In a study lead by Prof. S. Manian Ramkumar of Rochester Institute of Technology, a new minimize energy consumption featured available with KIC Navigator was studied to see if when producing new profiles for existing processes can yield energy savings while maintaining an in spec process.
(for the full study, download to pdf here).
Three different companies were selected for this project.
- Company A: Surmotech CMS is a full-service contract manufacturer specializing in high-reliability medical, industrial and military applications. Located in Victor, NY, Surmotech is an ISO 9001:2000 registered company that focuses on providing complete turnkey solutions that include design, prototyping, engineering, materials management, testing and field service.
- Company B: Marquardt is a global manufacturer of electromechanical and electronic components, supplying the hand tool and automotive industries.
- Company C: SenDEC is organized into two main business units: the Contract Electronics Manufacturing (CEM) Group and the Products Group. SenDEC’s CEM Group provides electronics manufacturing services (EMS) including design, prototype, PCB assembly, electromechanical assembly, test engineering, rework, material management and turnkey box build services. The SenDEC Products Group manufactures its own family of digital monitoring, display and control devices for numerous markets across the globe.
Conclusions of the Study:
- The recipes recommended by the new KIC Navigator feature have been observed to have either reduced the power consumption when compared existing recipe or maintained it the same.
- Furthermore, it is also observed that in most cases, the percentage reduction in power consumption is 2% or higher, as shown in the figure below.
- The new Navigator Power option has the capability to generate a reduced power consumption recipe without compromising the productivity and the quality of the output.
- The software provides the flexibility to incorporate the restrictions offered by the reflow oven.
- The updated Profiling software version has a large solder paste menu (both Sn-Pb and Pb-Free) to select from. This feature automatically feeds the solder paste specifications.
