Trojan, a Swansea-based company that provides electronic manufacturing for a wide range of products, has made a five figure investment to enhance the services provided by its contract electronic manufacturing (CEM) department, enabling the company to service a wider market.
The firm has purchased two new pieces of equipment for its CEM department – a meteor semi-automatic screen printer and a 2D camera with laser view to add to its existing Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) Mirtec MV-3L machine.
David O’Keeffe, operations director of Trojan, said:
“This significant investment in equipment for Trojan’s CEM division will have a major impact on what we can offer to new and existing clients. Not only will the new equipment increase productivity and quality but it will further enable Trojan to service a wider market because we can offer more complex assemblies featuring more complicated densely populated components.”
The purchase of a meteor semi-automatic screen printer has enabled the printing of lead-free solder paste onto printed circuit boards prior to placing surface mount components. The advantage of this printer is that it can be used to easily set-up and paste prototype and small batch quantity production printed circuit boards.
The 2D camera with laser view will improve reliability, efficiency and throughput. Previously, assembled print circuit boards had to be passed through the current AOI machine and followed by a visual manual inspection under a microscope. This process was time consuming and did not provide a high degree of reliability or consistency. The new 2D laser camera allows for viewing and inspections under fine pitch devices.
O’Keeffe continued:
“We have been doing printed circuit board tasks manually, which can waste a lot of time. With the new screen printer we can increase productivity, therefore helping to increase profitability for the company.
“Also the need for greater packing density and miniaturisation of printed circuit boards has necessitated the requirement for component footprints to change. The addition of the 2D camera addresses this issue as it allows us to see where the solder joints or balls are located under the device, which provides for greater inspection.”
