23 March 2016Manufacturing / Production Technology, Hardware & Services
ZA Electronics, a Cape Town-based contract manufacturer established in 1997 by van Zyl brothers Riaan and Jaco, has completed installation of its first Mydata solder paste printer.
The pair was very selective when deciding which printer to purchase, and believe their choice makes perfect sense for their business. “It is far more expensive than a normal screen printer and at a high price tag we don’t expect to make a profit from it soon. It’s a value added service to our customers who will enjoy the full advantage of this upgrade,” they explain. “It’s fast, high quality and delivers perfect output every time.”
The Mydata machine works on the same principle as an inkjet printer, except that it prints solder paste directly onto a printed circuit board (PCB), eliminating the need for stencils. One of the benefits to customers is that they get a production quality stencil print for their prototype boards. “Coupled with this is the fact that we place all prototypes with a Mydata pick-and-place machine, which gives customers peace of mind that they have a complete production pre-run. On top of that they have also paid all setup cost should they decide to go into production with a specific design,” says Riaan. Low setup and running cost not only align with developing prototypes, but also smaller production batches, thus allowing the customer to tweak the production setup before proceeding to higher volumes.
By providing an integrated solution, the Mydata quality management system makes it possible to prepare new jobs and verify data offline with the MyCentre and MyCam software. This allows all machines on the SMD side to communicate with each other up to the point where it enters ZA Electronics’ Goepel AOI (automated optical inspection) machine.
It is capable of applying lead and lead-free solder pastes as well as surface mount adhesives with automatic verification of paste type and expiration date. Solder dots are placed at a rate of 30 000 per minute to keep pace with a pick-and-place line rated at 30 000 cph. With a minimum dot diameter of 0,35 mm it can place solder for all components from a 0201 to a fine-pitch BGA.
The printer can also do 3D cavities, lead frame, pin-in-paste and chip-on-chip components. Added to this is solder paste inspection with the option to do a print repair while in the machine. Last but not the least it can print boards of up to 508 x 508 mm, which makes it ideal for LED strip customers. It takes less than a minute to select a new file and start printing with no solder paste waste, no stencil cleaning and very little solder paste exposure time.
“Looking at all the benefits,” concludes Riann, “we know we have a very flexible machine that is ideal for the demanding low-volume/high-complexity production market in South Africa.”
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