Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1269815
JUNE 2020 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 47 Matties: You have a lot of information from the global industry. What trends do you see that stand out? Schmidt: High-end customers have an in- creased demand for process and data auto- mation, which today means the adoption of a smart factory. Production equipment that is connected and provides live data in real-time is vital in a modern production environment, as it allows operators and engineering teams to focus on that process and optimize it. In the factory of the future, it will not be enough to have isolated automated processes; the next step is to understand how you can use production data in an intelligent way and how that can help to improve your production yield and reduce machine downtime. One example there is condition monitoring, where through the use of intelligent software algorithms, the machine can effectively notify the maintenance team when a certain part has to be replaced. This can avoid unplanned downtime, which is one of the main objectives of a coordinated pre- dictive maintenance scheme and is something many high-end PCB facilities are implementing. Another major trend is that of particle avoid- ance and reduction. As Andreas mentioned earlier, this is something that the high-end PCBs producers are looking at closely, es- pecially as they tighten their line and space needs. Here, our task has been to find solu- tions that avoid, or at a minimum, drastically reduce particle generation within the machine. Today, we utilize our "fine-line filtration" con- cept, where we install a five-micron filtration system to each pump circuit, which helps the process solution to be distributed over the entire panel surface virtually particle-free. The other trend is thin panel transportation. Again, panels are getting much thinner, and we already have customers running 30-micron laminate clad with 2-micron copper foils. It's quite challenging to transport such thin ma- terial horizontally, but this is where our ex- pertise lies, and we continuously invest in re- search and development to keep our position. Matties: The trends that you're talking about are primarily coming out of Asia. What trends do you see in Europe and the U.S.? Schatz: The PCB shops in the U.S. and Europe, in most cases, serve niche markets and typical- ly require lower volume equipment solutions. While our expertise has been clearly gained in high-volume production equipment typical to Asia (i.e., line speed of approximately 2.0m/ min), we provide lower capacity lines that are usually much shorter and custom-configured to address the needs of production schedules here in Europe or the Americas. For example, we offer desmear and electroless copper equip- ment with a line speed as low as 0.5 or even 0.25 m/min. The benefit of these smaller lines is not only a lower capital investment, but this is also supported by a reduced total cost of ownership, as these smaller lines require less floor space and have less consumption of re- sources, such as chemistry, water, and energy. Matties: Getting the board through a process is one thing, but is the drive behind the re- quest tied to process automation and the smart factory? Daniel Schmidt