Under a global OEM reselling agreement, Hover-Davis will offer Cogiscan's RFID hardware and software applications that mix with their tape feeders, label feeders and direct die feeders. Hover-Davis will now be able to provide intelligent feeding solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing equipment and information systems.

Hover-Davis’s intelligent feeders identify and track components and feeders with barcode and RFID and provide real-time visibility of all materials on the shop floor.

Rick Howe, Hover-Davis vice president of sales and marketing, said, "We are very excited about this new step in our partnership with Cogiscan. We feel that our customers will greatly benefit from our ever increasing range of feeding solutions, making it more and more compelling to integrate them with their manufacturing systems."

Francois Monette, Cogiscan vice president of sales and marketing, said, "This represents an important step in our vision of becoming the global standard for RFID-based material control in our industry."

The researchers found positional accuracy of the paste deposit relative to the pad to be the critical element in ensuring good fine pitch Pb-free assemblies, and is even more critical for some formulations than others. Solder volume can be readily managed across the supplier base with printer variables and stencil design. As with any solder pastes (Pb-free and Pb-bearing), the use of enclosed print heads such as the Rheometric pump will present advantages such as better aperture fill; however, it is not the determining factor for a high quality process. The atmosphere and profile of the reflow oven contribute substantially to the overall quality of the Pb-free assembly, the researchers found.

Coauthor Dr. Gerald Pham-van-Diep, director of advanced development at Speedline Technologies, said, “This study was undertaken to review the full potential for process needs as customers convert to Pb-free process technologies. It demonstrates that the process changes required in most situations to convert to Pb-free are not as daunting as some suppliers would have the industry believe. In essence, with appropriate process review, process development work and management of the variables available to the manufacturer, the switch to producing high-quality Pb-free assemblies is achievable.”