Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1038326
OCTOBER 2018 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 57 up room. It will then come in on these conveyors and will be placed in the sec- ond hot press while the oth- er one is going through the pressing cycle. While this is going on, the load in the cold press is removed by the carriage and sent to break - down. Now the cold press is open and available for the next load coming from the hot press. So you pret - ty much have a continu- ous operation. I don't know specifically with Green- Source, but on average, a circuit board shop has a hot press cycle time of about 90 minutes. The cold press would be quicker than that. You can obviously emp - ty the cold press before the next load from the hot press is ready, so this is a continuous operation. GreenSource uses a style of pinless lamina- tion. There's a breakdown station here and then inside the room will be the associated lay- up stations. These press systems are all ther- mal oil heated as opposed to electric element heating. Thermal oil just tends to give you bet- ter uniformity of heating to the platens. Goldman: Is this the control for one press or both presses? Howard: The whole system. So that covers most of it: the X-ray, laser drill and the 16 sin- gle spindles. Goldman: Tell about this piece of equipment. Howard: This is the proX3 from Impex Measur- ing Solutions, and it's a quality control tool. The proX3 has various measuring techniques from scanning the complete panel quickly, to reporting on the position of every single hole in the panel. It will also report on missing or blocked holes and provide the locations for Figure 6: The Impex Measuring Solutions proX3 quality inspection and test tool at GreenSource Fabrication. those. And then there are the proX3's other measuring techniques, like the point-to-point camera system, and also 3D capabilities with which it can literally map the topography of the panel. Goldman: That's impressive in this one ma- chine. Can it look into the holes? Howard: There are now techniques where you can plunge into a hole with a very small diam- eter fiber and it can record the position of ev- ery inner layer within the hole. Goldman: That's really something. Howard: Yes, it is! This is a very sophisticated machine and I've been very impressed by it. Goldman: This has been so informational. Thank you, Dave. Howard: My pleasure. PCB007