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New Paste Printing Equipment and Tools
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Assembleon introduced the MCP screen printer platform with on-board inspection; DEK's new printer-tool modules include a line-speed SPI system and new substrate clamping technology for higher print quality.Screen Printer
The MCP screen printer offers high quality/high speed printing. Its 3S squeegee with variable attack angle produces perfect solder shapes with stencil thickness down to 80 µm and half edging stencils with stencil steps of 30 to 50 µm. It maintains constant solder pressure independent of the stencil thickness. It suits designs with 01005s mixed with larger component sizes. The printing process is performed by a flat-metal single-head squeegee, equipped with motorcycle-industry-inspired movement. The single-head squeegee’s variable head improves repletion, has a similar front and back stroke, and reduces the amount of used solder. It offers easy set up and less maintenance. Board cycle time is as low as 11 seconds. The printer is said to reduce defect per million (dpm) figures by up to 50%. The MCP also has a feature that keeps the stencil from shifting during the print stroke, allowing better print repeatability on any board, including FlexFoil. The stencil is secured on each side of the board during the print stroke, which holds the stencil in place and prevents it from sliding on the board. The system cleans wet or dry with vacuum during the PCB transport cycle. All cleaning actions are performed with a minimum use of paper. The MCP’s high-speed digital inspection camera scans the printed PCB for solder positions, excess, insufficiency, and bridging. Royal Philips Electronics subsidiary Assembléon, www.assembleon.com
Substrate Clamping Technology
Over Top Snuggers (OTS) substrate clamping technology secures PCBs firmly in place for processing. The flexible technology is designed to ensure high quality printing for enhanced end-of-line yield. OTS is a sophisticated device that clamps the board flat before enabling finite snugging and clamp control for precise board location. The board is pulled down flat to enable a strong vacuum tooling contact; the clamps are then pulled away from the board top face surface to allow close edge printing. Improved print quality at the board edge due to automatic compensation for small variations between boards of the same batch, an articulated top plate ensuring effective paste roll, and quick-set leveling ensuring no deviation in print quality. The unit integrates 16 pneumatic cylinders and 6 precision guides. Initial reports from the technology’s evaluation period show improve paste deposition with OTS by up to 20%. The system automatically adjusts for variations in board thickness and out-of-parallel boards. DEK’s Instinctiv V9 user interface software adjusts and stores clamp and snug pressure via a touch-screen interface. OTS is compatible with all tooling variants, including DEK’s HD Grid-Lok system. DEK, www.dek.com
On-printer SPI
Sentinel offers 100% inspection at the line beat rate during stencil printing. Features include full input and output verification along with 100% inspection. Sentinel is designed to improve yield without impacting cycle time, allowing printing and high-speed inspection to run concurrently. It is reportedly easy to use with simple set-up, developed for use by print platform operators. The tool uses next-generation inspection technology based on DEK’s HawkEye post-print inspection tool. The SPI module also includes DEK’s Verification & Traceability to enable complete traceability of materials, processes, and PCBs; board and pad level traceability data is available for post-print analysis and process trend identification. Sentinel is controlled by DEK’s Instinctiv V9 user interface. It offers high speed paste on pad, bridge detection, and alignment capabilities. Vision coverage is 36,000 mm2/second. Its closed-loop control performs alignment, automatic understencil cleaning operations using Cyclone, and paste dispensing using DEK’s Paste Roll Height Monitor. It also rejects bad boards automatically without interrupting production. Sentinel is available on DEK’s primary automatic printer platforms: Horizon, Europa/Photon, and Galaxy. It is also available as an upgrade to certain DEK platforms manufactured over the past four years. DEK, www.dek.com