Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1288481
28 PCB007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2020 data into the whole digital factory approach. Assemblers seem to have done a much better job stepping into digital factory capabilities than the fabricators have. What do you see as you talk to your customers about digital factories? Harding: The interest in automating processes with autoloaders, and unloaders—as well as being able to scan a barcode and run the test automatically is a big interest. To do that, you need to change not just the testing process, but the customer must also consider all their oth- er processes leading up to that as well. Auto- mation is a huge topic of discussion. We work with some robotic handling companies, and we have some installs with our printers as well as our testers with robotic arms. We're very focused on that at the moment. Matties: Is there a big drive from your custom- ers in that conversation, or is it something that you have to carry to them? Harding: For larger fabricators, there is a big drive for it because it's hard to hire people. If the operator can stack 50 or 100 panels, run the job, and walk away to run some other equip- ment, the value or ROI of that one employee is much higher. Matties: There are two parts to that, though. One is you can have loaders and unloaders and robotic arms, and that's an important part of mechanizing your manufacturing process. But when we talk about automating the process it- self, where the machines are adjusting based on the work coming through via an etcher or plater or whatever it happens to be, we see more of that in the assembly side than we are in the PCB sector, with the exception of Green- Source Fabrication. Harding: We also have software options just for that. For example, if you have multiple testers, they can all link up and talk to each other. You can plan production numbers for each tester to maximize productivity. This software is very popular in Asia with customers that have 10, 15, or more of our testers on the floor. However, a lot of our North American custom- ers have one or two testers, and they're not always running, or they only run the morning shift. These customers do less than 100 boards a day. Johnson: In a more production-oriented envi- ronment, it sounds like your product portfo- lio allows for a seamless flow of data. You're printing the legend on the spot and serializ- ing the boards; that's one of the reasons to use an inkjet printer for legend. You can put some identifiers on the board, which then are usable in testing to know which board you're dealing with, then keeping the traceability through manufacturing, and you have that all tied together with your complete portfolio of product. Is that an area of active R&D for you? Harding: Yes. We have features that link our printers and testers so that, for a bad part, the printer will X out a sub-panel, and the tester will know not to test that sub-panel. Opera- tors will also know not to populate or ship that panel. I mentioned that we purchased Infinite Graphics; they're a CAD/CAM software com- pany that wrote a software suite of tools known by the flagship product "ParCAM/EXT," and we now develop and sell it directly. This suite of products directly supports us in data prep for test files for our EMMAs and also for our Craft- Pix printers. We're working on several projects right now to enhance our ability to drive our testers and printers in more efficient, produc- tive, and useful ways such that they can talk to each other using the data from all industry CAM software products. Matties: You're doing some great things, Gar- rett. Any print head updates? Harding: We now support two new types of print heads, and these print heads jet a very small droplet size. Previously, our standard threshold for solder dam was about 3 mils, and these new print heads achieve a sub-2-