Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1193979
DECEMBER 2019 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 31 automation equipment to make it all work well together. When you're replacing older equipment, one piece at a time, it provides more of a challenge. While people want to automate, the reasons we don't see it hap- pening so fast is because they have existing equipment to work with. Matties: Right, and for North America, in par- ticular. Years ago, the big six-spindle machines made a lot of sense. Now, single spindles prob- ably make the most sense, in the majority of applications. Palmer: That's true. We see a lot of the old six-spindle punch and crunch-type machines coming out and being replaced by faster, more accurate, and more productive, higher-technol- ogy single- or two-spindle machines. Matties: The return on investment is justifiable. Palmer: It's very quick. Matties: That looks like one of the areas that they would start with the digital factory. Is that something that you see, where they come in and don't just want to bring in the single-spin- dle machine but want to automate this area? Palmer: Yes, and they'll pull out two big ma- chines with a large footprint and say, "In this area, we want to put in four single-spindle ma- chines. What are our options for automation?" They can manually load a loader that will have, for example, 12 stacks in it and run all weekend. Or they can have an AGV machine, which runs behind the drill machines to keep feeding the machines. Matties: That's one of the trends. It runs all weekend without people there. That's the key. Palmer: Yes, you don't have people there. Of course, if there is an issue, the person who gets alerted at home can run in, see what the prob- lem is, and get the machine going again. As long as there's communication with the opera- tor, that works well. Matties: But all the machines have drill bit de- tection, measuring, and safety precautions to make sure that the right holes are in the right spot at the right time. Palmer: They're all there, so you'll be notified if something goes awry. Matties: It seems like it would be an easy deci- sion for somebody who has legacy equipment and it's time to upgrade. Palmer: We just did a presentation of one of our MDI direct imaging machines for solder mask exposure, and the customer is insisting on automation. This customer cannot find op- erators in their area, so it's not as much of an ROI decision; it's a practicality decision. If they don't have people available to run those ma- chines, they must have automation, even if the ROI is longer.