-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueIPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
The Cost of Rework
In this issue, we investigate rework's current state of the art. What are the root causes and how are they resolved? What is the financial impact of rework, and is it possible to eliminate it entirely without sacrificing your yields?
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Why AOI is a Must-have for PCB Assembly
April 5, 2018 | Russell Poppe, JJS ManufacturingEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
Automated optical inspection (AOI) is the automated visual inspection of a printed circuit board (PCB) assembly in which a camera is used to scan the board in extremely fine detail to check for any defects or failures.
So why is AOI so important?
Assuming your PCB design is correct, if you assemble the right parts in the right place then your product will work. In production, this means putting a lot of focus on detecting and correcting any manufacturing defects or Manufacturing Defects Analysis (MDA.)
AOI is a vital inspection system which enables you to measure and monitor the quality of your PCB production, and to correct any issues or defects, at any strategic point in the process flow.
Crucially too, it’s the ‘quality gate’ for your PCB, providing peace of mind both for you and your EMS partner.
In many respects, your PCB is the 'brains' of your product and, as such, it’s a critical component with its own precise and rigorous design requirements.
And just as PCBs are getting smaller, they’re also becoming more complex. Even a relatively simple board can be made up of literally thousands of soldered joints, which means it simply isn't practical, or viable, to attempt to inspect manually.
So the sooner in the production process that faults are spotted, the easier and more cost efficient it is to rectify them to avoid replicating the same problem on a larger scale.
Put simply, if you’re in the business of creating PCBs, then a system for AOI should be on your check-list of “must-haves.”
The Role of AOI
The AOI process delivers the real-time inspection required by an EMS as well as providing empirical data that is invaluable for process control and refinement as production volumes increase.
An AOI system uses a number of strategies to analyze whether a PCB has been produced to the required standards.
Pattern matching algorithms keep a record of both successful and unsuccessful PCB assemblies.
And by constantly reviewing and analyzing fault data, your EMS partner can ensure they are identifying trends, enabling improvements in the manufacturing process, minimizing the risk of future rework and increasing the efficiency of production.
Key Questions for Your EMS partner
So what questions should an OEM be asking a prospective EMS partner about their AOI process?
You may be tempted to want to quiz your potential EMS provider on their AOI pass figures. After all, high pass rates equal a great quality product, right? Well, not always.
While in theory a high pass rate figure could suggest your product will be more reliable in the field, in reality it doesn’t necessarily guarantee performance.
Likewise too, a lower pass rate doesn’t mean that the build quality is bad—it may just mean that your EMS partner is being more particular in what they’re asking the AOI system to check for. In the long run, what you want is a high performing product, not a fantastic pass rate at the expense of product performance.
So, are there any limitations to AOI? While it’s an automated system, the inspection windows or parameters are set by the operator. So, the AOI will only inspect what you tell it to—and, conversely, it won’t find what it’s not told to look for.
There are also key elements of the inspection process where other methods of inspection are essential. In some cases, a degree of manual inspection, for example might be required alongside AOI if you’re wanting to check the quality of a solder joint. And X-ray can be invaluable for certain electronic assemblies when you want to check components with ‘hidden’ solder joints.
With the growing demand for higher quality and higher volume products, and an increasingly sophisticated manufacturing environment, it's crucial that any potential problems are identified and corrected as early as possible in the process flow.
As we've explored in this article, AOI has an invaluable role to play in speeding up the process of PCB production, in ensuring extreme precision to catch even the smallest of defects, and in minimizing the potential for time-consuming and costly reworking.
AOI acts as a 'quality gate,' for your PCB production, it’s an invaluable form of process control and it ensures greater reliability of your product ‘in the field’ which will provide peace of mind for both you and your EMS partner.
This article originally appeared on the JJS Manufacturing blog.
Suggested Items
Indium Corporation to Present, Exhibit at EPP InnovationsFORUM
03/28/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation is set to present and exhibit at EPP InnovationsFORUM, one of Europe’s premier single-day electronics manufacturing forums, on April 17 in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany. Topic areas for 2024 will include AI, automation, sustainability, and quality.
Reducing Nitrogen Consumption in Convection Soldering with Rehm Thermal Systems' Patented Mechatronic Curtain
03/28/2024 | Rehm Thermal SystemsCurrent developments indicate a need for larger throughput heights due to the trend towards e-mobility, which in turn increases nitrogen consumption for process inertization. Rehm Thermal Systems responds to this issue with an innovative solution: the mechatronic curtain.
Indium Corporation, Industry Partners to Showcase Products “Live@APEX”
03/26/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation®, in cooperation with its industry partners, will feature its proven solder solutions live on the show floor throughout IPC APEX Expo from Apr. 9‒11 in Anaheim, Calif., U.S.
ITW EAE Wins New Product Introduction Award for Electrovert® Wave Soldering Machine Deep Wave
03/26/2024 | ITW EAEITW EAE is proud to announce that it has earned a 2024 New Product Introduction (NPI) Award for Electrovert’s Deep Wave option for wave soldering machines. This new, innovative system provides the ability to pump up to a 20 mm wave height.
Mek's Next-Gen AOI Technology Takes Center Stage at IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/19/2024 | MEKMek is excited to announce its presence at IPC APEX EXPO, North America's largest electronics manufacturing event, in Anaheim, California, from April 6-11, 2024. Attendees are invited to visit Mek at booth #1433 to explore the latest AOI technology offerings.