Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1038326
74 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2018 is going to be altogether new stuff. His wish is to have everything super automated, but he also understands that some parts of the PCB process for multilayer are very difficult to auto- mate for the complexity of the panels he wants to build. Thus, the breakdown of packages could po- tentially be automated by robots. This is some- thing we still have as a possibility in the sec- ond phase. But for the buildup, we are not thinking of automation now because the pre- preg is challenging to pick up in an automat- ed way. The bottom line is if you need an op- erator to do something at the end, it makes no sense to automate—just leave a little detail for the operator. Matties: You're right. I would think that the breakdown phase would be the obvious area for automation because you're dealing with the panel at that point. Lázaro: Yes. That part is when you're just sep- arating materials. You put the plate into the stack that goes to the cleaning machine, and the panels go to a different pile that will be moving to a flash routing area, so, it can be au- tomated easily. The other thing we developed and have test- ed is a fast, smart dispenser. It's a new way to automate and reduce human manipulation of the cores or panels. At GreenSource, we will be congregating all the cores at the end of lay- er inspection or tooling, prior to getting inside the lamination room. This dispenser is a tower elevator. In the el- evator, you have a removable cage with 20 au- tomated drawers. The line where the cores will come from will be talking to this dispenser, which will follow some definite criteria. The loader will load according to the criteria for the cores in the defined drawer. It's a smart stor- age machine. Then, since the whole 20-drawer Figure 3: 3D model of GreenSource Fabrication's lamination room.