Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1010078
70 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2018 together and merging and suddenly it becomes even more complicated. And if you look at the growth of these components, which are now going vertical, you have 3D substrates. The customers are expected to clean in between each while you are assembling those or during the assembly process. In the past, we've cleaned under one component; now we must clean under many components. That's just one example of how things are getting more complicated. Then, it's getting smaller and smaller—so the low-residue, no-clean, is enough residue for them to cause failures. The trend towards cleaning continues to grow, and I think the amount of people that are cleaning, therefore, increases. Las Marias: Are you still seeing instances where the operators are making mistakes when it comes to their cleaning processes? Wack: I think we all make mistakes every day; but yes, we do see a lot, and most of the time, that's because the responsibilities in companies are not very clear. In a very few companies you'll find individuals who are designated for cleaning. In most companies, you go in and ask who's responsible for cleaning—usually the answer is it's a shared responsibility. A lot of customers don't have individuals for just one equipment responsibility. They share. And when you share, you have a little knowledge of each, but not a high knowledge of one. So, that's part of the reason we started the academy because we realize a lot of customers need teaching. Sometimes, when new engineers come in and have no experience about cleaning, we train them for a couple of days if they are interested in that. We offer it for a reason—because we realized that a lot of young engineers simply don't have the experience in cleaning. With cleaning, you look at the process; you can teach people for weeks just about the cleaning process. A lot of information, a lot of aspects needed to be considered, based on the experience we've gained over the years. So, we look forward to customers who we know need cleaning; it's probably one of the reasons we're set up the way we are, even the technical center we opened today offers possibilities and facilities to further the educational effort we're now doing here locally with our local engineers. For big companies, we have written handbooks on cleaning to help them disseminate information or we come in and give customized seminars for those companies who can't come to us. We are proactive, and we see that as a competitive advantage, that we can offer such seminars. Las Marias: How does automation factor in when it comes to the cleaning process? Wack: Here's an example: The cleaning process includes, among other things, a cleaning reservoir where the cleaning agent is put in. The cleaning agent needs to be mixed at a certain percentage. That's one good example where human error comes into play—we have an operator that misreads information, isn't trained on how to correctly measure the concentration, and then assumes that it's a certain concentration, and doesn't measure it often enough—there are variations in the cleaning process because you are dragging in contamination. This cleaning agent being dragged out because the conveyor or the batch process—whatever machine you have— changes constantly, and you have to be on top of it to understand at what point and how quickly it changes and how to adjust for it. Just the simple aspect of maintaining a certain concentration correctly is not as trivial as it sounds, so we have devised certain tools to automate that piece of it through a unit, In most companies, you go in and ask who's responsible for cleaning—usually the answer is it's a shared responsibility.