ASSEMBLÉON JOINS SUSTAINABLE ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING WORKING GROUP

Veldhoven (Netherlands), 17 November 2010

Royal Philips Electronics subsidiary Assembléon’s CEO André Papoular has accepted the seat representing pick & place in the newly formed Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing (SEM) Working Group. The Working Group is a think tank for leading players in industrial manufacturing, and aims to improve the competitiveness of this industry by reducing its environmental impact. The Working Group’s inaugural meeting was held at today’s Sustainability Summit (17 November, Milan), amidst sustainability experts and leading suppliers of electronic components, fabrication and assembly equipment and PCBs. It is organized by OnBoard Technology together with Sustainability Magazine, Global Identification, EMSNow, PLUS, PCB Magazine and other media partners.

“We are delighted to serve on the SEM Working Group, and are well placed to contribute,” remarked Papoular. “Assembléon sets the industry benchmark for efficient pick & place machine energy use. Our AX-Series consumes half the electricity of competitors’ machines, which reduces CO2 emissions and can save up to €10.000 in operating costs per pick & place machine per year. Translating energy efficiency into business benefits is very important in this industry. We are very pleased that our work has been noticed and has resulted in the invitation to represent the pick & place discipline in the Working Group.”

High yield also improves energy efficiency

The largest environmental effect for pick & place over its lifetime is the electricity consumed. It is significant because pick & place machines usually work for 24 hours a day, with the electricity going to drive equipment like motors, controls and compressors.
Part of Assembléon’s environmental research demonstrated how improving manufacturing quality and yield can also greatly reduce environmental effects. The sequential machines that dominate the pick & place market typically suffer from 50 dpm. Here, too, Assembléon’s parallel placement technique sets the industry benchmark with as low as five defects per million placements. This means 90% fewer defective end products compared to the industry benchmark, which results in less waste of expensive components and materials, and less rework costs (and power used by rework stations).

Illustration:  With most of the materials of a pick & place machine being recyclable, electricity consumption is the main environmental effect over its lifetime.