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16 The PCB Magazine • May 2016 Material Contamination In roll-to-roll processes, contamination problems are almost completely avoided. Rolls of material can be wrapped for protection when moving between processes and portable clean room enclosures can be used to enable machine tools to process the exposed web in a clean envi- ronment. By limiting user interactions to a sin- gle, automated lot of rolled material, yield loss due to operator errors are minimized as well. Rapid equipment efficiency benefits can also be achieved through greater automation. Tool load and unload time are greatly reduced when moving from panel handling to web handling. Processing equipment typically requires safety doors to avoid harm to operators. Web handling equipment is designed so the flex materials can travel through very narrow slits that are inac- cessible to operators. As a result, no time is lost due to the need to continually open and close safety doors. Example: Replacing an operator-panel- loaded process with a web handling unwind and rewind: • Prior to automation, panel removal, place- ment and readiness required an average of 12 seconds per panel between process machine cycles • With the unwind and rewind systems in- stalled on that same process machine, the panel removal, placement and readiness within the web was reduced to two seconds between ma- chine cycles • The increased 10 seconds of machine up- time per panel raised that machine's through- put enough to deliver a web handling unwind and rewind ROI of six months Another process advantage is that mate- rial webs have effectively near-zero distance between the edges of one panel to the next. Movement time is reduced given these shorter distances for the material to travel. Efficiency is further improved by reducing the amount of in- efficient operator interaction, reducing system standby time due to absent or busy operators, and reducing non-scheduled equipment time due to unworked shifts. For certain applications and processes, it is possible to start a job at the end of a day shift and have it finish overnight in time for the beginning of the next day shift. Also, some process machines can support two webs running through in parallel, giving twice the throughput with the same investment of one process machine. Planning can often also be simplified by re- ducing cycle time variability caused by differ- ences in operator-tool interactions. If this vari- ability is causing continuously-shifting bottle- necks in a production line, it may be due to the difficulty of accurately planning material move- ment and product delivery schedules. Handling automation improves cycle time consistency and eases production planning. Labor costs can often be reduced through the use of handling automation. These labor costs show up in various forms. Obviously, when automation reduces the amount of op- erator-equipment interaction, fewer operators can do the same amount of work. One operator can support multiple roll-to-roll manufactur- ing lines. Less obvious benefits include higher operator satisfaction that results in less employ- ee turnover as well as fewer operator injuries. Both of these benefits can be achieved due to the less-repetitive work that is generally further distanced from the dangerous parts of process machinery. automate to innovate in flex proCessinG Figure 2: Roll-to-roll automation of flex material.