Atlanta, GA
Fuji Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Chiryu, Japan) and ViTechnology, LLC (Haverhill, MA) announce the Zero Defect Production Line, which combines in-process automated optical inspection (AOI) and statistical process control (SPC) in a closed-loop, surface-mount environment. This announcement is the result of the companies� joint technology development started in 2001.
This development program began when an unnamed, mutual customer was assigned a manufacturing project to create a production environment with product quality and first-pass yield not known to be available in the market. Over the past two years, in conjunction with Fuji Machine Manufacturing and ViTechnology, the customer has implemented this manufacturing project and real life testing of the systems has begun in a highly demanding production environment.
The Zero Defect Production Line includes two Fuji CP-742E and QP-341E-MM placement machines and three ViTechnology Vi-5000 systems, all connected by Fuji�s proprietary Fujitrax management software. In this assembly line, the stencil printer is followed by and directly connected to a Vi-5000 system that provides quality data to the printer, allowing it to either correct process settings or to inform an operator when corrective action must be taken. The second and third Vi-5000 systems are located after the two Fuji CP-742E chip placement machines and QP-341E-MM fine-pitch placement machines.
The Vi-5000 systems communicate errors and process trends to the Fujitrax system, which makes necessary corrections to the placement process. At the same time, the SPC software within the Vi-5000 systems monitors trends in the process on the last 30 boards and communicates them to Fujitrax, which then analyzes the trends in relation to the placement machine, feeder, head, or nozzle, making necessary adjustments in real time.