“What we supply to our patrons are solutions, not just equipment”, emphasizes Bernhard Martin. “This way, a vital relationship with the customers is established”. They realized this truth long before the customer relationship management buzz phrase became en vogue. According to him, “This means for us individual support, sensible pricing, reliable products and rapid response to customers’ needs”. Also the training center, located at the headquarters, improves service potential. Here, the local and global sales and support people are trained to provide expert advice and competent service to the users.
Back in 1982, while still a student, the continuing miniaturization in component size encouraged the company founder to concentrate on dispensing technology and invent a novel adhesive volume measurement instrument. The outcome, a high-precision small dot technology, opened a fresh perspective on the efficient repair of electronic boards. Later, the DBL series of automated, microprocessor-controlled systems followed, providing exceptional service in dispensing, pick & place and soldering. Today, we face the fifth generation of this equipment.
“Another breakthrough in the price-performance area”, as Bernhard Martin puts it, was the launch of the Auto-Vision-Expert, a really affordable semi automatic rework station for SMT boards. “After more than 1000 sold workstations it has become the benchmark in the area of rework”, and now the next generation of this equipment, the Expert-09.6, has been presented. It enables users to precisely place even larger BGAs with the aid of a high-resolution camera subsystem. The Expert-09.6 is now available with a flip chip kit, facilitating rework operations within minor device pitches down to 0.25 mm. The machine is said to need almost no maintenance and features lowest cost of ownership.
For large electronic boards there is now an even more powerful IR underheater module. With a peak power of 4.8 kW this infrared area can quickly heat up huge populated PCBs and maintain a constant temperature during the rework operation.
Since the quality and reliability of reworked assemblies depends on thorough treatment, the new system is expected to prove itself invaluable for high density and high value assemblies. Featuring, among others, a newly designed placement arm, patented high-precision IR heating and the next generation of thermal profiling software, “the system is faster than its forerunners and ahead of competitors’ comparable rework units, and there is no equivalent in this price range”, Bernhard Martin believes.
(Gerhard B. Wolski)
EPP Europe 414
