Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Picking Apart Assumptions

Over the past three quarters Circuits Assembly has been producing a series of seminars on lead-free design and manufacturing. At each one, we ask attendees to rank, on a scale of one to five, where their company is in the transition. The results are fascinating. Why? Because, after oh, seven or so years of discussion, and with just 15 months to go before RoHS kicks in (and just four months for WEEE), only a handful of respondents say they have a plan in place, let alone have started the conversion process. Last month, of the 64 subjects who responded to our written survey (total universe: 84), 89% reported they were either evaluating the need and gathering information, or developing a plan of attack. Another 10% said they have a plan in place and are going through the conversion process. Just one company - a small New England EMS firm - said it had completed the process.

One could argue that the sample is biased: companies that are already lead-free have little reason to set their engineers loose for workshops. Fair enough, but the sheer number of such seminars - at least a dozen suppliers plus several other companies are currently producing sessions on lead-free - gives weight to the counter-argument that few if any companies are truly in the clear. Indeed, one of the first questions asked at a workshop in Boston last month: "How do I apply for a deadline extension?"

Given the state of our lead-free knowledge, then, it should come as no surprise that the topic du jour at the Apex trade show in February was ... lead-free. In the jam-packed technical sessions and on the moderately trafficked show floor, that's what everyone had on their mind. Yet the most remarkable product rollouts came not in the areas conventional wisdom has as being most affected by lead-free - reflow or wave soldering and rework: As a host of informal caucuses revealed, most companies are opting for the retrofit route. Instead, the placement machines took center stage (again). Siemens' new Siplace Series X was a leading attraction (the four-gantry, 20-nozzle machine was featured in this magazine in February). Other achievements that were at least eyebrow-raising if not jaw-dropping included Mydata's Hydra head and big-board handling capability (and although not brand new, the Board Train tool, which seamlessly switches from single panels to multiple small cards and is a must-see). Juki Automation debuted two new machines, each with improved GUIs, four-nozzle heads and improved camera systems. Assembléon garnered raves for its oddform parts placement machine, the MG-1. The machine can handle 96 smart feeders or 160 twin tape feeders and uses RFID to simplify setup.(Assembléon also recorded the highest score - 4.96, out of a possible 5.0 - as judged by its customers in
Circuits Assembly's annual Service Excellence Awards.)

Notable, too, was the presence of Sony Manufacturing Systems (although not as an exhibitor). The equipment arm of the Japanese consumer electronics giant has returned to North American shores, and has in its arsenal a single-head, 12-nozzle chip mounter said to be capable of handling parts down to 01005. Sony says it has 1,000 installations worldwide, 900 in China, the majority at internal manufacturing sites.

But perhaps most interesting was the RFID assembly system from Tyco. The machine works in reel-to-reel mode, with a 20