High-speed combined with capacity-on-demand

Günter Lauber, Siplace CEO explains the strategy of the Munich-based company: „We don’t want to sugarcoat anything. Last year was very challenging for everybody in the industry. But we handled it differently than other equipment suppliers. We realized that our customers are facing new challenges today, and we as the Siplace team want to supply them with answers. With the Siplace SX, capacity-on-demand and our innovative performance rental offerings, we already developed completely new solutions last year. And we continue along this path during the SMT trade show and we will certainly bring more innovations during 2010.”

Small and medium-sized European manufacturers in particular now need machine concepts that are able to manage challenges: for instance, rapid product changeover and small lots with consistent placement accuracy. With its Siplace SX1 and Siplace SX2 and their rail-mounted changeable gantries, Siplace has offered a new dimension in scalability for several months now. By adding or removing a gantry, users can adapt the performance of their machines to their current requirements within minutes.

Since their introduction the Siplace SX+, Siplace SX1 and Siplace SX2 machines have quickly become the bestsellers in Siplace’s product portfolio and more than 50 machines have been sold only within the last two months in Europe. „With our innovative Siplace SX technologies and our capacity-on-demand business models, we provided the right answers to the industry in the middle of the downturn. Especially our European customers focus mostly on scalability and flexibility, and this is where the Siplace SX1 and Siplace SX2 are definitely the best in the market. Now that the economy is recovering again, more and more electronics manufacturers are also asking for a SX machine that can handle high volume with great performance. I am really proud to say, that our latest innovation, the Siplace SX4 closes this gap and adds the high speed factor to the Siplace SX,” says Petra Klein-Gunnewigk, the responsible Siplace SX4 product manager, about the positioning of the latest member of the SX family.

The Siplace SX4 sets new standards in floor space performance. With its four gantries, the new model achieves best-in-class floorspace performance placing up to 120,000 cph with only 1.90 x 2.65 m. In addition to the super-fast Siplace CP20 heads, the Siplace SX4 accepts Siplace Multistar CPP heads and Siplace TwinHeads and thus also offers great flexibility. For some smaller producers and in prototype manufacturing, a single Siplace SX4 can also function as an extremely compact machine.

In most cases, the Siplace SX4 will be used as a high-speed machine at the beginning of larger SX lines. To enhance the overall line’s flexibility in addition to its performance, Siplace will present several software functionalities at this year’s SMT trade show. For example, SX lines can be operated in i-Placement mode in the future. Lines with dual conveyors can be programmed in such a way that the products on a specific track will be populated only by the placement heads on the respective side. The benefits are two-fold: Since the gantries and heads have to travel less, the line operates faster, and the feeder positions on both sides can be assigned to specific tracks and products. With this feature, two completely different products can be processed side-by-side on the same line.

Downloading placement programs station-by-station is another new option. In connection with barcode and ink dot whispering, the process locking required for product changeovers can be executed even if the previous product is still being processed farther down the line.

Other setup strategies focus on accelerating product changeovers even further. With the Constant Feeder Table option, for example, the Siplace software groups feeders with components for multiple setups on a single table. As a result more constant feeder tables can remain on the line and hence, the setup effort during product changeovers is reduced significantly.

The capabilities of a complete Siplace SX line consisting of the high speed SX4 and the capacity-on-demand Siplace SX2, SX1 and SX+ are enhanced further by the new Siplace Multistar CPP head. Controlled by the placement program, the Siplace Multistar switches on-the-fly between three placement modes: Pick & Place, Collect & Place, and Mixed mode. Thanks to this switching capability, it can place up to 23,000 components per hour in sizes ranging from 01005 to 50 x 40 mm – an unprecedented spectrum for a single placement head.

With the Siplace SX, changeable gantries equipped with CPP heads can be positioned anywhere on the line – as high-speed heads at the beginning of the line or as flexible end-of-line heads at the end.

In addition to the brand new Siplace SX4, the Siplace team has continued to add new features to the Siplace SX1 and SX2 and developed new capacity-on-demand investment models in order to offer electronics manufacturers even more flexibility.

For many electronics manufacturers, their equipment is equivalent to the proverbial “millstone around the neck” in the current crisis. As sales collapse, the SMT lines sit idle, but they continue to tie up capital, and their high monthly financing or leasing rates reduce their liquidity. At the SMT/Hybrid/Packaging 2010, the Siplace team presents solutions to this challenge on the basis of the new SX-Series with its capacity-on-demand concept.

Instead of buying or leasing more placement machines, the electronics manufacturer can now scale up his production capacity by renting SX gantries. And when the sales decrease, he simply returns the gantries to Siplace and thereby releasing the required liquidity. Siplace offers two rental models as part of its capacity-on-demand concept: Siplace Peak Performance and Siplace Floating Performance.

The Siplace Peak Performance model is ideal for short-term demand peaks and seasonal fluctuations. The electronics manufacturer rents additional SX gantries for periods ranging from one to four months, thus ramping up the performance of his Siplace SX line quickly and easily.

This service is the answer to a previously unavoidable dilemma for electronics manufacturers: He is no longer forced to invest in placement lines with performance that will be fully utilized for only a few months, nor does he have to turn additional orders down or pass them on to third-party manufacturers because he doesn’t have sufficient capacity.

The Siplace Floating Performance models were designed to cushion intermediate-term demand cycles. The electronics manufacturer buys one or more Siplace SX+ machines, which are essentially SX machines without gantries. Instead of the gantries, he receives a number of vouchers that entitle him to rent a gantry for one quarter from Siplace. The advantage, which will satisfy the commercial officer: the rental costs for the gantries will not become due until they are actually needed and the vouchers are redeemed. The initial capital investment for the SMT line is considerably less and the placement performance can be scaled in line with demand.

Particularly now that the worst of the crisis seems to be over and demand is on the rise again, the Siplace capacity-on-demand Floating Performance model allows electronics manufacturers benefit from lower initial purchase costs.

With its Rent Performance models, Siplace accepts some of the risk as its customers’ technology partner. Siplace CEO Günter Lauber explains the basic idea behind these innovative business models: „If the electronics manufacturer is unable to predict his future placement capacity requirements, which seems to be the rule these days, renting gantries with Siplace Rent Performance offerings provides a great opportunity for him to protect his liquidity. I am certain in future we must establish even more intelligent financing models and more strategic partnerships. I believe that we need more innovations like that, including more than just new technology in the future.”

SMT/Hybrid/Packaging Booth 7-204

Das Siplace-Team hat schon im letzten Jahr mit Siplace SX und dem Capacity-on-Demand-Konzept ein völlig neues Maschinenkonzept für die höchste Flexibilität fordernde Branche der Baugruppenfertiger vorgestellt – auf dem Höhepunkt der weltweiten Finanzkrise. Auf der diesjährigen Fachmesse SMT präsentiert Siplace nun erneut eine Innovation: Nürnberg ist der Schauplatz für die Weltpremiere von Siplace SX4.

L’année dernière déjà, au point culminant de la crise financière mondiale, l’équipe de Siplace faisait sensation avec Siplace SX et le concept de capacité sur demande (Capacity-on-demand), ouvrant ainsi la voie à un concept de machine radicalement nouveau pour la branche des entreprises EMS particulièrement soumises aux exigences de la flexibilité. A l’occasion de l’édition 2010 du salon professionnel SMT, Siplace présente une nouvelle innovation : Nuremberg sera le théâtre de la révélation mondiale de Siplace SX4.