Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/636678
40 The PCB Magazine • February 2016 ing only the basic configuration here. Every- thing in China needs to be in harmony so it's a harmonious solution. Matties: What's an arm like this run for in terms of cost? Is it comparable to the salary of an em- ployee? Tzhori: No doubt it's the equivalent or even bet- ter. The ROI is less than one year. The robotic arm can work 24/7 with no downtime, whereas the operator needs three shifts with three differ- ent operators, so no doubt the return on invest- ment is immediate. It's just a matter of accept- ing the future and the change. Matties: I think here in China they're embracing it, because they realize labor cost is a factor and they have to drive it down to keep their business. So if a board doesn't pass inspection, does the arm move it to a separate stack or how does that process work? Tzhori: That is a possible option, but there are several different scenarios. You can install an automated marker on the system, so the system will mark the defects and then the robot will load the perfect panels to one pile and the de- fective ones to a different pile. Matties: It's speaking to the machine, which is all part of Industry 4.0, right? Tzhori: Yes. The beauty of this is that it's cus- tomizable, so we have different customers that run different scenarios and with this we easily adapt to each. Matties: In my mind, I don't know why board shops wouldn't just put a robotic arm in front of these machines to begin with, even in a quick-turn shop. Tzhori: Looking at it from a shop perspective, I would go for it anywhere it's an option. It doesn't matter if it's one system, two systems, or 50 systems. Again, the reason it wasn't there yet is because the robotic arm technology is only now reaching the phase where they are equiva- lent to the speed of a Chinese worker. They are very fast and very efficient. Matties: Well congratulations, it really looks like some great equipment here. I was impressed when I first saw your Gryphon system at APEX earlier this year, and it was a nice surprise to then see it in ac- tion at Bay Area Circuits. Tzhori: It's a great achievement. I don't want to take the credit as I wasn't the one involved in developing this. Matties: Well, it's a company-wide effort. Tzhori: I agree, but no doubt the people who engineered and developed this solution are an amazing group of people. Matties: I was at the Printed Electronics USA show in Santa Clara recently, and there was a guy with a machine there, four feet by three feet, sitting on a table, printing out complete prototype circuit multilayer boards. Tzhori: Yes. It was also an Israeli company? Matties: Yes, do you know this company? Tzhori: Yeah, we know the company. Every- thing is close enough that everybody knows everybody. I'm not familiar with the technol- ogy, but I don't believe it's a competing tech- nology. Gryphon printing sample, cross-section. CaMtek takes inkjet teChnology into the future