Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1367446
74 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2021 Moreau: Exactly. It gives the customer some flexibility. Rather than having to set up a struc- ture, they can say, "We can grab some data off of here, we can grab some flat files, we can use their SDK and integrate their system directly with ours," even though ours isn't some stan- dard. Johnson: Interestingly enough, that very theme showed up in one of the keynotes for IPC APEX EXPO 2021. I don't know if you caught Travis Hessman's keynote presentation, but he was talking about how to migrate well into a digital factory environment; he talked about nibbling at the edges where you're solving a problem, not creating a new factory. Moreau: Over the past couple of years, we've even promoted a smart factory starter kit. Why not start? As far as an inspection system, say for example the RPI reflow process inspection; it's a very low cost compared to AOI or SPI. You put in those embedded sensors, get that system working on your reflow process, and now use the tools it has to automate, inspect, and capture that data; it's your test bed for smart factory and at a low investment. Now you've tested it and worked out how to accomplish it and who needs to be involved, then it's as you said— you start eating away at the other edges and combine them. We say, start with reflow because it's a pretty straightforward pro- cess. What's the key process thing on an oven? It's not necessar- ily the recipe, it's the temperature profile. If you have a system that's capturing the temper- ature profile of your production boards, now you can use that as the base and then extend that into your smart factory. You will have learned all your lessons and now you can start spreading it to other processes. Johnson: KIC recently completed a first dual lane vacuum reflow RPI system with SMT, the German oven company, as your partner. Tell me about that? Moreau: e vacuum reflow oven, it's a bit of a different animal. It has some challenges because smack in the middle of the reflow oven, you're stopping the product, putting it inside a chamber, and drawing down a vac- uum to reduce voids. at's the key for those manufacturers and their end customer; it's driven by their end customer saying, "is is the maximum size void that you can have in our products when you build them. You need to be down at a very, very small level of voids." ere are ways of mitigating that through the materials itself, through the solder and the solder paste, but another solution is vacuum ovens. Inline reflow process inspection. Click here to learn more.