Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1511625
28 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2023 It is possible for an X-ray drill machine to directly influence the drill machine by drill- ing location holes in a panel to allow optical alignment on the drill machine, but how is the location of these holes determined? e X-ray drill does not have access to the annu- lar ring tolerance of each hole on each layer of the panel, then providing a compensated loca- tion weighted to the critical layers of the panel. e holes are drilled to fit each panel individ- ually, which will lose efficiency in high volume production as each panel must then be opti- cally aligned on the drill machine—removing the ability to use multi-spindle drill machines drilling several panels high. To determine the optimum compensations to apply to a drill program requires additional data from the production data pipeline. is data can be used to identify the critical layers and features where annular ring restricts the compensations that can be applied, and if a sin- gle set of compensation parameters cannot fit all panels, a Smart manufacturing system will be able to identify groups of panels within lots that can be drilled together for maximum effi- ciency. All this enhanced data can then be automati- cally pushed into the production data highway ready for the next process, but use of this data will be limited without the ability for processes an intelligent manufacturing solution. Typi- cal methods of controlling registration include pilot lots, cross-section analysis, scale factor look-up tables, X-ray/vision drill optimizers, and coordinate measurement machines, all of which result in great quantities of disconnected data with limited analysis or understanding. Considering one of these options, the X-ray drill process is a key source of data for reg- istration control. If used effectively, it col- lects coordinate data relating to the posi- tion of measured target features on individ- ual layers within a panel. However, this coor- dinate data cannot be used directly by a drill machine to correct for scale errors or mis- alignment of layers within the panel. e drill machine requires an NC program indicating the location of each hole to be drilled, not the location of inner layer targets. However, using analysis, the measurement informa- tion can be transformed into linear scaling, offset, rotation, or even non-linear transfor- mation parameters that can be used to mod- ify the NC program to best fit the measured panels and achieve the tolerances required by the end customer. e drill machine may use these parameters to transform the NC pro- gram online or a transformed NC program can be generated offline before the panels reach the drill machine. Figure 2: Relying on descriptive and diagnostic data alone is too late. The production problem has already happened.