur as a result of a planned setup, changeover or other scheduled event. Including accurate component counting as a part of daily inventory management is key for continuous ...

Quality-Driven Production Drives Inspection and Measurement in M2M Communication

By Yasuo Watabe, Sales Promotion Group Leader, Saki Corporation
Quality is more important than ever, as the electronics industry faces new technologies, market realities and the race toward the smart factory, with its Industry 4.0 and machine-to-machine (M2M) initiatives.

Silver Sintering: A Reliable Alternative to Lead-Free Bonding

By Marco Koelink, Business Development and Commercial Manager, Advanced Packaging Center, and Michiel de Monchy, European Applications Manager Die Attach and Preforms, Alpha Assembly Solutions
The challenges of working with lead-free bonding materials are now facing stiff competition from silver (Ag) sintering. Ag sintering, or low-temperature diffusion bonding is gaining popularity for its excellent electrical and thermal conductivity. Due to some interesting optical properties ...

Solving Wave Solder Issues with In-Process AOI and Rework

By Simon Smith, Marketing Manager, Pillarhouse International, Ltd.
The industry has been pushing to remove wave soldering from the through-hole assembly process for a number of years. This is not always possible, due to the speed and volume requirements of the production line. Common wave-associated soldering problems, such as bridging between pins ...

Transitioning the Factory from "Smart" to "Intelligent"

By Bill Cardoso, Ph.D., President, Creative Electron, Inc.
Industry 4.0 initiatives that connect the production equipment in the SMT line, such as IPC's CFX initiative, are critical to the design of today's smart factory. So are smart storage towers or smart stencil storage systems. On the other hand, the "intelligent factories" of the future ...

Creating an Efficient Convection Soldering System with Vacuum and Pyrolysis

By Dr. Hans Bell, Jochen Burkhardt, Marcel Kneer, and Paul Wild, Rehm Thermal Systems
Demand for power electronics systems, such as IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transistors), is on the rise. The booming markets of e-mobility, LED-based lighting, photovoltaics, and wind power systems require fast, efficient, high-power electrical switching.

Creating the Best User Experience for Wire Processing Equipment

By Patrick Moroney, Product Marketing Manager, Komax Wire
As consumers, we pay attention to the look and feel of our smartphones, car interiors, kitchen appliances, keyboards, and apps. In fact, when we encounter substandard design, we notice it right away. We demand and expect a good user experience from the products we use in our personal ...

EMI Shielding: Improving Sidewall Coverage with Tilt Spray Coating

By Mike Szuch, Akira Morita and Garret Wong, Nordson ASYMTEK; Mike Sakaguchi and Hiroaki Umeda, Tatsuta Electric Wire & Cable Company Limited
EMI shielding has always been an important component of RF devices, but the demands of today's Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G, LTE, wearable, and IoT devices have created a special set of hurdles for the manufacturing engineer. These devices rely on different radio frequencies that can interfere ...

Enhanced Manufacturing Services 4.0: Philosophy and DfT 4.0

By Chrisophe Lotz, President and CEO, Aster Technologies
Industry 4.0 is the widely-used name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing. The concept is being applied by many in order to create the smart factory. Within the modular elements of smart factories, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, ...

QA on the Fly - Fast, Accurate AOI and XYZ Measurement

By Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, President and CEO, CyberOptics Corporation
In general, you can have very fast sensors that are not so accurate, or very accurate sensors that are not so fast. Having both at the same time has been critical to CyberOptics' development.

The Economics of Die Attach Voiding in LED Assemblies

By Griffin Lemaster, Dr. Bill Cardoso and Dr. Glen Thomas, Creative Electron, Inc.
Improvements in high-brightness LED technologies are making these devices useful for general illumination. But, before LEDs can completely replace outmoded light sources, their thermal management schemes need to be further developed to ensure consistent color quality and long operational ...

A Winning Scenario for Cleaned Circuit Assemblies

By Mike Konrad, Aqueous Technologies Corporation
Much can be learned from 28 years involvement in the electronics assembly cleaning industry. This almost three-decade period can be separated into three distinct periods. Prior to 1989, virtually all assemblies were cleaned after soldering. During the period from 1989 through 2005, ...

Defining Requirements For Kelvin Testers

By Gerhard Gschwendtberger Business Unit Manager Contactors, Multitest Elektronische Systeme GmbH, Rosenheim, Germany
Kelvin contactors can provide precise resistance measurements in high-volume production environments. Kelvin test is not new, but still benefits analog and mixed-signal circuit production test through accurate resistance measurements and compensation of unwanted parasitic circuit elements ...

Dispensing Systems Can Pay for Themselves

By David Upton, Director of Marketing, FRC-Fluid Research Corp.
Adhesives and sealants based on epoxy, silicone, and urethane typically require precise formulations to be effective, and establishing the proper mix and dispensing process for those materials is critical to success. In fact, suppliers of those materials routinely sell their formulations ...

Vacating Voids in QFN Packages

By Raimund Faber, General Manager Sales & Marketing, SMT Wertheim, Wertheim, Germany
Surface-mount components rely on tiny housings such as QFN packages for their electrical and mechanical health and well-being. QFN, or quad-flat-no-lead housings, are leadless packages used throughout applications calling for surface-mount-technology (SMT) devices. With electrical contacts ...

Meter Mix Dispensing Reduces Production Time and Cost

By David Upton, Director of Marketing, FRC-Fluid Research Corporation, Tustin, CA
Precisely applying today's epoxy, silicone and urethane-based adhesives and sealants require the proper meter mix and dispensing process. Material manufacturers are constantly selling their formulations based on the benefits that they provide, and rely on their customers to properly ...

Process Improvements in Fluid Dispensing

By Dan Ashley, Nordson ASYMTEK, Carlsbad, CA
Jetting is the fluid dispensing process where fluid is rapidly ejected through a nozzle and uses the fluid momentum to break free from the nozzle. Jet dispensing has been available in the electronics manufacturing industry since 1993 when jetting technology was first introduced by Nordson ...

The Reality of Design for Assembly

By Noah Fenley, ACD, Richardson, TX
Understanding the concept behind design for assembly (DFA) is the key to a successful assembly. Unfortunately, this often includes an ongoing struggle to balance assembly, fabrication and layout ? these elements must work together in order for the process to run smoothly. It also is ...