Testerion, the newly-formed supplier of SMD equipment to the South African electronics industry, has successfully completed the installation of its largest order to date. This was for a Fuji SMD assembly line at Shurlok International in Pietermaritzburg.
Testerion comprises essentially the key employees of the former Allan McKinnon & Associates; namely Peter Vichos - managing director, Vangeli Glyptis - sales and marketing, and Tim Goodman - service engineer.
Shurlok purchased the line for use on assembling export products for BMW and Daimler Chrysler. These are highly prestigious clients for Shurlok and the new equipment will enable it to produce and assemble to stringent quality requirements.
Shurlok issued a tender for the supply of a high speed SMD line mid-2001. This was a departure from former assembly methods where the company had been assembling and populating electronic PCBs with SMD components using Mydata equipment in a cellular configuration, ie several small cells assembling various products. This previous approach offers great flexibility, but with recent higher volumes and technological requirements, the need arose for a high-speed line.
Testerion says that Shurlok had always wanted to use Fuji equipment, but the price of approximately R15 million for a new Fuji line was prohibitive. The company therefore discussed the possibilities of supplying refurbished equipment. Shurlok gave the go-ahead to source a refurbished line from overseas. Testerion managed to find a refurbished line consisting of an MPM UP2000 printer, a Fuji CP6 high-speed placement system, a Fuji IP II flexible fine pitch placement system and loading and unloading equipment supplied by JOT.
Sourcing the equipment
The system was configured at an equipment supplier in America. Peter Vichos and Tim Goodman, along with Laurence Beesley of Shurlok, visited the supplier to view the equipment. Goodman has more than 12 years working experience with Fuji in South Africa, as well as considerable experience on the peripheral equipment such as MPM printers.
The agreement was to fly over to the supplier, and view the equipment on the understanding that if it proved substandard it would be rejected outright. They would then return to SA with each respective company paying its own expenses. If however, the equipment was acceptable, then further negotiations would be entered into.
As happens in these situations, if equipment is of a high enough standard, there would also be other companies after it. Thus, it was imperative that a quick decision be made immediately after the companies' return to SA. Shurlok's decision came within two days: selected items from the line in America would be purchased and that another Fuji CP6 machine would be supplied via Fuji Machine Europe (FME). The order was placed on Testerion as the supplier of the equipment. The entire line was supplied at a price of $200 000 which towards the end of last year was around R2 million.
The line was completed with a new SMT Model 2.4 Nitrogen reflow machine that was supplied ex-stock from Testerion's stock of equipment. This forced air convection reflow machine is a fully computer-controlled machine utilising chain conveyor with a unique centreboard support system. The line will be run with Fuji's exclusive F4G software and the entire facility was installed, commissioned including freight, training and warranty for under R3m.
According to Shurlok, one of the reasons it chose Testerion as the supplier of the equipment, was because of the company's commitment to not only install, commission and train Shurlok's personnel on the operation and maintenance of the machine, but to also work with it after commissioning, in order to reduce defects from an established level down to zero. Testerion says it has this capability since they are not only the exclusive South African agents for the equipment supplied, but are also suppliers of Alpha solder paste and Alpha laser cut stencils which have a significant contribution to make in the overall performance of the line.
Obtaining 'zero defect'
Peter Vichos, Testerion MD, said that he anticipated working for several weeks after installation in very close consultation with Shurlok's production personnel to ensure that the line ultimately achieves the very lowest defects possible. This will be achieved by initially monitoring the line's performance over the first week or two's operation. Following this, the five highest defects will be established and subsequent weeks will be devoted to working on these problem areas, the ultimate objective being to achieve zero defects from the line.
According to Vichos there are several international manufacturers who operate a typical line configuration such as this, and who are repeatably working at very close to zero defect - in many cases actually achieving zero defect over prolonged periods of time. He believes there is therefore no reason why Shurlok cannot achieve the same results. He said that the line has a six-month factory warranty and represents exactly the same performance, as would a new line that required a R15m investment.
With Shurlok's many years of aircraft industry experience they are well aware of the fact that aircraft are purchased according to hours of use. As long as the aircraft has been maintained and serviced at periodic intervals as specified by the manufacturers, its age is irrelevant. Fuji equipment is exactly the same in as far as after every 10 000 hours of operation, the equipment needs to be serviced and all wear items replaced. Thereafter, the hour clock is effectively reduced to zero, and the machine is warranteed for another 10 000 hours of operation, making the total hours of the machine irrelevant to the age of the machine. Since this Fuji equipment had been maintained as such, Testerion, as exclusive SA agents for Fuji, had no problems in holding the warranty.
The line took approximately one week to install and commission and is now running to Shurlok's complete satisfaction.
Peter Vichos is very excited about the future prospects for second-hand equipment in the South African market: "Clearly it gives us the ability to supply equipment at something like 20% of the actual value of new equipment and offers customers extremely competitive value for money. There is an abundance of second-hand equipment on the international market right now, and our selection process went through well over 20 suppliers from around the world before we selected equipment that we felt was of a sufficiently high standard to supply to our market."
He said that while there is much second-hand equipment to choose from, there is also a lot that is sub-standard and the bargain basement prices being offered could prove extremely expensive if one takes into account what it will actually cost to get the system operational in South Africa.
"It has been a very worthwhile exercise for us because it has opened up lines of communication with reputable suppliers and we are working on additional lines for further supply into the South African market," said Vichos. "We gained a tremendous amount of experience from this first exercise."
After installation and commissioning of the system, Rodney Forrester, MD of Shurlok International, made comment that he had no regrets in purchasing the refurbished line because the fact of the matter is that the R3 million investment has saved the company approximately R12 million, were they to have purchased a new line. But, more importantly, the performance and specifications of this system are no different to the performance and specifications of a new line. He expects that several other SA manufacturers will follow this example in the future and purchase quality refurbished lines as it represents a considerable cost saving.
Line specifications
The system as configured has a theoretical line speed of 45 000 components per hour. The Fuji CP6 is capable of 40 000 SMD placements per hour and the IP II is capable of 5100 components per hour. Whilst this is the theoretical maximum capacity, the line should be capable of placing 25 000-28 000 SMD components per hour.
For further information contact Testerion, 011 704 3020, fax 011 462 9461, [email protected]
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