The latest Mycronic technology for 2015 and beyond.

Gemini Tec have now fully integrated a new SMT production line, adding of two MY200 placement machines, along with the UKs first MY600 jet printer, more reflow capability comes with a BTU 7-zone reflow oven and complimented with fully automated board loading, handling and transportation.

2014 has seen a major rise in new customer orders at Gemini Tec, leading us to expand our SMT capability and capacity. At the centre of our SMT operation we have now fully commissioned two further Mycronic SMT placement machines, along with more solder jet printing technology, providing a substantial increase in capacity.

New SMT Synergy line for high mix and complex PCB assembly:

Our latest Synergy line includes two large format SMT placement machines, able to accept over 350 part types in one set up, perfect for high mix products with quick changeover. With such large feeder capacity we can produce demanding high mix product types. The Synergy advantage means we can use two SMT machines simultaneously or even individually. Offline planning software calculates the optimum method to build any given assembly, driving the department efficiency high, at all times.

World renown reflow with a new BTU Pyramax oven, with 7 zones has been added, offering fully automatic line assembly for our customers surface mount products and PCBs.


New solder jet printing capability. 

The USP of our service is based around solder jet printing and again Gemini are the first UK CEM to invest in the latest model of solder jet printers from Mycronic, the MY600.

The latest printer provides perfect solder paste application,  to the same exacting standards as our current MY500 jet printer and with a huge boost to paste write speeds, of upto 50%. This major speed gain allows us to produce boards faster and meet lower price points, when batch sizes increase.


More Agilis feeders.
Additional investment of over 100K has been made in more Mycronic Agilis feeders. Using Agilis feeders allows us to rationalise material consumption, providing valuable savings to customers. Agilis feeders allow us to enjoy super fast set up times, for every order produced and ensures short changeover times. This capability is imperative in maintaining the UKs fastest delivery service for technology boards.

Additional line automation.
In keeping with our ongoing strategy for efficiency, we have also added a full range of Nutek and Mycronic board loading equipment. From automatic conveyors to feed the PCBs through the entire SMT process, along in-line inspection and into oven reflow, before being automatically unloaded, ready for the next production operation.

Can we help you?
As we enter 2015 and beyond, Gemini Tec now have more capacity to engage with new customers. If you are involved in sub-contract manufacture of SMT and complex SMT hardware, we can provide a new level of technical advantages with solder jet printing capability. 

With a long established reputation, Gemini provide a friendly and professional level of service that can be tailored to meet a wide range of unique requirements.

All the products we build are made ethically in the UK, with care and attention. Gemini do not offer a low cost overseas manufacturing option, instead deciding to retain complete control of product quality, delivery and sensitive IP in the UK.

Our entire CEM operation is located at our superbly equipped and ESD controlled facility in Hampshire. If you would like to know more about the services we can provide to you and establish a potential business fit, please contact Adam Harsant in the first instance.

Gemini Tec Ltd

1 The Brook Trading Estate

Deadbrook Lane

Aldershot

Hampshire

GU12 4XU

United Kingdom

+44 (0) 1252 333 444

www.geminitec.co.uk

Embedded Design Show 2014 - Press Release

Embedded Design Show - Press Release

Stand H30

Gemini Tec Ltd will once again be exhibiting at the Electronics and Embedded Design show in 2014, to talk about more leading edge technology being used for rapid and complex PCB hardware manufacturing.

The company has recently installed the UK’s first MY600 solder jet printer and is currently the only UK CEM operating with two Mycronic solder jet printers, enabling it to provide exceptionally high throughput for SMT boards that incorporate challenging components.

This latest investment brings extra production capacity to meet the needs of new customers who are designing PCB hardware using the latest array of components. Solder jet paste printing technology removes the limitations of screen printing with traditional stencils and delivers new levels of quality and reliability for flexible substrates, board cavities, package-on-package, QFNs and new components with small process windows.

One of the major advantages with the latest MY600 platform is the ability to increase paste printing speeds by up to 50%, allowing Gemini Tec to increase its ability to support higher volume orders to the same exacting standards as its current MY500 jet printer.

To ensure Gemini Tec can exceed the requirements of new customers, additional investment has been made into new placement and reflow equipment. A new fully automated SMT line with the latest MY200SX14 and MY200LX14 machines from Mycronic, provides more high mix SMT capability with a 40,000 components per hour capability. 

