ASSEMBLÉON PROMOTES INTEGRATED PICK & PLACE APPROACH AT NEPCON SOUTH-CHINA IN SHENZHEN
Veldhoven (Netherlands), 15 July 2010
Royal Philips Electronics subsidiary Assembléon is emphasizing the importance of integrating hardware, software and service to minimize the total cost of placement at Nepcon Shenzhen (31 Aug to 2 Sept, Booth 2C30). On show will be an A-Series pick & place machine and an MCP screen printer, both of which offer virtually zero defect manufacturing to eliminate rework in electronics assembly. They combine with high quality software for open and easy planning, production and process monitoring, along with award-winning service, The combination of hardware, software and service helps electronics manufacturers to optimize their production efficiency.
“When setting up a production line, you should look at reducing the total costs of placement” remarked Burkhardt Frick, Assembléon’s General Manager for the Asia-Pacific region. “For instance product change-overs and rework aren’t one-off costs – they recur over the complete machine lifetime. And within this lifetime, excellent customer support is essential to keep production costs at a minimum. Our hardware, software and service package guarantees successful electronics assembly with the industry’s lowest cost per placement.”
Twin Placement Robot adds IC shooting to chip shooting
Pick and place equipment on show includes the AX-501, recently upgraded by Assembléon’s Twin Placement Robot (TPR) for high speed and accurate chip and IC placement on one machine. That eliminates the need for an extra line balancer, making the AX-501 an all–in-one pick & place machine. That in turn gives it the lowest cost per placement, especially for applications like DRAM manufacture with high IC content. The TPR allows Assembléon's A-Series to combine chip and IC shooting at an IPC 9850 placement rate up to 111,000 components per hour.
Assembléon’s Twin Placement Robot (TPR) on the AX-501
Accuracy is as good as 25 µm, and components can be picked from a frontside tape and/or tray feeder. Besides reducing operating and maintenance costs, placing ICs and chips with the same machine saves valuable factory floor space.
The AX-501 is joined on the stand by Assembléon’s MCP screen printer, a new high end alternative in today’s electronics assembly market. The MCP is a perfect match for the A-Series. Both have the industry’s lowest dpm (defects per million) figures: around 10 dpm for the MCP and below 10 dpm for the A-Series. Since around 75% of all production defects are caused by faulty screen printing, reducing defect rates can bring huge savings.
Assembléon's MCP Screen Printer
The MCP’s unique single swing squeegee blade delivers the exact amount of solder paste needed by each component, reducing PCB rework by 50% and saving around US$ 10,000 per machine per year in materials and repair costs. Board cycle time is as low as 11 seconds – even for boards populated with 01005 chips and having component spacing down to 50 µm.
Software and support reduce cost of placement
Assembléon’s strategic partnership with Valor – a division of Mentor Graphics –brings a full suite of NPI and MES factory integration tools to automate machine-, line- and factory-level workflows and business processes. The result is a lean manufacturing operations management framework that is open, modular, and flexible.
Assembléon recently won Circuits Assembly magazine’s Pick & Place Service Excellence Award for the seventh year running. “Assembléon’s service network in Asia is second to none, helping clients optimize machine productivity” concluded Frick.
