Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1530610
DECEMBER 2024 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 13 You have seen the full spectrum of development around tooling and the mission to increase inner layer registration accuracy and yields. Why did you decide to start DIS? At Multiline, I saw the challenge of these cumulative tolerances and cores getting thin- ner. I suggested to the company that we make a machine that would eliminate that and opti- cally align the layers. But they were a tool- ing company that built and sold punching machines, so they didn't want to go that route. at's when I started my own company, DIS. It's roughly 24 years later, and I'm still making this equipment. We are optically aligning layers and tack- bonding them in location. e only toler- ances we have with this pinless system are that of our vision system and how well we can flatten the layer and tack-bond it. Since it's done by a machine and not a human oper- ator, it is a much more controlled process. It's a repetitive process that the machine can do all day long. You're not worrying about whether an operator is laying it up correctly on pins. You're also not worrying about whether an operator is tired at the end of their shift. Exactly. ey could be laying up one panel that has a thick core and one that has a thin core. Let's be honest; there are always distractions, and sometimes things are laid up out of sequence. It's just a natural human error and it's difficult to avoid when the operator is performing a repetitive process. Because our machines are optical lay-up machines with barcoding, the systems can check to make sure that the right core will go into the correct sequence. We also have thick- ness measurements where we can check that the thickness of the prepreg is within the tol- erance of what they want to build for the end product. is is a way of mistake proofing if they are placing too many or too few pieces of prepreg. We are always looking for ways to minimize errors. Tony, you've seen traditional punch tooling to today's superior ways to ensure inner layer accuracy. But when manufacturing PCBs, why wouldn't you use the optical, pinless system over traditional post-etch punch tooling? Anthony (Tony) Faraci