To create and utilize advantages in a highly competitive industrial environment, a company should very carefully listen to its customers, and respond rapidly to their needs and requirements. For the Belgian electronics manufacturer E.D.&A. (Electronics, Development & Assembly) these are the basic obligations in their acting. Since 2012, the company, known for its reliable and innovative control modules, has employed an automated, state-of-the-art production line fitted with top equipment delivered by carefully selected machine companies.
The second-tier supplier E.D.&A. designs and manufactures customer-specific electronic control units for their numerous clients in the consumer and industrial application areas. The perfect partner for their patrons, the third-party service provider places the highest merits on close cooperation and a comprehensive exchange of professional expertise with partners. For the effective production of the electronic control modules the EMS company installed modern top-class equipment delivered by renowned machine suppliers and supported by competent local representatives in order to fulfill the customers’ requirements for very high quality and flexibility.
Perfect control units delivered at the appropriate location and at the exact time
Starting with a new project, the specifications for a control module are characterized in close cooperation with the customers’ personnel so the company‘s design specialists are able to develop and manufacture a stable and powerful control unit for a particular product. “At the beginning of our business we didn‘t manufacture in-house”, explains managing director Gert D’Handschotter. “Rather we relied upon manufacturing service providers (EMS companies) in Belgium and Romania. However, we encountered serious production capacity shortages and also the quality of the electronic controls was questionable. All in all, these issues were the forward-pressing reasons for our decision to move the production in-house where we now manufacture more than 80 % of our goods.” Another important benefit is the utilization of synergies between the design and production stages.
“Now we are in the advantageous position”, the managing director proceeds, “to factor in our know-how from the production floor in the design process immediately.” This has already been proven and has shown positive results in the manufacturing process. For example, a remote control which was built in a time-consuming manual through-hole procedure before is now the object for the automated surface mount technology. This leads not only to better, more reliable products with higher quality, but also the manufacturing costs are lower, accompanied by higher flexibility.
Prior to the installation of the machines in the automated manufacturing line in the city of Kalmthout in October 2012, a series of benchmark procedures, selections and decisions were necessary. After all, the remarkable investment has to result in the best possible production solution. Beginning in the time frame of Productronica 2011, the machines were intensely evaluated and tested hands-on. And at the same time, the position of the production manager could be filled with a much experienced electronics expert who turns out to be a stroke of luck. His knowledge has reportedly been already very useful during the benchmark and selection procedures of the equipment. Another important criterion was the availability of the machines from closely located suppliers in order to receive swift support should it be necessary.
The machine line completed this way consists now of the stencil printer Ersa Versaprint, assembly machine Fuji Aimex, Ersa Hotflow reflow and Versaflow selective soldering machines, Nordson Dage X-ray inspection system Jade and hybrid rework station Ersa HR 600. In order to automatize the human visual inspection, a Saki 3D in-line AOI system was installed later in summer 2015. And to date, a Takaya in-line flying prober is being tested in the Belgian production line for possible later implementation. Tom Berx, Ersa Area Sales Manager Soldering Systems & Printing Machines together with the Belgian equipment representative SMANS NV is the man of the very first hour in cooperating with these benchmarks and installations, and he also takes care of the installed Ersa machines. “With the closely located and excellent service of SMANS NV we are in best hands”, underlined E.D.&A.’s managing director Gert D’Handschotter. “Since the start of the production line our lead time could be minimized by 64 %, and the quality of our products could be raised by a factor of 10 compared to the outsourcing practiced before. Earlier, for prototyping we needed some 17 days, now we are able to manufacture and test one prototype within 2 or 3 days.” In addition to the comprehensive range of test and inspection equipment the company also operates an EMC lab and a climatic chamber.
Innovative equipment supports innovative processes
Versaprint S1 2D: This Ersa stencil printer features a 100 % post-print control facilitated by the integrated line camera with parallel processing of print and inspection data and therefore delivers a superior and fast print and solder paste inspection (SPI) performance for in-line configurations. The line scan technology enables the accurate registration of the PCB before print and the following precise inspection of the complete layout. Paste print, print offset, solder bridges, smeared and blocked apertures are detected with production line speed. Other main features are: very fast set-up using a line scan camera; a flexible accommodation mechanism for stencils up to 740 mm; print format up to 700 x 500 mm. The very simple operation and user interface that complies with the SEMI standard, the closed-loop squeegee head and the automated stencil underside cleaning, all these features highlight the superior system capabilities. Even more necessary options and features can be easily retrofitted in the field.
