At Nepcon Shenzhen Assembléon shows True Capacity on Demand

Veldhoven (Netherlands), August 10, 2009

Royal Philips Electronics subsidiary Assembléon is demonstrating its True Capacity on Demand initiative at Nepcon Shenzhen (August 26-28, Booth 2F01). The initiative was the industry's first to tackle production fluctuations in today's dynamic electronic assembly market, and also prepares equipment makers for the global economic upturn. During the show, Assembléon will demonstrate how True Capacity on Demand saves time, money and floor space for PCB assembly.

The initiative means that electronics equipment manufacturers can now just buy Pick & Place equipment with the capacity that they need for day-to-day production, and hire in extra placement robots to increase capacity in peak periods. This additional flexibility means that manufacturers no longer have to invest in large systems with capacity that is underused for most of the year. As Burkhardt Frick (Assembléon's General Manager for the Asia-Pacific region) remarks: "True Capacity on Demand reduces initial investments, with the temporary extra capacity being paid from the additional income that full production brings. The extra hired robots are simply returned to Assembléon after the peak period is over. This will be particularly attractive for the cost-conscious Asian market, and our demonstration at Nepcon Shenzhen will show just how easy it is to increase and decrease capacity to meet our customers' needs."

Machine configuration remains unchanged – business as usual

Assembléon's True Capacity on Demand is possible thanks to the uniquely modular design of its flagship A-Series Pick & Place machines. Assembléon's modular, calibration-free robots enable the fastest adaptation to existing machines on the line, with production levels being increased in easy and small incremental steps. The machine configuration remains the same, and there is no need for drastic machine modifications. The floor space remains the same, and the production line itself is undisturbed.

Although other Pick & Place manufacturers have tried to copy the initiative, their reliance on complex gantry-based systems greatly reduces the benefits. They can only increase capacity by adding machines to a line or by changing vulnerable internal hardware.

Assembléon's A-Series Pick & Place machines already offer the industry's lowest real costs of placement, largely because of their benchmark single-digit defects per million placements. The company's unique parallel placement technique optimizes every placed component to give the industry's highest First Pass Yields. Up to 20 individual robots each place 6,000 components an hour, giving IPC 9850 outputs up to 121 kcph. Recent winner of Circuits Assembly magazine's 2009 Pick & Place Service Award, Assembléon helps ensure that production lines maintain their quality levels and minimize the overall cost of placement across the equipment's complete lifetime.