Product category:
PCB Assembly Equipment and Tools
News Release from: Assembleon | Subject: Gemline Topaz-XiII SF
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 25 April 2005
Versatility is key to placement platform
choice
Assembleon has supplied and installed two Gemline Topaz-XiII SF systems to Renishaw, allowing further flexibility and room for product development.
To augment the two ACM advanced component mounters already installed at Renishaw's two main operations in Gloucestershire, England, Assembleon has now supplied and installed two Gemline Topaz-XiII SF systems, allowing further flexibility and room for product development Renishaw, the recipient of numerous awards worldwide for innovation and ten Queen's Awards in the UK recognising technological achievement, export achievement and enterprise, is still committed to in-house PCB assembly to maintain total control over the quality of its products
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 4 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Platform boosts placement density
With a space productivity of 20,000 components per hour per square metre the MC-12 is reckoned to be the most productive pick-and-place machine on the market.
Pick and place machines expand EMS provider
Electronics manufacturing solutions provider Mara Technologies has bought another four Assembleon pick and place machines as a base for its latest expansion.
Renishaw stands at the forefront of automated metrology with products that enable measurements to be taken that are traceable to international standards.
Wherever precision measurement is required, using Renishaw's products ensures that exacting specifications are met with cost-effective methods.
The company recently purchased the Topaz machines to support the highly accurate ACMs due to the need to increase feeder capacity following further business growth and increased diversity in product range.
Further reading
Pick and place machines meet software
Enhanced machine interfaces are now available for vPlan - Valor's advanced process engineering tool - on Assembleon's A-Series, M-Series and X-Series machines.
Software optimises pick and place machines
The open architecture of AMS means that customers can either use their own line and machine optimisation software, or buy a complete package from Assembleon.
Pick and place machine accurate to within 30micron
A fine-pitch pick-and-place-machine places fine-pitch and odd-form components with an accuracy to within 30um at a rate of 6,800 components per hour.
Larger and more densely populated printed circuit boards, coupled with a wider range of products, are now being designed and assembled at Renishaw.
"There was a real need to decrease batch changeover times and improve build efficiency", comments Renishaw's Senior Electronics Production Engineer, Geoff Goring.
"The aim was to introduce a platform to place the standard packages faster in the new product development area at the New Mills site and in the production line at Woodchester".
"For this, the Topaz was the most appropriate pick-and-place machine on the market".
"We're constantly looking to be more efficient in changeover time as an increase in new product development has meant a large influx of demanding and variously sized PCB assemblies".
"The Topaz allows us to meet these demands and handle these new challenges".
"Previous direct experience of Assembleon products, and its world-class service, provided the assurance that we have made the right choice for the future".
The Topaz-XiII SF allows versatility of feeder application, as it uses the intelligent tape feeder (ITF) just like the ACM.
The machine features a single placement beam carrying eight super fine (SF) heads with exchangeable nozzles.
The newly designed line array camera allows on-the-fly alignment of a wide range of devices.
Renishaw found great advantage in being able to place the more mundane range of devices such as 0402s up to 32mm square plastic leaded chip carriers (PLCCs), which were previously all crammed onto the ACM.
This allows dedicated handling development of the more complex and challenging packages, such as ball grid arrays (BGAs), chip scale packages (CSPs), 400um-pitch quad flatpacks (QFPs) and a wide range of odd-form devices, to take place on the ACM.
After introducing the Topaz, Renishaw benefited from a tact time reduction (beat rate) of 36min down to 4.5min for key motherboard products.
Even though full optimisation of the Topaz has not yet been used, a placement rate of circa 10,000 components per hour has been consistently achieved on many of Renishaw's other key products.
Goring further comments: "The operation of the machine is very easy to learn and the maintenance is simple".
"The touch screen, error troubleshooting and self-teach assembly program construction facilities are further benefits of a truly modern and state-of-the-art machine".
• Assembleon: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