In its 37^th year, Gemini Tec provide rapid delivery prototypes and production orders for batch sizes of 1 to 1000 units. A full turnkey service includes a dedicated PCB Altium PCB layout service and contract manufacturing service, all conducted from its secure Hampshire based facility.  

Gemini Tec will be on stand H30, joined by its long-standing partner DSL, who provide hardware design services to the embedded computing market. Rory Dear of DSL will be on the stand to talk about their collaborative ‘Functional Building Block’ design approach, where we make the investment in designing and building an all-encompassing platform and our customers select the required ‘functional building blocks’ which are then transplanted into a preferred form factor – greatly reducing cost, risk and time to market.

Gemini Tec Ltd

1 The Brook Trading Estate

Deadbrook Lane

Aldershot

Hampshire

GU12 4XU

United Kingdom

+44 (0) 1252 333 444

www.geminitec.co.uk

DSL Ltd

Aylesford Court

Works Road

Letchworth Garden City

Hertfordshire

SG6 1LP

United Kingdom

+44 (0) 1462 675530

www.dsl-ltd.co.uk

The first UK CEM to invest in MYDATA's new range of high volume solder jet printers.

The first UK CEM to invest in MYCRONIC's new range of high volume solder jet printers.

---

A second solder jet printer has now been ordered for our surface mount facility in Aldershot Hampshire, with installation in August 14.

MY600 High Speed Jet Printer arriving August 14

....way back in 2008 Gemini Tec were the first UK based CEM to invest into solder jet printing technology, and now we are the first UK CEM to introduce the latest edition of printers, the MY600. 

MYCRONIC's MY600 is the next generation of solder jet printers and has been designed to suit higher volume surface mount assembly applications.
This next-generation Jet Printer now enables Gemini to achieve optimal solder joints with a 50% increase in throughput, against our current jet printer.  The introduction of this high-performance platform will allow new production capacity for customers who are struggling to mount difficult components using classic screen printers.

With the increasing demand for higher volume applications from its customer base, the MY600 overcomes many of the speed limitations, and still provides optimal assembly for flexible substrates, board cavities, package-on-package, QFNs and new components with small process windows.

The use of  solder jet printing has transformed the experiences for all our customers and allowed us to achieve new levels of rapid PCB assembly.  The new MY600 will be used to support higher volume orders and contracts on the same basis.

The new MY600 solder jet printer will operate with its own MYCRONIC 'Synergy' SMT line, comprising of two high speed SMT placement machines, a BTU convection reflow oven and Nutek fully automatic board handling systems.

Company Director Adam Harsant, comments on the latest solder jet printing news.

"This latest investment is an exciting new chapter in the development of our business, we are expanding our entire SMT operation on the back of the demand for high quality and UK manufactured hardware"

"Our customers appreciate the value this technology has provided and we are investing to ensure that we have sufficient capacity for the increase in demand. And with a continued shift from sourcing in 'perceived' low cost centres back towards the UK, we recognise the opportunity to now support higher volume orders with all the advantages that solder jet printing technology provides"

If you would like to know more about how this technology has helped our customers, or discuss a technical demonstration at our facility, please get in touch..

http://www.geminitec.co.uk

Gemini Tec Ltd

1 The Brook Trading Estate

Deadbrook Lane

Aldershot

Hampshire

GU12 4XU

Tel: +44 (0) 1252 333 444

Embedding the World Cup with goal-line technology

For years, international football association FIFA have heavily resisted technology's influence in soccer, almost comically arguing that bad refereeing decisions are all part of the excitement of the game. FIFA president Sepp Blatter has described goal-line technology as "only 95 percent accurate", though even that level of accuracy – when compared to a human eye, often tens of metres away – is surely a vast improvement?

For technologists, even if this disputable 95 percent figure was to be believed, bridging that 5 percent gap was never a sizeable task. Though in 2008 following that statement, the FIFA president put the implementation of such technology on ice – permanently.

Predictably, subsequently further controversial decisions ensued, though in relatively low-key matches not on the international stage, and in March 2010 an election was held between eight of the founding bodies of soccer – voting 6-2 in favor of permanently ditching the technology, the two dissenters being England and Scotland.

In June that year at the 2010 FIFA World Cup the tide was about to turn, when hundreds of millions of fans across 241 separate countries saw England's Frank Lampard score a goal – the ball clearly over a metre across the line – against Germany, which was disallowed due to human error by the referee. Scoring or missing was a turning point in the 2-1 game, which ended as a 4-1 loss for England. The entire country, quickly followed by immense global support (perhaps bar Germany!), put huge pressure on FIFA, and shortly after Blatter announced that the goal-line technology consideration would be re-opened.

