May, 2019
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Using X-Ray Component Counting to Manage Inventory Continued from previous page
was extremely slow and inaccurate. It could take three to five minutes to count an average reel and even up to eight or 10 minutes to count a reel of 50,000 01005s. The main objective of inventory
control is to keep the lines running, so imagine if you have a reel of compo- nents that you believe has 100 remain- ing and you need 92, but in reality there are only 80, what happens? The line stops. Production stops. People scramble. Maybe boards and solder paste must be scrapped, etc. Parts may need to be ordered overnight, which is expensive, and difficult with today’s parts shortages, possibly delaying shipments to customers.
Configurable Levels of Automation
With the growing popularity of
Industry 4.0 and the smart factory, optical control’s X-ray component counter can be a standalone unit with no communication to anything, or completely tied into factory ERP sys- tems and storage units through soft- ware.
The machine can communicate
with just about any type of software that a factory may use. It is already communicating with other software packages and equipment. The ma- chine can be completely automated, whether it be with a programmable robotic handling system, trolleys, conveyors, or an AGV that can drive to and from the machine. It all de- pends on how much automation the customer wants. These systems are also a big part of traceability, which is increasingly important. Using logical algorithms, the
machine requires no libraries or pro- gramming. It is truly a plug-and-play machine. When optical control’s tech- nicians install a machine, the proce- dure is simple: uncrate it. The touch- screen monitor is installed along with the barcode reader and label printer and then the machine is plugged into a standard 110V outlet. All the ma- chines are FDA-certified and the company performs a radiation test at start up. Reels can then be loaded. Since the machine is entirely algo- rithm-based, it can even count un- known components. Customers can start counting as
soon as the machine turns on. In fact, at the recent IPC APEX Expo several companies brought unknown compo- nents and loaded their own reels and some odd-shaped components into the machine with no issues. Many visitors reported that this
machine was the only one able to count their parts. For example, one company brought plastic cases with random parts inside. The cases did not need to be opened. They were simply placed into the machine, the button was pressed and the machine counted them. The machine is also extremely
fast. The latest update to the CCX.3 allows customers to put any type of component in the machine and 10 seconds later the result will be on the screen. It could be a 7-, 13- or 17-inch reel, a JEDEC tray, three JEDEC trays, a component tube or 20 compo- nent tubes. It will always take only 10 seconds. The only time the ma- chine will take 12 seconds is when running four seven-inch reels simul- taneously. It also makes no difference if a reel has 100 components or 50,000.
Page 21
Protecting Sensitive Components The machine also uses a much
lower-powered X-ray tube than others and turns it on for only a second, which results in much less exposure to sensi- tive components. optical control works with any
client that has components to count, which makes all OEMs and CMs po- tential customers. The company has al- so been very successful in the military and aviation markets because of the machine’s design. The lower amount of radiation ex-
The OC-SCAN CCX can count four reels simultaneously in 12 seconds.
posure is important to these cus- tomers. In reality, most components are not a concern, but anything that is programmable or used in aviation and
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