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October, 2017
Virtual Industries: Handling the Good Things that Come in Small Packages
By Nickie Mendez, Inside Sales, Virtual Industries T
iny, hard-to-handle components are every- where, creating a handling problem that is solved by Virtual Industries’ patented, ESD-
safe component handling products. The vacuum- tip handlers are used by Class I cleanroom person- nel, electronic assemblers, semiconductor manu- facturers, and scientists around the world. Tom Mealey and Daren Palmer saw the prob-
lem and developed solutions after founding the company in 1987. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Virtual Industries’ success has come from developing innovative manual vacuum handling tools and pick-up tips, based on customer requirements and feedback. The company began selling its products in the
U.S. in 1988 and established international sales in 1989. The company has distributors in more than 60 countries, with customers in nearly 200 nations worldwide. More than a third of the company’s sales come from customers outside the U.S.
Vacuum Handling Products The company’s hand tools are designed to
replace mechanical tweezers or other means of gripping minuscule parts. Many of them are portable and eliminate the need for vacuum hoses or power cords. This makes these tools suitable for ergonomic manipulation of parts during assembly, inspection, rework, and service. In addition to hand tools, Virtual Industries offers a broad line of accessories, including miniature rubber vacuum cups, wafer handling tips and precision-machined tips for critical handling operations. For customers who do not require portability,
the company offers a selection of bench-top sys- tems that are powered by line voltage, compressed air or in-house vacuum sources. These tools use a vacuum pen that is tethered to a vacuum or air pressure line. The systems handle parts from
ADJUST-A-VAC ESD-safe vacuum handling kit.
ESD-safe rubber vacuum tips (AV-6000-SP8-BD- 220). The kit is designed to manually handle thin and delicate substrates, wafers, MEMS devices, and other fragile components. “Handling of miniature parts is becoming
more challenging for manufacturers as everything we use in our daily lives becomes either smaller or more complex,” says Mealey. “For example, compa- nies are developing high-tech glasses that can record every waking moment. Mobile phones con- tinue to include more gadgets. Pacemakers, hear-
0.004 mil to 12 in. (0.1 µm to 30.5 cm) in size. The company recently introduced two new
products: the TWEEZER-VAC® Elite (TV-1500- ELITE) and ADJUST-A-VAC® ESD-safe kit. Each was developed in response to customer concerns: The TWEEZER-VAC Elite firmly grasps critical components and shows the vacuum level on its 10- segment bar graph display. The ADJUST-A-VAC ESD-safe kit contains Delrin® small parts tips and
ing aids and hearing implants are becoming small- er, yet provide improved quality of life for many people.”
Mealey adds that for many of the components
inside of these gadgets, there is automated equip- ment that can place parts as small as a 01005 resistor with incredible accuracy and speed. However, there are parts that must be assembled by hand, either because of their odd shapes or sen- sitive surfaces. While many parts can be manipulated easily
with an old-fashioned mechanical tweezer, the downside is that mechanical tweezers can have high costs associated with them. If an assembly person drops the tool, the delicate tip is easily damaged and the costly tweezer must be scrapped.
Versatility “Many of our tools that are available today
can be used for assembly of a wide variety of miniature or odd-sized parts without the need for tip customization,” says Palmer. “The vacuum- tweezer tool is well-suited for many of these appli- cations. Everybody knows what a tweezer is and that a vacuum picks stuff up.” Unlike a mechanical tweezer that has two
gripping surfaces, the vacuum tweezer has a han- dle with a control button and only a single conical point at the tip. The tip has an opening that is con- nected to a vacuum source. The vacuum source cre- ates a constant flow of low pressure that is used to grip anything that comes into contact with the tip. There are several advantages to using a tool
that has only a single gripping tip. First, there is no mechanical squeezing of the gripped part that could cause breakage or other mechanical damage to a fragile item. Secondly, once a part is gripped by the vacuum at the tip, it stays on the tip and is Continued on next page
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