10 SMT Magazine • August 2014
many of you out there can see what's happen-
ing and what's possible with the newer systems
that are now available. I'd love to see your plan
for the PCB factory of the future. Please send
me your thoughts. I'll share them with the rest
of the readers. Let's see what's doable, today.
Watch for my article this fall that describes a
new factory currently taking shape, one that is
adopting all of the latest technologies in order
to become the PCB factory of the future.
PE, 3D PCB Machine
I've been really intrigued by the marriage of
printed electronics and 3D printing. After in-
tently watching the emergence of printed elec-
tronics over the last 5–10 years, I can clearly see
the intersection between the PCB and PE indus-
tries. And now, with the rapid advancement of
3D printing, we're starting to see applications
for full-blown PCBs. Considering the cost asso-
ciated with proving out a PCB design, offering
up PCB proto machines seems like the logical
first market for these systems. With a market
PCB protos alone to be in the billions
of dollars, with thousands of po-
tential systems, it must look
quite attractive to those build-
ing these systems. It's not just
the cost of the PCB; it's the val-
ue of the time as well. Taking
a couple of days or weeks out
of the product development
cycle is worth a lot more than
the PCB. With that in mind,
we see the introduction of a
few new entries to the market.
Recently, we posted this ar-
ticle on pcb007.com: FirePick
Delta 3D: One Step Closer to
Desktop Electronics Manufac-
turing. The system described
in the article is quite interesting
and gives us a glimpse of where
this is heading. Here's a quote:
This machine is capable of doing two of the
most important and difficult tasks in the process of
assembling working electronic devices. While it's
not quite to the point of simply being able to press
a button and have it print out an entire working
device on its own, it certainly shows us how close
we are to one day having a machine that will print
and assemble working electronic devices at the
touch of a button.
In another recently posted article, Advan-
tech Launches Printing Tech for Microelectron-
ic Industry, we find this quote: Features and
devices below 5 µm are typically the realm of
Chips/VLSI. Features above 30 µm are the realm
of traditional printed circuit and device tech-
nologies. The manufacturing processes of these
two worlds have rarely intersected. Advantech
US has developed a printing process that allows
these worlds to merge.
I also came across a video, which introduc-
es a system to make desktop PCBs. It's not so
much the system, but who is making it: young
engineers. Check it out!
It's not doom and gloom here; it's just that
there seem to be opportunities emerging in the
PCB and assembly space that we all need to
be aware of. That's what I'm trying to do. If it
were just a few hobbyists making PCBs on their
workbench, it would be one thing. Instead,
there are two potentially very large
industries emerging that are start-
ing to intersect more and more
with what we do each year.
For more on the PE, 3D
merger, visit our printed elec-
tronics news section.
Internet of things
It's kind of a corny name
for something that's about to
have an impact on everything
we do. If you haven't heard
the term Internet of Things
(IoT), you will. With a market
size in the trillions (yes, with
a "t") of dollars, the IoT will
touch just about everything
we do. We see lots of interest
and investments being made
by all the major players from just
about every industry. And the IoT isn't just for
the factory floor, as we found out recently with
Apple's announcement that it was moving into
the connected home market along with Google
and other major OEMs. IEEE jumped into the
fray: "The Internet of Things represents a vast
THe wAy i See iT
BIts aND PIECEs continues
With a market PCB
protos alone to be in
the billions of dollars,
with thousands of
potential systems, it
must look quite attractive
to those building these
systems. It's not just
the cost of the PCB;
it's the value of the
time as well.
"
"
