Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/950499
MARCH 2018 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 45 optimized the footprint and lowered the oper- ational cost. However, cost is not the only pa- rameter that a customer decides on. Custom- ers are choosing the best technology, and it has to be at a reasonable price. Every customer is willing to pay a premium for a good machine, but it must be reasonable. Goldman: It must have a payback or a decent ROI. Lange: Cost of ownership and return on in- vestment are one of our customers' most im- portant criteria when they decide to purchase capital equipment. We're an innovative com- pany, we're binging new technologies to the market and we are targeting the high-end seg- ment of the market. In the horizontal process system that is shown here, we implemented the newest and best roller transport and spray- ing systems. We have significantly improved the main- tainability of the equipment by separating the operator and the maintenance side of the ma- chine. In this new series all maintenance is done from the back of the machine. It's very accessible and the setup is completely modu- lar. By choosing a new modular controls and software architecture we're preparing our ma- chines for Industry 4.0. The only connections between the modules are network and pow- er, no more than that. This is a big change from previous designs, in which network and power were distributed through the machine from a central cabinet. This truly modular ap - proach is much easier to set up in the field, it enables faster maintenance for our custom- ers, and that also defines the payback. Reduc- ing downtime from 2% to 1% is a significant cost savings. Goldman: That makes sense. You mentioned vertical equipment. Lange: The first-generation vertical process equipment was designed six years ago. It was installed at a number of customers working in the high-end segment. Today, about 30 of those machines are in production, but there was a need for better process control and low- er chemical consumption in these machines. At this year's productronica we're presenting the new-generation vertical process machine, the InfinityLine V+. The target of this new de- sign was to enable smaller feature sizes on the panel and one of the most important topics was the reduction of particles in the machine. We have developed a new transport system, but we are staying with the proven clamping frame in which the panels are suspended. Instead of having a belt-driven transport—we know the belt creates friction and particles—we have an externally-driven roller system. There are no moving parts above the panel surface any- more, so the panel stays completely clean. As I said, our aim was to reduce the par- ticle count in the machine. Optionally, this machine can be equipped for and placed in a cleanroom, which is where the high-end panel technology is moving. Line and space dimen- sions are going down, and if we're looking at the PCBs that are manufactured on the verti- cal process machines, we're talking ten mi- crons today, going to five microns or below in the near future. If you visit hall B1 here at pro- ductronica, you will find semiconductor tech- nology. They are typically working on features on the nanometer scale. Low-end semiconduc- tor processes are going up to microns. This is where these two industries meet: Typical semi- conductor processes are over-specified and too expensive and traditional lower cost PCB pro- cesses cannot reach the specification. What we're doing is extending the range to which tools from the PCB industry can be used into the area of the semi-conductor processing. We are addressing the market for boards with There are no moving parts above the panel surface anymore, so the panel stays completely clean.