Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1466505
MAY 2022 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 55 Johnson: Keeping machinery doing what it should be doing, inspecting boards rather than getting programmed. Caissie: at's right. Johnson: roughput is always a concern. New machinery doesn't have as much value, frankly, if it's slowing down the throughput. How are you attacking that? Is there a through- put bump-up with the Apogee that we're talk- ing about today? Caissie: ere are a couple different things to discuss. As far as throughput, this is an at-line machine rather than inline. When you're using it, you're sampling for inspections of prod- ucts off the line. You're typically not inspect- ing every board. You're also, through the auto- mation, speeding up the individual inspection task. You're not manually moving the boards around or adjusting all the settings and saving all the data. at does save quite a bit of time as well. As a closed tube design, it does like to stay powered up. You can save a lot of time in power cycling the machine if you can just leave it active. Johnson: What do you see as primary market drivers for your customers right now? What are they challenged with? Caissie: Automation and making it easier to place a board in the machine, hit "go," have all the data collected, analyzed, and passed out to the appropriate data collection areas. We see a lot of customers worried about exposure to X-ray on sensitive parts, but that's one of the reasons why we offer both the 90 kV version and the 130 kV version. Johnson: Who is the ideal customer right now? Caissie: If you're worried about your yield numbers, have a need for sample inspection or automated inspection and analysis of your sol- der processes, I think we're a great value. Johnson: anks, Brennan. SMT007 Sponsored link: • VJ Electronix Apogee 90