The availability of cost effective and skilled labour has made India a major hub for electronics manufacturing, and the need to address increasing electronics consumption has made manufacturers go in for highly advanced surface mount technology (SMT) equipment. An increase in production of electronic products directly influences the sale of SMT equipment, hence, in the last few years, dozens of SMT companies have entered the Indian market.
By Srabani Sen
Friday, February, 02, 2011: The steady growth of the SMT equipment market is bolstered by the demand from various end user sectors such as communications, consumer durables, industrial production, automotive, medical and defence/strategic electronics—areas in which the use of electronics is on the rise. The mobile revolution is also necessitating the indigenous manufacture of various telecom products such as handsets, base stations, modems and VoIP phones, thus, creating demand for SMT equipment. The automotive industry, too, is replacing its legacy equipment with SMT equipment to improve efficiency in the production process.
“The most SMT machines sold in India recently have been in the telecom sector, to produce mobile phones and network equipment,” says Ashutosh Agate, managing director, Agate & Agate Marketing Resources (I) Pvt Ltd. Adds N Chandramohan, country head (SMT division), Juki India Pvt Ltd, “We have seen some growth coming from small EMS companies, and from the lighting and consumer electronics sectors.”
However, Suresh Nair, director, sales and marketing, Leaptech Corporation, feels that SMT machine sales is spread across all categories, but the sectors which invested in the most machines are the lighting and automotive industries.
“In 2010, we sold Fuji machines in the telecom, lighting, automotive, specialised electronics and EMS industry segments,” says SP Arora, senior business manager, NMTronics India Pvt Ltd.
Demand driven advances
Used for the production of printed circuit boards (PCBs) through surface mount technique, SMT equipment consist of a broad range of machines—PCB magazine loaders and unloaders, stencil printers, chip shooters, IC placers, link conveyors, reflow ovens, etc.
Recently, there has been a demand in the industry for high precision complex boards and assemblies. At the same time, there is constant pressure to increase the quality of the goods produced, aiming for zero defects. To be able to manage this, manufacturers need to have the right SMT equipment, which will enable fast, flexible and hi-precision production of PCBs.
To compete with international products, Indian companies using SMT machines have to be careful while selecting the latest technology. Their choice should be based on what their business plans are, what segment they cater to, and their budget for SMT machines.
A wide range of SMT machines is available today, with throughputs as high as 25,000-45,000 components per hour (CPH), and with mount precision as good as 30 microns. High speed changeover facilities, intelligent tape feeders and conveyors, 5 mega pixel inline inspection systems, high speed and high resolution automatic optical inspection (AOI) systems, soldering robots, automatic high speed printers with 12 second cycle time and 10 micron repeatable accuracies at fine pitch, apart from six channel profiler packs for reflows—these are some examples of the latest technology available today.
In order to cater to the demands of the manufacturers, SMT equipment is undergoing non-stop technical advancements, and some significant trends that have been observed in the field are—increased parallelisation and flexibility, high levels of software integration, environment friendly machines for RoHS based production, machines that can handle smaller components at a faster speed, and small yet intelligent systems.
With the continuous evolution of electronics manufacturing processes, SMT equipment vendors are also upgrading their products and offering cost effective high technology solutions, while providing value added services to their customers. These are a major differentiator in the SMT market, and naturally, a major selection criterion for customers.
So let’s peep into the SMT machine market in India to see what’s currently hot and happening.
NEW MACHINES IN THE MARKET
SPEED AND FLEXIBILITY: The need of the hour
SMT machines that simultaneously pick and place all components on a board are considered the fastest. But in this day and age, speed alone does not suffice; the electronics manufacturing processes need much more flexibility in order to enhance performance, reduce inventories and introduce new products. Hence, what’s available today are SMT machines that adopt an optimal balance of simultaneous and sequential operations—for example, the simultaneous picking of components and their sequential placement to enable flexibility and customisation. Machine manufacturers are also customising the pick and place process in order to achieve the right mix of flexibility and speed.
NMTronics’s Fuji NXTII is a good example of flexibility. Its placement head can be changed to suit different production requirements. The machine can handle the complete range of components—from the smallest 0402 mm (0105 inch) to 74 x 74 mm or 32 x 180 mm.
Agate & Agate Marketing Resources offers Evest’s (from Taiwan based Evest Corporation) pick and place machine—EM 760L, with a 1200 mm long PCB handling capability; hence, it is suitable for any EMS company, particularly for LED tubelight production. Launched in India in December 2010, this machine has a theoretical speed of 18,000 CPH, and a practical speed of 13,000 CPH (IPC 9850). “This machine is the most competitively priced in the Indian market, and is used for various LED placement applications. It is extremely easy to operate and maintain, and ensures easy adaptability for even new entrants into the PCB assembly business,” opines Ashutosh Agate.
Leaptech Corporation’s latest offer—the Yamaha group’s multi-mounter placement system called M6ez (I-Pulse of Japan), can pick and place SMD components very accurately at a rated speed of 25,700 CPH. This model was launched in October 2010. “This feature makes this machine suitable for PCB assembly in any sector. It is typically a maintenance free machine and its price starts from US$ 75,000,” informs Suresh Nair.
