Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1083315
REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2019 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 79 the X-ray and take an image with that. CFX and Hermes pushing that sharing of data and the collaboration that happens between com- panies, which is what we're primarily using in getting involved with it now. It's in the very earliest stage. We're glad to be part of it in this initial push of this technol- ogy and communication. We think it's going to benefit the entire industry. If you have an entire line that can communicate seamlessly, then you have self-healing lines and the ideal factory 4.0 that we're striving for. This is the right stuff in that direction. We're happy to be here experiencing that and learning as much as we can at this point. There's still a ways to go. Hermes has nice horizontal communication where you can pro- gram a board size and change all the systems down the line to the right board size. You can transfer barcodes all the way through it, so it has that horizontal level of communication through the lines. When you combine CFX and Hermes, you get a very good mix of the data. It facilitates data collaboration between different vendors. The next step going forward for R&D is tak- ing that data even farther than just collabora- tion by fusing it together and coming out with actual items. That's what we hope to see going forward and happy to be part of it. CFX is the built highway, and now we have to figure out how to move things forward to the next step. I think a lot of companies are going to get involved with this. Some companies have shown their own communication protocols already. They have a full line, so they have communication protocols, but equipment manu- facturers that don't share data with each other need something like CFX to transfer that data. CFX gives a good head start on it, espe- cially for the rest of the manufac- turers who don't have entire lines. So, it is a competitive advantage for us that we are Hermes and CFX compatible. Now, you have an additional feature you can offer your customers and with more capabilities, whether it's display, communication between machines, or making actual items. It's definitely a competitive edge. We have some data, but not nearly enough. There's not nearly enough data being shared right now between systems in a line. You're getting a pass-fail rate and a number to look at, but you don't have any analogous data; it's just a yes or no. You get bad or good. That's the data being shared right now. As an X-ray company, we must have an AOI expert explain exactly what is going on with data, to what degree it is bad, and that data all has to be combined later. We're not there yet with data sharing. The biggest hurdle we see coming that needs to be overcome is data sharing between companies—how much data we can share, and the right platforms to share data. Chris Dayney and Monte Cramer Training team leader and apps engineer, Fuji America Corporation Chris Dayney: We have a lot of interest from our customer base for a factory standard related to Industry 4.0. CFX meets the need for a smart factory as a machine vendor through universal connected factory communications. It means there's a new IPC standard, and we're going to continue to be involved. For us, it opens the doors to more data col- lection, IoT, IoM, and more of what our cus- tomers want especially related to CFX, which is the bigger focus for us. It's no longer a pro-