Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1467744
MAY 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 41 Reitz: We see a great value- add to it. One of the things that we've always strug- gled with is finding auto- mation equipment that will stay affordable and offer a small footprint. We've dem- onstrated this to several cus- tomers and at the IPC APEX EXPO show, it seems to be a very high interest offer- ing from us. ere are a lot of great third-party mate- rial handlers out there. e biggest problems, though, are they are high cost, very difficult, and typically very large. So, for us at Chemcut, this is a perfect fit. Shaughnessy: What is the situation for your end customer? What are the pain points that they're talking to you about which make this automation so much more valuable to them? Siemering: e people we talk to, be it chemical mill- ing or PCB, are having a hard time finding people to come in, apply for the job, and stay in the job. is job can be mundane, stand- ing there, loading panels. Sometimes one person is running a machine, loading their five or six panels, and they run to the other end of the machine to unload. If the line is going into a clean- room, they have to load the machine, suit up and run in the cleanroom and grab the five panels that come off; it's just not efficient. We just have one chemical clean install where the robot can load 20, 50, or however many panels, while the operator unloads in the clean- room, and moves the panels to the next pro- cess. As far as an ROI, it is less than six months, Jerry Reitz Close up view of the robotic arm's user interface.