Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/857644
August 2017 • The PCB Magazine 19 Goldman: Other than acrylic, what specialized materials can you not run through? Stepinski: There are a few where you have lower deposition rates that you have to run it through multiple passes. Some of the Megtron materials for instance are a little more challenging. Those materials may leach out as well. Holden: One of the questions I had was about the maximum lot size or order size. Stepinski: We have up to 1,000 panel lots right now. Minimum lot size is one. Goldman: Of course, because you can automati- cally change… Stepinski: Yes, it's pretty automatic. Goldman: Put that part number in or whatever and everything changes down the line as nec- essary. Stepinski: As long as it's part of the same kind of family of product, yes. If it's a different prod- uct family then no, we have to intervene a lit- tle bit, just mainly changing some things. For instance, if you go from double-sided to multi- layer, there are a couple of slight changes. If you go from double-sided to single-sided, there are some changes. We have one recipe for IPC-6012 Type 1, one for Type 2, one for Type 3. Goldman: Interesting. You have different reci- pes and that's part of the programming. Stepinski: Yeah, within our thickness limits. Holden: Is the front-end tooling done here? Stepinski: It's actually done in New York state for the most part. I have a tooling team in New York state of former employees of mine from another fabricator. They've been trained over here, the designs get sent over there, and they do all the tooling and send them over. Holden: I was thinking, since there's no art- work, are there any new files required here that haven't been a conventional part of tooling? We've had direct imaging for a while. Stepinski: Not really, no. Holden: Once you start utilizing any kind of direct imaging, you have those artwork files. We've always had drill/router files, and we've always had electrical test files. There are no changes in the files between an inkjet printer and, say, the laser direct imaging. Stepinski: There's one more step in between for the inkjet, but it's just a quick software step that's automated. Goldman: You also said that there are files for drill rout, files for solder, files for direct imag- ing, even the tacking. If that's automated, there have to be files for that too, right? Stepinski: Yes. Holden: Is there a file for AOI? Stepinski: Yes. It's all CAD reference. Goldman: I want to ask about yields. Has there been a ramp-up? What are you seeing yieldwise? I think this is something the readers would be interested in. Stepinski: The yields have been solid—in the high 90s. We've had some issues with the inkjet from time to time but we've captured all those and corrected them. When we have rework it's a very, very small amount. What we would have more than anything would be downtime. We capture these things quickly and the downtime is the big risk. Goldman: Do those captures happen automati- cally? If there is a problem, is there something that stops things? Stepinski: Yes, but there's a little gap sometimes. For direct defects, you can capture them at the machine; it's for interactive problems where you have some subtle issue with the ink or some- thing like that. That turns into a plating prob- WHELEN ENGINEERING, TWO YEARS LATER