Hotflow 3/14e: The highly energy-efficient 7-zones reflow machine offers a long 4m process zone and its application focuses on high throughput and maximum flexibility. And it shows best heat transfer characteristics for a huge variety of different PCB assemblies and ensures minimum soldering costs. In its design, economically and technologically proven engineering solutions have been ideally combined, taken from a broad basis of expertise. The design targets were high reliability and availability, as well as easy and fast maintenance and cleaning. The reflow oven features a premium PLC control and a Windows PC supplies the user interface. The user-friendly visualization function allows easy programming and access to all operation and process data. The record of the soldering operations is organized according to ZVEI reference in order to provide the best conditions for traceability, and a double-track conveyor can push forth the throughput. Even more advantages are provided by the optimized heath transfer, the minimum delta t, stringent separation of the single zones, internal cooling, reduced energy consumption, removal of the heating modules from the top or underside and the low-mass board support.
Versaflow 3/45: A modular high-end machine platform for selective soldering in highly productive in-line manufacturing concepts. The oven contains a double track conveyor in the fluxing, preheat and soldering sections. Because of the highly modular character and the practically unlimited configuration freedom the foot print can be remarkably reduced with regard to possible throughput and can meet outstanding requirements for process and throughput. It is a superior selective soldering system for very high quality gains, besides the remarkable cost reductions. During the process accurate control of the process is possible due to the design of the soldering nozzle and solder pot. All dynamic and static parameters such as solder level, wave height and temperature are continually monitored and can be traced back easily.
The low-maintenance electromagnetically driven solder pump has no moving parts, provides a constant flow rate and allows the exact adjustment of wave height. Perfect and reliably repeatable solder joints are the result, including full documentation of all single process parameters. Programmable precision spray heads with integrated automatic spray control apply the flux in dots or lines. Even minor solder joint diameters in the size of 3 mm can be reliably and precisely supplied with flux, and the exact spray jet minimizes flux consumption and ionic contamination. The system combines different heating technologies featuring short-wave IR heating on the board’s underside and additional top-side preheaters, ensuring high flexibility in the preheating process and providing benefits for the soldering of board assemblies with high mass. If the size of the board assembly permits, the energy-efficient preheaters can be segmented, and this feature will further increase throughput. By parallel processing via the separation of fluxing, preheating and soldering modules the cycle time can be drastically reduced. For working with different alloys a soldering module can accommodate two solder pots, likewise two different formulations can be stored in the fluxing unit. This allows the highest possible flexibility in processing of a large variety of board assemblies down to batch size one, ensuring a minimum machine footprint. With this highly modular concept up to 22 boards can be soldered using six solder pots and four flux heads in parallel at the same time. To date, this provides the highest throughput rate of any comparable system currently on the market, and the amortization period is rather short.
Secure process control with the monitoring of all the relevant processes, as well as the improved accessibility from the front and back offer even more additional value to the users. The CAD-Assistant ensures fast and simple off-line programming during the normal operating cycles. The machine software Versasoft continually monitors all process parameters, displays them on the screen, saves the data for recording and provides the link to traceability systems for process control.
HR 600: The high-end hybrid rework system is ideal for the automated repair of board assemblies. Practically all high-pincount devices mounted on today‘s electronics modules can be securely processed. This universal rework system provides positioning, lift-off and the exactly defined placing of components and the appropriate high-level soldering procedure focused on the automation of the single process steps. Every step can be controlled by the operator or combined to an automated sequence. The homogeneous, highly dynamic large-area IR underside heating is equipped with 3 heating zones (800 W each). A hybrid emitter (2 x 400 W) on the top unites infrared and convection for the precise and efficient temperature treatment of every device. The result are quick and exact soldering and desoldering procedures.
Strong and safeguarded investments
In the past, E.D.&A. invested heavily in a top-class machinery range featuring among others full in-line X-ray inspection routines of every board, and the comprehensive digitalization of production with traceability down to component level. The social innovation and environmental friendliness are also of outstanding value. With the realization of these challenging objectives the company is among the top electronics manufacturing companies in Belgium and has just received the “Factory of the Future Award 2016”, which is based on an initiative of the Belgian technology association Agoria and Sirris, the collective center for the technology industry. Gert D’Handschotter has every reason to be proud of the award. “Cooperations are crucial in the high-tech context we are part of, not only across the different departments with their many employees but also with our national and offshore partners and customers. This leads to new and innovative ideas and eventually groundbreaking projects which enable high-volume manufacturing even in Belgium. In addition to our own expertise and excellent production automation we see important values in first-time-right for high work efficiency, lean product development and environmental sustainability.” In the self-defined role of the external electronics department of their customers, E.D.&A. has been able to grow its business by a factor of 5 within the last 12 years. “But not to be forgotten, a factory of the future can only be realized with the outstanding commitment of highly motivated employees”, Gert D’Handschotter sums up. (dj)
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