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www.us- tech.com


December, 2016


From Machine Monitoring to Smart Manufacturing


By Mark Stansfield, SolderStar


large amounts of machine data — a revolutionary process which is ex- pected to change the face of the elec- tronics industry in the coming years. Recent technology has made gather- ing data very easy, and the next step is to make use of the information in real-time to improve production effi- ciency. Production machinery will no longer simply create the product, but the product will communicate with the machinery and tell it exactly what to do. The Industry 4.0 ideal connects embedded system technolo- gies and smart production processes to drastically transform industry and production, paving the way for smart factory development. IoT techniques and technologies


T


are not new; the network infrastruc- ture, software protocols and formats are well-established with excellent development and diagnostic tools that quickly connect and scale sys- tems across the shop floor. Ideally, all sensors should be in-


telligent and collaborate to make a massively intelligent network of de- vices to help companies to build ul- tra-smart manufacturing lines. The future is on its way, but in the mean- time, many in the industry are still


he Internet of Things (IoT), In- dustry 4.0 and smart manufac- turing are enabled by obtaining


looking at the big data phase of the digital revolution. Currently, engineers are not


sure how to make the most of data; for example, how data can be ana- lyzed successfully to reduce a ma- chine’s downtime. The development


phase of capturing manufacturing data needs to occur first, before it can be employed in the full production environment. One area of application is the reflow soldering process. Cur- rent technology typically requires immense expertise in thermal dy-


terms of peak temperature, time, and other process or component parame- ters.


Why is this information useful?


Other than ensuring the confidence that every assembly that comes off the line is within defined limits, it is useful for predicting trends in the process that are likely to result in a reduction of soldering quality or in a machine stoppage. Using SPC and tracking the performance data avail- able from these measurement sys- tems will allow trends to be predict- ed. When combined with improved maintenance scheduling, tracking trends can result in improvements in uptime and yield.


Smart Manufacturing Traditionally, the main adop -


A centralized software system gathers machine data and makes decisions to finely tune production.


namics and control systems to pro- vide ovens that can successfully sol- der assemblies of all shapes and sizes. Some higher-end ovens already have data collection capabilities and bespoke systems are being imple- mented that capture chronological process information. The available data are usually taken from the con- trol system feedback sensors which give a good indication of process per- formance, but may not be informa- tive enough to provide the level of in- sight required to maximize produc- tion efficiencies.


Improved Oven Data Real-time oven monitoring sys-


tems have been around for decades. One example is the original Solder- star automatic profiling system (APS) introduced in 2005, which in- cluded a single rigid probe fitted along the fixed conveyor to enable measurement of process tempera- tures close to product level. The probe technology has evolved over time, and now a fast-response flexi- ble probe is fitted to both the left and right sides of the process to detect problems in both single- and dual- lane conveyor systems more quickly and comprehensively. The data captured by these new


probes is much more valuable and gives a true reflection of how the process is responding to oven loading or extraction system change. Another advantage of these third-party party measurement systems is the ability not only to monitor machine parame- ters such as temperature and speed, but to combine this information with real profile data and predict how the current process is performing in


ters of real-time reflow oven monitor- ing systems have been manufactur- ers of medical, safety-critical and military products. Today, the tech- nology is now widely accepted in oth- er industries, especially in high-val- ue sectors like the automotive indus- try, or where high production vol- umes are normal. The drive for smart, lean and collaborative sys- tems has driven specialist manufac- turers of thermal profiling equip- ment to take machine monitoring platforms to the next level. SolderStar’s real-time monitor-


ing solution SMARTLine is essential- ly a suite of hardware and software products that allows electronic manu- facturers to gain real insight into how the thermal process is performing. It can be scaled across multiple


manufacturing lines or factories and provides the networking, data collec- tion and collaboration modules that enable the oven to be as smart as any other piece of equipment on the line. Using existing networking protocols, infrastructures and network configu- rations makes deployment simple and ensures that the end users are com- fortable with long-term management. Using data exchange formats


such as XML also makes things much simpler from both a develop- ment and integration point of view. Any format can be used, but the web- based techniques championed for IoT are already well-established. There are XML processing libraries for each of the major development lan- guages, many of which are free and make the reading and writing of these formats an easy task for a soft- ware engineer.


Developments Underway Companies like SolderStar are


pushing the development of technolo- gies that will lead to the smart facto- ries of tomorrow. With existing measurement technology developed to make the transition, the next step is to further refine connectivity solu- tions that allow the measurement units to be networked, gather infor- mation and share it with any other system. The company has answered the call to bring big data capabilities to


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