UK based, Paddy Ash, is the new European Sales Manager for performance related SMT equipment enhancements, and productivity solutions provider, Ovation Products. In this interview he talks to EPP Europe about his plans for the company and their award winning new products introduced this year.
Firstly, congratulations on your appointment – can you tell us a little about your background and where you are based?
I am based at Weymouth in Dorset, near where I carried out my apprenticeship with the Ministry of Defence in Electronics. This involved working with the DRA – Defence Research Agency at Portland on the development of sonar rays on submarines and subsequent sea trials. In 1993 I joined DEK where I gained the experience which is invaluable to me in my current position. I steered my career path from shop floor to Electronics Engineer, to Product Management, where I assisted with the design and release of all of the flagship printers that DEK developed over a period of 10 years, and then to Platform Manager for the last three years. I now welcome the challenge of moving into a sales role within the industry, bringing with me extensive knowledge of the overall production line and what engineers are trying to achieve from their equipment and the problems they face. I can therefore work with them to introduce the benefits of Ovation’s products, where and how they fit into the production line and why they have enormous value.
What territories will you cover?
My primary focus right now is Europe.
What are your short and long term goals for the company?
My short term goal is to further establish our distributor network in Europe and the sales tools we have in place to support this. Grid-Lok is perhaps our most well known product, but there are still territories and applications we can penetrate further, so my long term aim is to address new opportunities in Europe and Russia. Our primary sales focus in Europe has largely been on screen printers and so sales have predominately come from printers. However, there is a large pick and place market out there that could also benefit greatly from this product, so I will also be addressing this to increase business in this area.
So what is Grid-Lok and when was it developed?
Demand for quick-change techniques in PCB assembly and the increasing complexity of circuit boards does not leave many options in regard to supporting the substrate during the solder printing and component placement operation. Simply there is not much available real estate on the board to allow for conventional tooling methods and there is always a potential to damage components if there is not enough support underneath the board. Grid-Lok was developed six years ago to address this and initially it was a challenge to convince manufacturers this was a safe and reliable method. Today companies have not only embraced it, they often mandate it, because Grid-Lok is an extremely effective PCB support tooling system with approximately 3,000 systems sold worldwide.
If the product has been in use with screen printers and pick & place machines for six years, are there any plans to develop it?
An Ovation product is continually evolving, driven by changing industry requirements and typically we will re-visit the design of our products every eighteen months to two years. For pick and place systems the current Grid-Lok tooling system is the best solution. However, with screen printing there can be quite a high pressure placed on the board, so if it can bend or move during the operation then the quality of print is badly affected by that movement. With Ovations’ policy of continuous improvement the next development for this product is high density HD Grid-Lok, designed specifically for screen printers to further address the issue of printer support.
Because HD Grid-Lok is conformal it doesn’t matter what you are trying to support, the pins will come up and account for the variations in that surface, whatever that surface might be and provide support under every part of the board.
Ovation launched Smart-stencil this year, what is new about this product and why was there a need to develop it?
Smart-stencil was developed to provide a flexible solution for the dispensing process. Basically it enables a manufacturer to re-use a printing machine as a dispenser for short runs, prototyping and development work.
How does Smart-stencil work?
Smart-stencil is a three-axis gantry robot, fitted with a fluid dispense head that was designed into the exact envelope of a 736 mm x 736 mm (29 ” x 29 ”) SMT stencil. The whole unit is the same 38 mm (1.5 ”) height as a stencil, and it is lightweight so that it can be managed easily by an operator. The challenge was in fitting all of the robot components into such a small area without compromising the features that an operator would expect in an automated dispenser.
We incorporated high torque servo motors, servo drives, a motion control card and other elements into the chassis of the dispenser. The operator simply inserts the robot into the stencil area of the printer, connects the interface cable to the host PC and the installation is complete. Next, the operator imports the PCB image file from a number of formats (including Gerber, Excellon and many other image files), plots the dispense points and runs the program. It really is very simple. We are now developing a docking station for the robot so that it may also be used as a stand-alone offline dispenser. Additionally, we have plans to add low-volume pick and place and product identification capabilities, such as ink-jet printing and laser marking to the Smart-stencil line.
Will Smart-stencil work with any printer?
It currently works with any DEK platform and we are working on integrating it with other OEMs later this year. It has been demonstrated at several exhibitions since its launch at APEX, when it won the SMT VISION Award in the category of Dispensing Equipment and it has continued to be extremely well received. This is an excellent technology and clearly demonstrates Ovation’s aim to remain at the forefront of technological development.
What is the ‘Stinger’ system?
The next natural development for ‘Smart-stencil’ is the Stinger, which will be launched at Productronica this year. Instead of being integrated into the stencil, with Stinger the dispenser will be integrated on the camera beam of the printer so it dispenses via the camera beam. Operation and programming is all carried out within the printers user interface. This will offer customers a higher degree of flexibility on their production line as they will be able to use the printer as a printer and still carry on dispensing after the printer process – rather than having to convert a printer to a dispenser. The whole assembly is intended to be retrofitable to the printer in less than two hours. Initially it has been developed to fit seamlessly into the current DEK range of in-line printers. But other manufacturers will be possible towards the end of 2008
Ovation has also launched the Magna-Print squeegee blade holder this year, what are the features of this product?
Magna-Print was designed for the global screen printing market and is suitable for both high and low product changeover requirements. The product won the SMT Vision Award in the category of assembly tools and is very different from conventional squeegee holders as our new blade holding system uses magnets to locate and fix the squeegee blade to the holder. The holding force is strong enough to hold the blade securely under any conditions, with no possibility for it to demagnetise, yet it releases easily for quick changeovers.
The unit has no holes or crevasses, unlike traditional designs where solder or adhesives can accumulate. This makes the unit extremely easy to clean and eliminates the possibility of cross-contamination in sensitive lead-free environments. The holders will accept any blade length up to 450 mm (18 ”) and the kit has adapters for 45 ° and 60 ° blade angles.
What printers will Magna-Print fit?
Currently the Magna-Print system will fit MPM, EKRA and DEK printers. This covers almost all of our European and North American markets, but we do plan to fit most other brands by the end of this year. We have had a huge amount of interest in the product and we have several evaluation kits in Europe and North America.
So, what next for Ovation?
We are constantly looking at the issues and concerns of high scale manufacturing to see how and where our products can be best utilised and developed to suit these markets. The SMT industry is moving so fast and is becoming increasingly more complex, smaller and faster. The component and handling considerations are also getting tougher and we will be working to ensure that we always stay one step ahead so that our products are the very best for this market.
Productronica, Stand A4.431
EPP Europe 407
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