At this year‘s SMT Hybrid Packaging trade fair, Viscom AG unveiled a design for versatile in-line x-ray inspection, which has now entered initial production. The development of the X8068 SL inspection system was based on the requirements of electronics manufacturers that produce in-line larger printed circuit boards, various power electronics and massive components, especially for the growing mobility market. This production demands a highly precise, nondestructive x-ray inspection that inspects an entire bandwidth of inspection objects quickly and reliably.
The inspection system features impressive versatility: Conceived for seamless integration into in-line production, the inspection objects are automatically fed in and out of the x-ray inspection system from the side within the shortest cycle times. This involves transfer via an external conveyor system. The multitude of ways to handle samples results from five axes, enabling serial inspection of highly assembled, larger and massive parts without any problems.
In order to cover the largest possible inspection area, the detector axis can be swiveled in the system. With its additional large front window, the X8068 SL also permits manual loading for special inspection tasks, such as prototype inspection or random sample analysis. Overall, with this x-ray system, the company offers a universal, highly flexible solution for multifaceted and comprehensive inspection requirements. Converting from in-line transport to the manual inspection option takes less than 15 minutes.
Standard features on the system include an open microfocus x-ray tube and a flat screen image detector, to deliver the highest resolution and detail recognition in first-class image quality. Thanks to a maximum geometric magnification of 2500x, even the tiniest defective structures are detected during the x-ray inspection. The x-ray tube permits genuine real-time inspection and scores points with a longer service life, meaning very low operating costs.
The user-friendly IPS monitor depicts the x-ray results in the best quality, independent of viewing angle. Comprehensive automatic analysis functions greatly streamline system operation, so that any object is inspected – manually, semi-automatically or automatically – with high speed and precision. With the X8068 SL, the company offers a unique inspection scope. In addition to the SI software for fully automatic x-ray analysis of electronic assemblies, the system also provides the XMC software for manual and semi-automatic special inspections or inspection of special components as a second inspection concept.
Customers in the electronics sector also profit from the Quality Uplink that yields information from which optimization approaches for production control can be derived. The Quality Uplink merges the data from the solder paste inspection, AOI and x-ray system to realize simplified classification and clear identification of real defects. This means production success can be consistently increased, and thanks to the company’s statistical process control (vSPC), traceably recorded.
