Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1526114
SEPTEMBER 2024 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 47 like thermal interface mate- rial (TIM) that is 500,000 cen- tipoise. You cannot jet a drop- let of TIM from a jetting dis- pense valve. Some like the traditional methods of rotary auger pumps, or a time pressure to dispense that kind of mate- rial. One example is a thermal interface application where the material goes over the heat sink to dissipate all the heat out of the product. is is why dispensing continues. Plus, things have improved on both the machine side (which has the gantry driven by the motion controller) and on the dispensing side, thanks to a jet or an auger valve. Both have progressed to bind up the technology and make sure we pro- vide a dispensing solution. As you move the heads around, are you using linear motors? Yes, and of course, there are chunks of technol- ogy to accompany the linear motor technol- ogy. It's not just a linear motor; it's a motion controller, a gantry drive, and a vision sys- tem. Everything must be considered and tied together to build a very high-precision system. ere's still a lot of work to do regarding the electromechanical part because, for example, the shorter you can make the settle time, the better your throughput. So, where does dispensing shine? Dispensing shines in applications with tall components. at's where the jetting comes into play because you can dispense a droplet from a certain height, making sure you're not hitting or damaging the components. Inkjet technology has not been used much because it is very slow and can only handle fluids up to a certain viscosity. It can mostly handle conductive inks and dielectric mate- rials that are very low viscosity. At the other end of the spectrum, a stencil printer is best suited for high-viscosity materials like a sol- der paste type 4 or 5. e surface mount adhesive glue is another high-viscosity mate- rial. ere is a huge void le between the ink- jet printing and the stencil printing that has been filled by dispensing because dispensing can handle both spectrums to effectively fill the void. How does it handle multiple thicknesses if you have different requirements across the same board? Each jet valve has a particular flow rate, which allows it to dispense certain milligrams of mate- rial per second. You can change the flow rate of the valve by tweaking some soware-driven parameters, such as the piston li, which is the stroke of the piston or sha moving up and down. e higher you li it, the more material you dispense and the bigger the droplet size. Camalot Prodigy machine inside.