Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1437606
DECEMBER 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 23 which is a fully automatic sys- tem bringing a high productiv- ity rate. Johnson: Right. It's interesting that you use the words produc- tivity and reliability. I would think that while the U.S. and European markets are looking for the same things, the criteria for productivity and reliability in Asia, at volume, is different than the criteria for productiv- ity and reliability in the U.S. and Europe, where you have a higher mix. In a more high-mix manufacturing environment, setup becomes a larger part of the task; there are slightly different constraints to being productive and reliable. How is Altix managing those constraints for the U.S./North American market? Boureau: You're right that productivity and reliability are two different terms, consider- ing either Asia's or the European point of view. Looking at direct imaging, or even for those units in Asia, the production batches are very large, and they will change a few during the day or the night shis in the factory. Compared to what we see in the U.S. or Europe, they will have very small batches, as you say, a few pan- els that they will change oen during the day, and they must be able to set up the machines quickly. So, what we have developed and what we want to develop in the future are different kinds of soware tools that help the customer set the machine as quickly as possible. e first tool we set is called ADIX Tools and is used widely in our European and U.S. cus- tomers' factories. is soware allows the cus- tomer to prepare all the batches offline, out of the machine, to set all the parameters through configuration files, and to send these files to the machine so that the operator in front of the machine only needs to call the batch at the end. With just one click, the machine will be ready in a few seconds to produce the following batch with everything relayed in the offices, in the CAM station, or wherever; it depends on the customer organization's so- ware parameter files. is is very useful for our customer who oen changes the batch, especially inside the machine. Johnson: It would seem like there would be a lot of R&D effort to enable quick change- overs. How have the inter- machine communication protocols, such as HERMES and CFX, enabled solutions for your soware? Boureau: It is very challenging on the manu- facturing floor with our customers and their markets because, you may or may not know, we are not only addressing the PCB industry, but also the PCM (photochemical machin- ing) industry. First, considering the two mar- kets, the questions are not the same, and it's not the same considering the geographic area. In smaller U.S. or European factories, you have fewer people ready to prepare dedicated so- ware or dedicated communication between the CAM station, between the equipment, and so on, so we have to bring the expertise to help them, and to connect the equipment with all the systems. China, for example, will put more focus on standard protocols like those we can have in the microprocessing industry called SECS/ GEM. In this case, we would have to develop protocols dedicated to their factory and to the world factory. We will add a big project, in which IT will be involved with all the other equipment manufacturing. e considerations are completely different regarding the two types of customers. e main protocol is a TCP/IP proto- col, which is a more reliable way to exchange Alexandre Camus