Mar 24, 2003
Assembleon has received an order from Renishaw plc for two Advanced Component Mounters (ACM) for installation on production lines in Gloucestershire, UK.
Renishaw, the recipient of numerous awards worldwide for innovation, and nine Queen's Awards in the UK recognising Technological Achievement, Export Achievement and Enterprise, is committed to in-house manufacturing to maintain total control over the quality of its products.
Renishaw stands at the forefront of automated metrology with products which enable measurements to be taken that are traceable to international standards.
Wherever precision measurement is required, using Renishaw's products ensures that exacting specifications are met, with cost-effective methods.
The company has recently purchased the ACMs following an assessment of SMT component placement requirements to support its future strategy for new product development.
"We see an increasing need for the highest placement accuracy to process fine-pitch components and advanced packages such as flip chips and other chip scale packages", comments Renishaw's senior electronics manufacturing engineer, Steve Fabb.
"We're also looking to automate the placement of connectors, and the ACM gives us the facility to handle all these requirements.
Previous experience of Assembl�on products and services provides the assurance that we have gained the required capability and support."
The ACM's state-of-the-art low-friction linear drive system for long-term stability, and unique per placement self calibration of the fiducial and component vision systems, deliver placement accuracy of 17.5 micron at 5 sigma without sacrificing speed the machine's four pick-and-place robots can handle 100 different component types at up to 4500 components an hour.
Pre-delivery, Assembleon provided Renishaw with comprehensive training on the operation and maintenance of the ACM, as well as set-up programming training.
Installation of one machine at its New Mills site at Wotton-under-Edge last Autumn, together with a second planned for its Woodchester site in 2003, will give Renishaw the freedom to introduce new board designs with confidence.
In anticipation that new designs will steadily proliferate and batch sizes will vary, the rapid changeover capability of the ACM will enable Renishaw to develop new products even more efficiently.
The modular concept of the ACM will ensure that Renishaw's product innovation will be supported by production capability into the future.
