The decision to add more AOI capability and capacity was taken due to a significant increase in
demand for its sub-contract manufacturing services for SMT based products.
The news further echoes the
thoughts of many who see that UK CEM’s are best positioned to help support customers
who trade within Europe and the wider global market.
Advanced CEM Gemini Tec invests further in automated inspection capability (AOI), by
introducing its third inspection system, from market leading manufacture
Mirtec.
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| Gemini welcomes its third Mirtec AOI machine to its SMT facility |
Additional
inspection technology is required to meet new contract wins and maintain its
class leading PCB assembly service from its Hampshire based production
facility.
Gemini Tec has recently won
a major contract to manufacture a suite of highly complex electronic PCB
products for use within the transportation infrastructure market sector. The
success of this contract win was primarily based on the use of ‘solder jet
printing technology’ to ensure product reliability.
The additional Mirtec MV3L
was purchased to ensure the increase in business could be inspected 100% for
compliance and conformance to IPC class 3 standards. The latest Mirtec MV3 will
compliment its fleet of MV3 AOI systems, to ensure product compliance is beyond
customer expectation for now and for future growth.
Why did Gemini Tec choose
Mirtec again?
Unlike traditional AOI
systems that have a limited field of view, the Mirtec MV3 is feature rich with
technologies that include 10 mega-pixel and 9.8 micron cameras to provide
superior speed and accuracy to identify all potential production
concerns in the build process through our SMT area. And with five cameras to provide
full coverage, even the smallest of defects can be identified early in the
process by our advanced AOI inspection department.
Our AOI inspection
department has a team of eight IPC trained staff, who also use three additional
offline inspection stations to compliment the AOI machines. This allows the
optimum accuracy to be achieved during the programming stages of any new
products, and with increased capacity we can keep our strict 100%
inspection criteria in place.
The offline AOI inspection
also allows us to track each assembly with a unique ID number, through the
various stages of production, this allows us to create valuable record keeping for
board level tracking and important SPC data on production performance. This
level of tracking will be significant when Gemini Tec
seeks the AS9100 aerospace quality approval later in 2015.
Gemini Tec often produces
SMT products with densely populated surface mount areas, that prove very challenging for standard single camera AOI machines to handle correctly.
A single camera AOI machine means a obscured field of vision, which prompts too many 'false error calls' and always leads to a misinterpretation of good and bad board defects. A situation that Gemini Tec would not be able to accept.
A single camera AOI machine means a obscured field of vision, which prompts too many 'false error calls' and always leads to a misinterpretation of good and bad board defects. A situation that Gemini Tec would not be able to accept.
Even defective components,
such as fine pitch connectors, that always arrive with lifted pins have previously
been extremely difficult to locate with single camera systems. Only the use of
side view optics, intense magnification and of course clever software can
reveal all hidden surprises that effect product quality.
By removing failures and
suspect issues well in advance of any functional test or delivery to the customer reduces the
cost of rework, along with the total cost of manufacture for both Gemini and its
customers.
Thankfully, our fleet of
MV3 systems at Gemini Tec provide the advanced inspection capability
required to meet today’s demanding and high mix surface mount products and ensure its
customers receive assured quality from a CEM.
Commenting on the latest
investment at Gemini Tec was Darren Wallis (Production Director)
“Our core business is
surface mount PCB assembly, often with complex SMT devices. To ensure complete
product conformance, the Mirtec MV3 series of AOI machines meets our needs with
ease and we are extremely pleased to welcome another Mirtec AOI system into our
busy inspection department.
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| Multi camera MIRTEC AOI systems to find any potential defects in the SMT process. |
With our continued growth
its imperative that we invest correctly to increase our capacity and capability
to support our growing customer base with a level of quality that is
superior”
More about the CEM and SMT services available at Gemini Tec UK.
Gemini Tec has provided rapid
prototyping to medium size production orders for over 37 years. Originally starting life by providing a PCB layout service, now using Altium
design tools for all PCB layouts and providing SMT boards and even finished products with full enclosure assembly and test.
We have invested heavily in world-class
technology, such as solder jet printing, to deliver our customers with a new user experience and high yield/high reliability products. Currently no other UK CEM offer solder jet printing like us, we have two fully automatic SMT lines handling board loading, transportation, placement, reflow and unloading.
If you are looking to work with a new CEM, we always encourage customers to visit our site to appreciate the many systems, staff and technology in place to meet your needs.
mail us direct at: sales@geminitec.co.uk
Gemini Tec Ltd
1 The Brook Trading Estate
Deadbrook Lane
Aldershot
Hampshire
GU12 4XU
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 333 444
