WASHINGTON DC – The recent partnership announced by the U.S. and Canada is a welcome acknowledgement of the urgent need to support the American printed circuit board industry. The Presidential determination of printed circuit boards as essential to national defense under section 303 of the Defense Production Act is welcome news, and achieves a 2023 goal of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA).
The $50 million identified is a downpayment on what must be a larger and sustained effort by the U.S. government to rebuild this critical manufacturing sector. The American printed circuit board industry was decimated by offshoring over the past 20 years, dropping from almost 30 percent of the world’s supply to only 4 percent today. The U.S. depends on other nations -- primarily in Asia, and more than half from China.
“We are eager to work with the Administration to make the best use of this and advocate for subsequent funding for this long-overlooked industry”, said Travis Kelly, Chairman of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America and President and CEO of the Isola Group. “The costs of creating new facilities or upgrading existing printed circuit board facilities can run into hundreds of millions. Just as legislation and policies were created to support semiconductors, the U.S. government needs to invest in our nation’s future by providing support for printed circuit boards.”
NEWMAN LAKE, WA – Hentec Industries/RPS Automation, a leading manufacturer of selective soldering, lead tinning and solderability test equipment, announces that it has published a technical paper describing the suggestion that electronic manufacturers should implement automated selective soldering as opposed to using manual soldering. This technical paper encompasses critically important information and is entitled “Achieving Greater Through-Hole Soldering Reliability Without Sacrificing Throughput.” This 5-page tech paper outlines essential information for circuit board assembly processes and can be downloaded by visiting www.rpsautomation.com/news/technical-papers.
Topics covered within this publication include soldering methods, manual soldering, hand soldering reliability, process considerations, versatility vs. throughput, fluxing control, process repeatability, and selective soldering system flexibility.
SANFORD, FL – Hernon Manufacturing, Inc. ® is pleased to announce plans to exhibit in Booth #724 at the Assembly Show South, scheduled to take place April 4-7, 2023 at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN. Visit Hernon in Booth 724 to stay up to date with the latest developments in MMA adhesives, Epoxies, Acrylics, and precision dispensing techniques. Hernon supports many industries including battery production, hydrogen fuel cells, and automotive manufacturing.
Hernon’s mechanical capabilities include: Mazak machining, fabricating, mechanical assembly, electrical assembly, machine assembly and crating, and user manuals and documentation.
The company’s chemistry capabilities include: Chemical formulating, chemical analysis, formula performance testing, chemical blending, blending capabilities, and data sheets and documentation.
Hernon also handles in house software coding and robotic integration to offer a truly one stop shop for adhesives and dispensing solutions.
Hernon Manufacturing is an ISO-9001:2008 registered company with a total solutions approach, offering adhesives, sealants and dispensing equipment. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Sanford, where it has contributed to some of the nation’s most sensitive projects including Atlas rocket systems, Excaliber missile systems and even nuclear submarine manufacturing.
For more information, visit www.hernon.com
NEW BRITAIN, CT – MicroCare is proud to offer a wide range of excellent replacements for the 3M Novec™ specialty cleaning fluids. This comes in response to 3M's recent announcement that it will discontinue manufacturing all fluoropolymers, fluorinated fluids, and PFAS-based additive products by the end of 2025, including Novec™ 7100, 71DE, 7200, 72DE, 72DA, 73DE and others.
The MicroCare replacement fluids have similar, if not superior cleaning performance to the Novec™ fluids and can clean a wide variety of soils, including oil, grease, particulate, inks, fingerprints and more. They also have similar, if not identical compatibility profiles to help prevent damage to delicate materials. Many of the MicroCare fluids, including its signature Tergo™ MCF (Metal Cleaning Fluid) and Tergo™ GCF (General Cleaning Fluid) are azeotropes, making them chemically stable and nonflammable in both vacuum and vapor degreasers.
Importantly, the MicroCare vapor degreasing fluids are domestically formulated and produced in New Britain, CT. They are readily available, with plenty of capacity to ensure supply, for immediate global shipment without importing issues or delays. They also boast low GWP (Global Warming Potential) and zero ODP (Ozone Depleting Potential) ratings to help reduce greenhouse gas effects and meet strict regional air quality regulations.
In addition, MicroCare provides extensive, in-depth technical support, advice and training around the new fluids. Tom Tattersall, MicroCare CEO said, “Our MicroCare team of experts has over 360 years of combined critical cleaning experience. From our in-the-field technical specialists to our in-house chemists, we understand the dynamics between cleaning solvents, cleaning equipment and substrates and soils. We share our skill and knowledge with on-going troubleshooting to help users qualify and validate their new cleaning fluids with the least disruption to their cleaning process and budget.”
For more information on the 3M Novec™ replacement fluids, including Tergo™ MCF and Tergo™ GCF, visit microcare.com/freeconsult to schedule a free consultation.
JENA, GERMANY – The increasing networking and artificial intelligence of inspection systems are just as much in demand as electrical testing and programming - and GÖPEL electronic wants to help shape this future as a leading test specialist. At the SMTconnect in Nuremberg, we will inform how we meet the coming requirements in electronics manufacturing with our solutions in a forward-looking way. Together with the trade visitors we follow current topics and trends and show the latest test technologies and systems at booth 222 in hall 4A from 9 to 11 May.
