Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1319500
82 PCB007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2020 ing time and costs, avoiding human error, and enabling higher throughput with less manpow- er. He set out to explain how iamcam fitted in and how it worked. Generally, as-received data is not good enough to go straight into production without a series of checks and setting-up operations, mo- notonous if performed manually. The primary purpose of iamcam is to help the PCB fabricator to automate the CAM process. In the majority of cases, the iamcam workflow-based solution takes care of all those manual operations nec- essary to get the job into production as quick- ly as possible. Combining the workflow system with a web-server allows it to work in the back- ground as an "automation engine." The heart of the iamcam system is a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that examine and analyse the data, filter out good from bad, and make assessments and judg- ments that enable the system to output pro- duction-ready, single-image data of the re- quired quality. Iamcam has the proven capa- bility to run a large percentage of jobs through the front-end in a fully automatic mode. Newington explained that the infrastructure is capable of hosting additional business pro- cesses; his example showed iamcam work- ing side-by-side with Ucamco's Integr8tor PCB data entry and design analysis tool within the automation engine. In his words, "We want to drop-in the data, give it a push, and then have 70% of the jobs prepared fully automatically." The primary purpose of Integr8tor is to ex- tract the information needed to make an ac- curate quote quickly. Looking at the two tools next to each other, Integr8tor supports the pre- sales and quotation environment, providing engineering and quotation data. Now it has a working partner in iamcam. Once the order is won, and the job needs to be set up for pro- duction, it is no longer necessary to transfer the data to a CAM system; it continues its flow seamlessly within the automation engine and is prepared fully automatically. In this example, additional information re- quired to enable iamcam to complete its job was supplied in the form of an iamcam "ticket"—a set of instructions from an exter- nal source, such as an ERP system. The iam-