The tech contenders

In 2011 FIFA began internal trials with 10 companies' goal-line technology systems, and by 2012 they whittled this down to two potential candidates: Goal Ref, utilizing a passive "chip-in-ball" and a magnetic field to detect its whereabouts; and Hawk-Eye, utilizing a series of high-resolution cameras and triangulation algorithms.

Both have a very high, though interestingly unpublished, accuracy percentage, but neither could claim 100 percent accuracy as both are fallible to some degree.

A technology based on electromagnetic fields, which is being used at the 2014 World Cup, would be susceptible to interference, though unlikely in the environment; an unscrupulous party could theoretically interfere with its accuracy.

The high-speed-camera-based system, you could argue, is less vulnerable to outside interference, though is reliant on installation accuracy and calibration, having rigorously proven the calculations used to derive the decision.

Additionally, in the 2014 World Cup referees are wearing smartwatches as part of a GoalControl-4D system to alert them to goal-line technology cameras detecting goals. So far in the competition goal-line technology has already caused a share of confusion and controversy in the match between France and Honduras. This wasn't a case of the technology malfunctioning, but the public weren't prepared that the GoalControl system would also show instances where a goal was not scored before the instance where a goal was scored if the ball almost crossed the line multiple times.

Both systems also can't consider the change in shape of a ball when it bounces, for example. The Hawk-Eye system, prior to soccer, has long been employed in snooker (similar to billiards), cricket, and tennis. Bounce distortion in soccer, given we're concerned with it passing a line, not falling short of it, isn't relevant – in tennis however this can be contentious; during the 2008 Wimbledon final, a ball that appeared out was cited as "in" by Hawk-Eye by a single millimeter.

Interestingly, despite no percentage claims of accuracy of the technology, a 3.6 mm error margin is advertised by Hawk-Eye. Whilst this seems minute, it's easy to see why the technology claiming it's "in" by 1 mm becomes disputable. Cricket saw a similar point of contention in 2012, where a Leg Before Wicket (LBW) foul was called despite it visually appearing the ball would have sailed over the stumps, which would negate the call.

Soccer has attempted to address the shortfalls of the technology – well, more the opportunity for it to be disputed – by moving away from the "video replay" style of the other implementations completely with the use of a 3D reproduction of the controversial incident.

Whilst this has the advantage of giving an "undisputable" decision, people are naturally wary of any visual that disagrees with what they "saw" with their own eyes – though optical illusions and magic tricks should easily counter how fallible the human eye is to misinterpretation.

Future uses

The sporting world is truly opening up to the embedded computing industry and is more accepting of new technologies than ever before. Last month I discussed the increasing sports medicine usage of embedded; now I'm sure I've got you thinking about how embedded technology could improve your own favorite sport. Perhaps lasers displaying shot distances and speeds on the pitch, intelligent sporting equipment visually flagging illegal usage – the possibilities are endless!

For more information, contact Rory at rdear@opensystemsmedia.com.

Our customers’ opinions

We aim to provide the best service we can and this testimonial can prove it:  

“Thank you for your efforts in producing this first run of products using the 0.4 mm Package-On-Package device. We are pleased to say we have passed 100% of the batch - and we will be moving ahead to production with you very soon” 

 

- CCWW Ltd: Leading supplier of GSM related services for telecommunications providers.

For further information visit us online at: http://www.geminitec.co.uk/what-do-our-customers-say-about-us

Prototypes letting you down?

Are prototypes letting you down? Make sure this doesn’t happen… 

 

 Photo credit: http://unknownalbum.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/school-for-ants.jpg

Choose our prototype production services for high quality prototypes: http://www.geminitec.co.uk/

PoP Assembly

We have noticed that the demand for Package on Package (PoP) is growing for PCB products manufactured for mobile and handheld electronic applications. At our leading edge production facility, Geminitec can support PoP device assembly. The use of tools such as solder jet printing technology, with accurate Z-height paste control and high-end MYDATA surface mount placement capability allows us to offer PoP technology within our surface mount assembly process.

We can manufacture products with PoP devices and complex PCB assemblies for rapid prototype and medium volume orders. To find out more about our PoP assembly service please visit our website or call us +44 (0)1252 333444.