Launched in November 2010, the QM3000, which is a low to mid volume flexible SMT mounter from Prosem Technology India (P) Ltd, has a speed of up to 3,500 CPH. “This pick and place machine is suitable for segments like LED lighting, prototyping of all products, industrial electronics, telecom, etc. The main advantage of this new machine over its previous version is its low price and high flexibility, and it is virtually maintenance free,” says Alok Gupta, director, Prosem Technology.
Prosem also offers Evest’s mid-volume flexible range of SMT mounters—EM series—which has a speed of up to 18,000 CPH. “Its affordable price, high accuracy and flexibility make this machine suitable for segments like LED lighting, industrial electronics, telecom, automotive, consumer and medical electronics.
Juki has also recently launched two high speed chip shooters—the FX 3 and JX 100. FX3 places all passive components and has the flexibility to place components up to 33 mm sq at a speed of 74000 CPH. “Economically priced, these chip shooters are particularly used in the lighting industry with a high throughput (19400 CPH) and longer PCB capability (800 x 360). These machines are faster, more accurate, and have new software features,” points out Chandramohan.
SCALABILITY: An important need
Most top players provide modular SMT equipment, which gives you the flexibility to scale up the SMT line as and when required. With Assembleon’s A series solution, you can simply hire additional ultra compact robot heads to handle any temporary boosts in production with the same machine.
Essemtec AG’s Paraquda is also a modular automatic inline machine, which is a standalone pick and place system as well. It combines four machines in one—a chip placer, a fine pitch placer, an odd shaped component placer and a dispensing machine. Its throughput is 12,000 CPH, and it is suitable for PCBs of 470 x 600 mm. “The machine is not only scalable but also has a capacity of up to 240 feeders, and its changeover is without any downtime,” says Jay Kumar, chief operating officer, Essemtec Asia.
Agate & Agate’s EM 760L can handle high brightness and high power LEDs, and can be configured to function as a versatile multi-function SMT mounter. Even after attaching the auto tray changer unit, this machine has 80 feeder slots of 8 mm, and in the absence of the auto tray changer unit, it can take up to 120 feeders of 8 mm. It can handle SMD from 0201 to 45×45 mm sq IC/BGA, as well as odd form devices.
Fuji NXTII also exhibits true scalability. The machine can be reconfigured at the manufacturing site for changing requirements. “For example, if we need to limit the capacity, we can add only one or two modules to suit the requirement,” explains SP Arora.
QUICK CHANGEOVER: The need for cost cutting
In this age, when everyone is competing to cut down on production costs, if a machine stays idle even for a second, money is lost. Therefore, machines should ideally support the offline setting up and programming of feeders while the machine is still running, so that the changeover can be very swift. Also, to keep costs within control and to enable uninterrupted production, SMT equipment, including placement tools and screen printers, should ideally support high speed changeover.
There are two changeover strategies commonly used in machines—one is to retrofit only the required changes, and the other is to treat the change as a completely new setup to ensure the optimised position of the feeders.
“All Juki machines work on the concept of 3E—expandable, easy to use and economical. Our machines are the most flexible modular mounters, and the changeover takes just a few minutes due to the trolley changeover system,” says Ashutosh Agate. These machines can be programmed while an existing production run is on, through an external programming unit (EPU), or through a host line computer (HLC), where multiple machines can be programmed and optimised.
Component reel replenishment can be done in Leaptech’s M6ez through the ‘reel splicing’ method while the machine is running. “This machine also offers offline programming of software so that all new programs could be made offline while the machine is being used for production,” informs Suresh Nair.
Quick changeover is also possible in Fuji NXTII, offered by NMTronics. It can perform a changeover while the machine is running, with no need to stop the machine.
Assembleon AX Plateform (AX301, AX 501, AX201) is another good example of a machine that offers high speed changeover. With its feeders on the trolleys, you can have additional sets of trolleys and feeders, and the machine can also quickly push the carts for a new program. “For family setups, we can have bar code triggered rolling changeovers. This means that there is a bar code scanner at the beginning of the machine which keeps scanning the PCBs. Once the specified lot of PCBs are put in the machine, it starts mounting them with the corresponding programs,” points out Alok Gupta.
ACCURACY: Keeping pace with new technology
With electronic components getting smaller and smaller, SMT equipment is also becoming more capable of not just handling these components but also placing them accurately and close together, so that more components can be packed into a smaller space. The current trend is towards component size capability of 0201 and 01005, and a mount precision of around 30 microns. Companies like Assembleon have machines capable of 20 microns, operating with 3 sigma accuracy. Because of its accurate mounting of bare dies and package-on-package, AX Plateform is also suitable for semiconductor applications.
