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July, 2015 ElEctronic Mfg SErvicES
Europlacer Helps CEM Improve Efficiency, Quality, and Capacity
F
ounded in 1992, Colonial Elec- tronic Manufacturers,
By Brian LeBlanc, Director of Manufacturing, Colonial Electronic Manufacturers, Inc. l True “smart feeders” that were
Inc. (CEM) is based in Nashua, NH
and focuses on providing a compre- hensive list of traditional and non- traditional manufacturing services to the electronics industry. Services in- clude through-hole assembly and sol- dering, surface-mount assembly and soldering, and rework and engineer- ing-change-order (ECO) implementa- tion. In addition to these traditional services, CEM also helps customers with total assembly, box-build con- struction, test for dock-to-stock sce- narios, prototype-to-medium produc- tion, and consignment/turnkey/cus- tom (hybrid) material management systems. The company also provides custom services. The company has shown over
the years that its main focus is cus- tomer satisfaction. The goal is to have customers feel that its staff and production floor are extensions of their own company. To accomplish this, CEM has invested heavily in people and equipment, and that phi- losophy has driven the need to mod- ernize CEM’s surface-mount-technol- ogy (SMT) operation. Nine pick-and- place systems had been acquired
from the same source between 1996 and 2011, but as the customer base grew, and new technical challenges emerged, it became clear that a new
part numbers. l
more than just feeders married to Durable, lightweight and simple
l User-friendly operating system
that was easy to learn and train em- ployees to use. As the options for new equip-
In CEM’s search for a new pick-and-place platform, the Europlacer’s iineo-II has exceeded its expectations, and, has helped the company to operate more efficiently.
machine electronic manufacturing platform would be required to meet present and future needs. This new equipment was target-
ed for numerous requirements:
ably priced. l
a small footprint. l
component feeders that were reason- Larger feeder capacity, along with On-the-fly component verification.
ment were investigated, only two equipment manufacturers were found to address all the concerns and needs. Once the two suppliers were compared in terms of how they would meet those needs, significant differ- ences between the two became ap- parent. Many manufacturers offer smart feeders, but the functionality may vary a great deal among these “smart” systems. Europlacer was found to combine a smart feeder with a turret head to build in a “chaotic setup” format and not lose much run time. Other machines with heads that have fixed nozzles require feed- ers lined up in a specific order and lo- cation to minimize wasted head trav- el. This wasted travel leads to much longer run times on chaotic setups. Because CEM builds many prototype assemblies, a chaotic setup that runs quickly was important in a new as- sembly system. Another requirement for a new
feeder was a system that was not bulky or difficult to store. Bulky feed-
Continued on next page
See at SEMICON West Booth 6243
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