Features Articles
Imaged solder mask is preferred to filled vias to reduce voids and volatiles.
The QFN examples in FIGURE 1 compare soldering with and without through vias in the center pads. The difference is the correct paste stencil design and the use of solder mask around the vias. This prevents solder lost to the vias and has been shown to reduce void formation during reflow with convection and vapor phase soldering without the need for a vacuum.
Warm market winds continue to lift the SMT market, based on the activity at the annual SMTA trade show.
“A healthy supply chain is the backbone of our business. We’ll pay you in 90 days.”
This is about doing the right thing.
Doing the right thing involves admitting the right thing can be an elastic term. It depends who defines rightness. And who is most qualified to make, and enforce, that definition.
It does not follow what is right for you is necessarily right for me. Nevertheless, organizations whose business it is to codify things try to freeze ethics in amber.
Case in point: Section 7.3h of the AS9100D Standard states that in a manufacturing organization, “The organization shall ensure that persons doing work under the organization’s control are aware of … the importance of ethical behavior.”
Eliminate variation that causes inefficiency or defects, while maintaining flexibility to scale.
A configure-to-order assembly process helps reduce finished goods inventory and enhance scheduling flexibility. However, it also introduces variation in the production process. Use of Lean manufacturing principles in designing production flow can ensure efficiency and minimize the defect opportunities this level of variation could otherwise create.
SigmaTron International’s facility in Acuna, Mexico, has a dedicated assembly and test “focused factory” area to provide configure-to-order (CTO) services for a manufacturer of industrial products. The customer has outsourced over 50 different product types that are a mix of legacy and current product.
Design for manufacturability (DfM) analysis is performed during the new product introduction (NPI) phase to identify potential issues prior to the product entering production. Test strategy and programming development is conducted for new products, and test programming is optimized for legacy products, where needed.
Because they don’t support a multilevel hierarchical finished goods BoM.
The rate of MES system implementations in electronics manufacturing is not slowing. The rise of Industry 4.0 and the concept of big data have stimulated many companies to seek ways of collecting all important data in real time. If implemented properly, Industry 4.0 will eliminate the need for MES systems. Taking their place will be cyber-physical systems using machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and big data used to make intelligent decisions to run production without any human intervention.
There are still no signs, however, that we will come to terms with which M2M standard to use for Industry 4.0. Among Japanese machine vendors, an IPC-led effort, an ASM-led effort, and a Siemens-led effort, everyone else is left guessing what will happen and if an industry-wide standard will emerge at all. Until that happens, and until machine vendors implement better support for Industry 4.0, electronics manufacturers are pushing forward with MES implementations.
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