MONTAUBAN, FRANCE - February, 2006
Novatec, a key research laboratory that develops new technologies for the electronics assembly industry, announces that it will display an innovative new assembly tool for board support - VacuNest Shape Memory Tooling in XPO Automation's booth 283 at the upcoming APEX 2006 trade show and exhibition, scheduled to take place February 8 to 10, 2006, in Anaheim, Calif.
Board support is critical within any printer, dispenser and pick-and-place machine in order to run a repeatable process.
A custom dedicated machined tooling plate is the ideal solution but it must be planned well in advance, have the plate designed and then manufactured, and even then it is expensive and only a custom fit for that version of the board. Magnetic tooling pin posts and auto pin tooling do offer a flexible solution, but are limited to their pitch, the area they can support and these can cause stress and damage to components when the pins exert pressure on a device leg or body.
VacuNest meets these needs. The shape memory tool combines the benefits of a custom tooling plate with the versatility of pins. An antistatic membrane covers a foam former surrounded by polymer granules. Simply place a golden board onto the modules, press down, pull a vacuum and the memory of the board shape profile is held. The chambers are profiled to the shape of the underside of the board - on activation of the vacuum this shape is now held. Simple, secure and a custom board support is created within seconds. The shape will be held for weeks/days/months until the vacuum is released, whereupon the modules return to their original form, awaiting a new set up for the next version of board.
VacuNest offers users numerous advantages, including no risk damage to a component due to the pin/printing pressure, the support forces are evenly spread over the entire board, the tooling provides firm and precise support, ease of use, no dedicated tooling and short payback period, and the shape tool can be simply reset when a board version changes.
Additionally, this flexible tooling features many cost benefits. It eliminates the cost of a custom tooling plate as well as pin tooling by providing a single, user-friendly solution.
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