Yamaha Motor Europe SMT becomes member of 3D MID Research Association

Yamaha Motor Europe SMT section joined the German Forschungsvereinigung 3D MID e.V. in April 2020 to contribute to the industrialization of molded interconnect device (MID) technology. The company brings 36 years of experience in robotics and SMT equipment, currently built into the Yamaha S20 3D hybrid modular machine, to enhance MID process automation.

Since 2018, the Japanese market for 3D MID products has been growing rapidly from prototype into mass production and the company’s experience in manufacturing with the S20 3D MID machine has become the main standard for this production process in the Japanese market.

The unique integration of a 3D robot manipulator in a standard pick and place machine makes it possible to integrate two production steps into one machine. After applying conductive adhesives and/or solder paste, this machine mounts components in a single process step. The Yamaha S20 machine has a hybrid head with one or more dispense units next to several pick and place heads for mounting the SMT components, all in a single unit. The 3D platform allows easy programming, which simplifies and accelerates prototyping as well as mass production.

In the 3D MID Research Association, the company will contribute to the further development of the final assembly process and the industrialization of next-generation 3D MID products.