EMSNOW Exclusive Preview: Innovations Forum, Guadalajara

Mexican soccer fans have left Sochi and the election is over, so the electronics industry in Guadalajara is ready to get back to business, just in time for the Innovations Forum next week. Innovations Forum organizer Phil Stoten commented, “Mexico is one of the most important electronic manufacturing markets in the world. Most manufacturers are running at high levels of capacity and any innovation that makes them more competitive, effective or efficient is hugely valuable. InnovationsFORUM will bring speakers from the world’s equipment, software and consumables vendors to deliver ideas to make those companies deliver even better results, as well as exploring some of the larger issues around NAFTA, Elections and trends like Industry 4.0, AI and much more.”

The program has been recently updated

Dr. Horacio Visairo, Director of Intel Labs in México kicks off the event with a keynote on Innovating in Guadalajara

Next up is Ramon Hernandez, Mexico Sales Manager from Koh Young America who will present its solution for smart factories. The presentation will discuss driving SMT forward on the data highway with advanced analytics powered by artificial intelligence.

Mexico continues to drive North America’s printed circuit board assembly industry as a prime location for some of the industry’s largest electronics manufacturers.  Whether a large EMS provider or a global OEM, Mexico continues to attract major companies to the area, yet the country is still creating an environment for local start-ups.  With this backdrop, the region is poised to enter an era for process innovation.

“While many suppliers are promoting the vision of a smart factory, Koh Young has been focused on delivering solutions,” said Hernandez.  “I am excited to present a glimpse into how Koh Young is providing real value with data analytics to help reduce labor content and improve efficiency at some of the electronics manufacturing industry’s most prominent EMS providers and OEMs across the globe.”  Following his presentation, Mr. Hernandez and Repstronics, the Koh Young sales partner for Mexico, will be available for additional discussion about solutions for specific production challenges.

After the morning coffee break, Gabriel Guerrero, Engineer at STE-Latinoamérica partners with  SEHO Systems GmbH on the topic of  “Resource-Efficient and Cost-Effective Wave Soldering Plasma Fluxing, Pulsar Preheating and Lead-free Low Temperature Soldering”.

In this paper, the latest technologies for wave soldering are presented, along the process chain. Starting with plasma fluxing, an alternative to liquid based fluxing is described, that offers low cost while being environmentally friendly (no VOCs). The latest soldering results using this technology will be discussed and basic conditions when this process can be efficiently introduced into a factory environment will be presented.

Concerning preheating, previous heaters like infrared heaters were not usable for mixed production without long delays for switching between different settings. To resolve this limitation, pulsar heaters can be used for preheating that offer a quick response while having a radiation wavelength that is very well absorbed by PCB materials. Using these preheaters, high mix and hig

Additional methods will be discussed to even further reduce power consumption.

For further information, please visit SEHO at the accompanying exhibition or online at www.seho.de.

Following this presentation will be Mark Ogden, Marketing Manager – ASM Assembly Systems who will discuss Industry 4.0 and the One Man Operator; and then Luis A. García, General Manager – Rehm Thermal Systems Mexico on Digitization and Networking.

Attendees will next have lunch and listen to pitches from innovative local start-ups courtesy of  Plug & Play Guadalajara 

The afternoon’s program begins with Joseph Clure, Applications Engineer – KurtzERSA North America. This presentation, entitled, “Eliminating Failures with Innovative Technologies” addresses the complex interplay between humans and AI in electronics manufacturing processes. Clure looks at the influence of new technologies in the area of process optimisation as well as the associated benefits. Making machines more intelligent by using advanced optical inspection technologies as a closed loop feedback system in combination with a tighter control of all process variables is the path towards zero defects and operator independent quality.

“We are living in a world increasingly marked by digitalisation and networking,” explains Clure. “This development is also filtering through into production areas previously shaped by the implicit expertise and experience of individual employees. The demand for reduced reliance on these leads to the deployment of new technologies. Assistance systems play a major role here, supporting production staff in their decision-making.”

As a rule, an understanding of the interrelated processes is the implicit knowledge of the employees who have acquired it by experience in the course of their working lives. Only a very small proportion of this knowledge is explicitly recorded in the form of working instructions or technical reports. This fact means that quality in electronics manufacturing relies on individual employees. In the worst case, valuable knowledge is lost when they leave the company. Because this form of dependency is simply not acceptable, industry has long been calling for further validation and process support measures to assist staff, in parallel with the existing process monitoring in the individual systems.

Next, Allen Ouellette, Engineer & Business Development Manager – ViTechnology Mycronic explains how to achieve a zero defect line; Jim Villalvazo, Sr. Operations Director – InterLatin explains the SMT Printer “Watchdog,” Powered by Cogiscan

After the networking opportunity afforded by a Coffee Break, Gary Burroughs, Director of Latin America Operations – ASM Assembly Systems will talk about Screen Printing, Process Expertise and DfM; Giancarlo de la Garza – Nordson will talk about Automated Coating Inspection and Metrology for In-line Process Control; and Fred Dimock, Manager, Process Technology at BTU International closes the program.

It promises to be an information-packed day with plenty of opportunities for learning, and relationship-building in the heart of exciting Guadalajara.

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