ICON Technologies’ Icon i8 Fully Automatic Screen Printer Wins a 2009 Global Technology Award

ICON Technologies announces that it has been awarded a Global Technology Award in the category of Best Asian Product for its Icon i8 Fully Automatic Screen Printer. The award was presented to the company during a Tuesday, November 10, 2009 ceremony that took place at the New Munich Trade Fair Center in Munich, Germany.

With exceptionally high throughput and immense flexibility, Icon i8 has been specifically developed to meet the precise demands of the fast-paced Asian electronics market. At this exhibition, ICON Technologies will continue to introduce the newest advances of Icon i8 including a new software tool and a new dispending system.

Icon i8 now offers Instinctiv™ V9 which is a next-generation advanced machine user interface that enables you to use more of the power of your printer. Instinctiv™ V9 is designed to maximize machine usage, process control, and operator efficiency. The software expands the recognized advantages of the system by allowing faster setup with more reliable first-time print, lower operator training time, and easier error avoidance and recovery. All of these functions improve the efficiency and productivity, consequently reduce manufacturing costs.

Additionally, the Icon i8 now offers Stinger dispensing system. With the new system, the end user effectively will have printing and dispensing capability on a single platform without increasing equipment footprint. The Stinger system is designed as a direct bolt-on on the Icon platform and utilizes our new software system for positioning and dispensing.

Featuring a high degree of automation to maximize throughput and minimize operator intervention, the Icon i8 reduces product changeover time to a minimal two minutes. Additionally, the introduction of new boards to the production line is easy, facilitated by a fast new product set-up time of less than 10 minutes. With print speeds from 2 mm to 150 mm/sec, the Icon i8 can handle boards from 40 x 50 mm up to 508 X 508 mm, and a thickness of 0.2 to 6.0 mm. Maximum board weight is 1 kg.

The printer offers users numerous options including the following:

Improved Under Stencil Cleaner

The Icon i8 now offers a improved under stencil cleaner featuring dual vacuum cleaning changers, as opposed to its original single option, which has created an even more superior clean. Additionally, the solvent holes tube is now even easier to remove from the main under stencil cleaner body, resulting in ease of maintenance.

Compact Auto Tooling System

ICON customers can now experience a faster, more flexible alternative to existing tooling systems. When used in conjunction with the Icon i8, the system automatically configures in just a few seconds, eliminating the need for manual intervention and offering effortless integration at product changeover.

Advanced Statistical Process Control Software

To ensure that every Icon i8 machine reaches an optimal performance level, ICON uses SPC techniques to verify machine quality at build. After this point, the innovative software enables continuous process monitoring to reject defects infiltrating the rest of the line.

Pad on Pad Verification (PPV)

Additionally, the Icon i8 now offers Pad on Pad Verification (PPV), a quick and highly reliable post-print inspection system which utilizes the Hawkeye camera and inspection software. Hawkeye is an automatic print verification technology, which provides a rapid go/no-go indication so that faulty boards can be automatically isolated in real-time.

Premiering in 2005, the Global Technology Awards program is an annual celebration of product excellence in electronics surface mount assembly. Premier products based on the finest examples of creative advancement in technology are chosen by a distinguished panel of industry experts.

www.iconprinter.com