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and Inspection VOLUME 35 - NUMBER 12


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December, 2020


Koh Young Inspection Systems Essential to Qualitel’s Growth


EM Products


SHENMAO has launched a new no-clean flux for fine- pitch assembly and LED die attach. Electronics manufac- turing prod ucts begin on...


EM Services Page 24


DULUTH, GA — From prototype to production, EMS provider Qualitel’s business model is designed to be flex- ible and responsive to customers, while meeting strict quality require- ments. To verify the quality of its products and to prove it to clients in the aerospace, medical and other mission-critical industries, Qualitel relies on Koh Young automated opti-


cal inspection (AOI) and solder paste inspection (SPI) systems. Celebrating a quarter of a cen-


tury this year, Qualitel operates a 71,000 ft2 EMS facility with state-of- the-art equipment, located north of Seattle, Washington. The company builds complex, high-reliability PCBs and turnkey assemblies. Qualitel is ITAR-registered, aligned to NIST


800-53 and holds ISO 9001/AS9100 and ISO 13485 certifications. With more than 200 employees,


the company offers both series pro- duction and prototype services, re- ferred to as Qualitel Corporate and Qualitel Express, respectively. Each facility has its own equipment and dedicated teams.


When Failure is Not an Option Qualitel applies its core values


of responsiveness, reliability, re- spect, teamwork, and care to its team, as well as to its suppliers, cus- tomers and the products it builds. The company is a supplier of choice for OEMs seeking a partner special- izing in a full range of high-mix, and low- to medium-volume manufactur- ing of high-reliability products. When it came time to invest in


Beckhoff's EtherCAT I/O mod- ules boost the speed of VMEK's vision sorting systems. EMS section begins on… Page 18


This Month’s Focus: Inspection


HTV discusses the impor- tance of proper encapsulation for component reliability; Nordson SONOSCAN demon- strates the versatility of acoustic imaging; Tanaka of- fers strategies for firms recov- ering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Special features begin on...


Page 48 Test and


3D SPI and 3D AOI solutions, Quali- tel looked for real-time, inline inspec- tion solutions that could offer closed- loop feedback to ensure the quality of each product. The company needed Continued on page 8


With more than 200 employees, Qualitel offers manufacturing services from prototype to production.


In-Mold Electronics (IME) Adoption Projected to Grow


BOSTON, MA — In-mold electronics (IME) promises to enable high-vol- ume production of structural elec- tronics where the electronic circuitry and functionality are part of the 3D- shaped structure itself. This enables innovative and elegant designs and significantly reduces size and weight.


A Transition to Higher Volume IME is not exactly a new


process or technology. In fact, in many ways, it is an evolution of al- ready well-established in-mold deco- ration (IMD), in which molding and other methods of 3D forming are combined with graphic printing.


The transition from IMD to


IME is not straightforward, however, especially at commercial scale. This partially explains why it has taken so long for IME to establish lasting commercial success, despite all the efforts and false starts. This is now changing. There are


already low-volume IME products on the market and the transition toward higher-volume application is not far off. IDTechEx’s latest report “In- Mold Electronics 2019-2029: Tech- nology, Market Forecasts, Players,” projects that the market will exceed $250 million by 2024. To enable commercialization of


IME, new materials must be devel- oped that can survive new require- ments, such as stretching and 3D forming. New processes are required to combine 2D printing, 3D forming and rigid component placement. New design procedures and product con- cepts must be developed, based on material and process characteristics, as well as market needs. Functional materials in IME


Continued on page 6


ASM Publishes 2020 Industry Survey


SUWANEE, GA — From mid-Sep- tember to early October, ASM sur- veyed roughly 450 companies to see the effects of COVID-19 on business and the ways in which manufactur- ers are responding to the crisis. While other industries have been


hit much harder by the pandemic, electronics factories around the world are facing great challenges. As expect- ed, 55 percent of the companies sur- veyed reported that the virus has had a negative impact on their production, with 42 percent reporting concrete de- clines in productivity.


Becoming More Resilient One lesson from the pandemic


is for companies to take steps to be- come more resilient. When asked about mid-term plans, companies stated that they are beginning to make their manufacturing opera- tions more durable. To be more crisis-proof in the


future, 75 percent of the respondents are banking on greater levels of au- tomation. Two out of three compa- nies plan to advance the digital


Continued on page 8


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