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38 SMT Magazine • October 2015 times of adhesive processes can start with less than a second or reach in excess of 20 minutes. Las Marias: how important is reducing cycle times and how do longer cycle times affect costs? Weigel: As the saying goes, 'time is money.' Slow output means less pieces sold, which equates to lower profits. So it should come as no surprise that high-volume production is definitely one of the key requirements of our customers. However, from my personal perspective, cycle times should not be accelerated at the expense of quality because the majority of our products are used in high-performance applica- tions and their properties ensure that the as- sembly group works correctly. No matter how quickly a product is being produced, if it isn't good quality, it isn't worth much, now is it? But ultimately, it is up to the customer to decide. Las Marias: what are the biggest bottlenecks in your process that contribute to longer cycle times? Weigel: The curing of encapsulants or adhesives is often the defining step of the cycle time and can even become a bottleneck. That's why most of our customers are interested in fast-curing adhesive systems and their corresponding cur- ing equipment. For some applications, we offer light-curing products that cure within seconds as well as the corresponding LED curing lamps with the adjusted wavelength spectrum and in- tensities. For high-temperature applications and harsh environmental conditions, where heat-curing epoxies are what work best, faster heat-curing products need to be developed in conjunction with the use of technologies that transport the heat to the adhesive as quickly as possible. An example of this would be thermodes: An adhesive that cures in 20 minutes in a convec- tion oven, only needs five seconds for curing in a thermode process due to the direct heat in- put. Other customers speed up the production of their assembly lines with induction systems that cure one- or two-component products. We have also focused our efforts on very efficient, dual-curing adhesives, since we see them as one solution for the accelerating as- sembly processes of our customers. What we call 'DUALBOND' means that high-energy light fixes the parts in the cycle so that they can be handled and the assembly process can be con- tinued. They reach their full strength, particu- larly in shadowed areas, with the help of a sec- ond curing mechanism. This can either be heat- curing, as it is often the case in semiconductor packaging, or humidity-curing, which allows the curing process to finish during storage. Las Marias: Please give some examples as to how you were able to reduce the cycle time of a particu- reducInG cycLe tIMeS WIth InnoVAtIVe bondInG SoLutIonS Dam and fill is a very precise encapsulation technique allowing for fine geometries. cycle times can be reduced if the adhesive enables dispensing the fill in the not-yet cured dam, eliminating one process step. pcb casting. FeATure inTerview