With the FlashFOX, GOEPEL electronic has launched an innovative solution for embedded in-system programming (ISP) that reduces time and costs in the production process of electronic assemblies. The technology, called "Embedded In-System Programming (ISP)", programs microcontrollers, flash components and PLD/FPGA on-board, i.e. in the already installed state. The FlashFOX can be flexibly integrated into ATE systems and infrastructures. It is compatible with all existing technologies such as SCANFLEX, VarioTAP, X-Bus and SYSTEM CASCON and thus represents a native extension of the existing embedded product portfolio.
The new AOI system software PILOT AOI version 7 offers many new features, especially in terms of performance and convenience. Particularly noteworthy is the ability to automatically generate Gerber data using a bareboard, which helps small and medium-sized service companies that do not have such data. The award-winning MagicClick function can then be used to create test programmes automatically. Test programme generation for THT-specific information of through-hole components has also been simplified by importing ODB++ process (OPM) data. The new software version also offers a Mission Commander, which acts as an intelligent to-do list to guide through tasks related to AOI testing.
The artificial intelligence-based assistance function AI Advisor reduces the workload and protects against human error decisions at AOI and AXI verification and repair stations. Based on pre-trained models, the AI makes a decision for each anomaly found by the inspection system. Similarly, the AI Advisor can also warn if an error occurs due to an incorrect decision by the user. Particularly in the case of difficult interpretations, such as X-ray images, the AI Advisor is a welcome support.
The new Reflex Reducer for the 3D THT AOI system enables the measurement of critical solder joints and pins whose detection was previously only possible to a limited extent or not at all. Physically caused effects due to certain pin geometries and solder joint characteristics, which occurred equally with all 3D AOI systems, are thus greatly reduced.
Diverse systems for THT and SMD production, based on our many years of know-how, will also be presented. The MultiEyeS Plus and the THT Line - 3D are available for the optical inspection of THT assemblies, while Basic Line - 3D and Vario Line - 3D can be used for the 3D inspection of SMD assemblies. High-end inspection in large-scale production is covered by automatic X-ray inspection with the X Line - 3D. In addition, automatic solder paste inspection using the SPI Line - 3D should not go unmentioned.
Two excellent embedded JTAG solutions will also be presented. BARCUDA VP230 is a complete turnkey solution with VPC interface that enables flexible testing and programming of electronic assemblies with and without JTAG/Boundary Scan. JULIET as a professional, fully production-ready JTAG/Boundary Scan tester will also be part of GÖPEL electronic's trade fair presence at SMTconnect 2023.
HANOVER, GERMANY – At SMTconnect in Nuremberg, Germany, Viscom AG will showcase the successor of the almost legendary S3088 ultra gold, the iS6059 PCB Inspection Plus. Its new and faster sensor technology, data processing and analysis functions all stand for the best 3D AOI performance that meets the highest requirements in industrial use. The latest AI-supported software applications and technical advancements in X-ray inspection will also be presented to visitors "hands-on" at the booth.
Viscom's product portfolio is growing and offers a very wide variety of powerful systems for different production stages and inspection requirements – especially for quality control in modern electronics manufacturing. Automatically monitored operational stability, location- independent networked condition monitoring, cloud-based solutions, the integration of manufacturer-independent interfaces and targeted use of artificial intelligence are just as much a part of this as ensuring audit-proof repeat accuracies or ever higher resolutions while maintaining low cycle times. At booth A4, 120, Viscom will provide detailed information on the latest trends in various areas of its in-house inspection technologies from May 9 to 11, 2023.
If, for example, electronic components need to be inspected for presence as quickly as possible or the heights on an assembly need to be measured precisely, the existing 3D methods of automatic optical inspection (3D AOI) are the recognized industry standard. Complementing the above two features, reliable 3D solder joint inspection also plays a significant role – all distinguished by impressive reliability with systems such as the new iS6059 PCB Inspection Plus from Viscom. Featuring nine views in first-class resolution and with 26% more pixels, variable illumination, larger angular field of view sizes at the same resolution, further increases in data transfer rates combined with 25% faster image capture and extensive networking options – it provides a solid basis for unbeatable line-integrated performance. The iS6059 PCB Inspection Plus offers advanced inspection methods for fully automated verification of whether the solder joint of even the smallest electronic component is normal or too thin – no matter if cycle times are short. Another 3D AOI system at the Viscom booth is the S3088 ultra chrome, which is successfully used worldwide today – giving it a role akin to company "work horse". It will be presented in combination with state-of-the-art handling and smart verification – which now additionally offers new forms of assistance with artificial intelligence.
AI is currently a major topic at Viscom. It is also used when it comes to measuring voids in solder joints as part of an X-ray inspection and excluding defects due to individual factors. Viscom systems such as the iX7059 PCB Inspection XL shown at SMTconnect detect these and other hidden defect types. Viscom offers high-performance 3D inline X-ray for a very wide range of products – be they flat assemblies up to 1600 mm long or compact, solid objects weighing up to 40 kg. Thanks to its tremendous international success, the X7056-II combined 3D AXI / 3D AOI will also be showcased. Special features of manual and semi-automatic X-raying will be demonstrated on the X8011-III 3D MXI system. Inspection solutions specifically for power electronics requirements will be presented by Viscom at booth 6-114 at the neighboring PCIM Europe, which is taking place in parallel.