Juki’s FX 3 and JX 100 can handle 01005 components, which only require special feeders and nozzles. “We have unique software called OPASS, which can correctly place components if the printing is offset. This facility is unique to Juki machines. Our flexible mounters can place at a very high accuracy pitch of up to 20 microns with 3 sigma accuracy levels. We have very high resolution cameras, apart from a standard camera to place such components,” explains Chandramohan. FX 3 and JX 100 come equipped with 1 micron linear scales to ensure the reliable and accurate placement of components.
While Leaptech’s M6ez has a placement accuracy of 25 micron on 3 sigma + µ, Fuji NXTII can cater to accuracy requirements of up to 18 micron on 5 sigma, which makes it suitable for semiconductor applications as well.
SUPERFINE PRINTING: Speed and reliability
An SMT printer is designed to provide the accuracy needed for applying solder paste to PCBs for SMT production. Printing accuracy, speed and cost of ownership are the main challenges facing the screen printing market today. High speed, automatic printers with a 12 second cycle time and 10 micron repeatable accuracies at fine pitch, represent the current technology.
Specialised high and low volume printers are available in the market today. Models such as Panasonic’s SMT screen printers include the options of high speed, multi-snap-off and support snap-off to give users the flexibility to realise both SMT screen printing and superfine pitch printing. Customisability is an important feature of the current generation printers.
Essemtec AG’s Tucano is a fully automatic inline printer, which optimally combines the requirements of quality and accuracy with speed and reliability. Due to its flexibility, the Tucano can be adapted perfectly to virtually every print task. Also, customer specific solutions can be realised within a short period of time. “The equipment is highly flexible, offers the lowest cost of ownership, as well as a full range of features for state of the art SMT manufacturing,” says Jay Kumar.
QUALITY INSPECTION: The norm of the day
The SMT production process ensures quality of the end products. Monitoring, therefore, starts from the design stage itself, on to assembly, soldering and to printing. Advanced inline inspection systems, especially high speed and high resolution automatic optical inspection (AOI) systems, are the norm today. AOI systems are used to inspect PCBs after the assembly is done.
State of the art AOI systems include capabilities to inspect 01005 components, high speed, pre-and post-reflow inspection capabilities, advanced vision technologies, apart from the ability to inspect any component or feature such as chips, ICs, empty locations, lead free solder joints, clips and screws.
A player that has recently entered the country is ViTechnology—one of the biggest firms in the AOI business. ViTechnology is known for high end products in the AOI segment. Leaptech Corporation’s principal Omron (Japan) makes an AOI machine called VT-RNS-II—an ideal inspection system for PCB assembly. Introduced in India in November 2010, this new model has been patented for its colour highlighting technology. It can accurately inspect all SMD components, solder quality, etc, in any circumstances—after solder paste printing, after component placement, or after reflow soldering. Hence, it is suitable for any sector. Its price starts from US$ 45,000 for a tabletop unit.
NMTronics’ new offer, Koh Young 3D solder paste inspection machine, which is used to inspect and measure solder paste volume after paste printing and before component placement, is patented for 100 per cent 3D volume measurement. “The machine is one of the best, offering high speeds, with a low cost of ownership, and a short programming time,” explains SP Arora. It helps catch printing defects as early as possible to boost yields and end product quality. This also prevents unnecessary rework and higher per piece production costs.
GREEN IS THE COLOUR
As ‘green’ manufacturing gains currency, customers are looking for environment friendly and energy efficient SMT equipment, which also meets with directives such as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). As a result, there is a range of equipment that is suitable for lead free production. For example, SMT filters that survive higher solder reflow temperature profiles to make PCBs RoHS compliant are considered as green machines. Many SMT players like Leaptech supply RoHS compliant machines.
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Value added services attract more business
The surest way to attract more business in the SMT market is to offer the best possible solutions with extensive after sales services. Prosem Technology India (P) Ltd is a one stop fully integrated supplier of electronics manufacturing equipment and services to the PCB assembly industry. “We offer complete solutions for SMT requirements. We also offer process consultancy and offline programme preparation services to our customers, along with SMT related software,” says Alok Gupta, director, Prosem Technology India (P) Ltd.
DVS India’s customers stand to gain from its ‘single window turnkey solution’ approach, which caters to process solutions for both manufacturing and testing requirements. As a value added service provider, DVS also offers installation, commissioning and training on all equipment, an annual maintenance contract, an on-call/breakdown contract, application software support, etc.
DEK International has over 40 years of equipment manufacturing expertise and, more importantly, a huge bank of process knowledge. Its goal is to pass this knowledge on to the users. The company has many ways by which it can deliver this knowledge, including through the helpdesk and training centre in Bengaluru, via the local DEK customer service engineers located in Bengaluru and Chennai, and via the DEK website. DEK also provides specialist technical application support to help customers select the best platform and productivity tool options.
EMST Marketing has unmatched experience in providing complete process support in both SMT and wave soldering.
Agate and Agate, on the other hand, offers complete process support in SMT and through-hole PCB assembly, and ensures the best possibilities for production on the supplied machines. This ensures an easy transition for the customer from existing through-hole technology to the new SMT process.
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No. 1 electronics B2B sourcing magazine
