Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1424540
58 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 Feature Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 Viscom President Ed Moll talks about test and inspection, specifically the company's X-ray technologies and current state-of-the-art con- formal coating inspection. Nolan Johnson: Ed, what's happening in the test and inspection marketplace? What are the pain points for customers, and where is that driving the market? Ed Moll: It depends on the product line, wheth- er its solder paste inspection, optical inspec- tion, or X-ray inspection; a new recent trend would be conformal coating inspection. We are doing quite a bit of work in conformal coating inspection, which is being driven by the auto manufacturers requiring that those who are doing conformal coating are collecting data, not just visually inspecting, using a black light, and determining that it's good. ey want to see some actual data. at's been a growth fac- tor over the last several years. Another area of high activity is replacing aging X-ray machines that many of the con- tract manufacturers and OEMs have been using for many years. e Agilent machines are now 20+ years old. Many customers have kept their machines running by canni- balizing parts from other machines. To ad- dress that we have introduced a new line of inline X-ray machines to provide a go-for- ward solution. e customers who see the machine are very impressed because they're used to looking at 20-year-old technolo- gy and the strides that have been made in digital flat panels in the last few years are cre- ating eye-popping images now at high pro- duction line speeds. Our products can handle boards up to 26 inch- es wide by up to 63 inches long and they can weigh up to 15 kilos (33 pounds). We already Conformal Coatings and Legacy X-rays