Altus Helps EMS to Increase its Production Capabilities with Innovative Solutions

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To support its growing customer base leading CEM, Custom Interconnect Ltd. (CIL), required innovative equipment that could meet the exacting specifications required to produce complex and critical applications. Through Altus, CIL has the best-in-class equipment, including vapour phase soldering systems and component counter technology to manufacture highly complex PCBAs.

CIL was looking to specialise in assembling power PCBA's soldered in a vacuum for near void-free assemblies, a critical requirement for GaN and SiC packages and power-related assemblies. This required innovative equipment to ensure solder joints had less than 3% void rate. Altus recommended ASSCON vapour phase soldering systems were installed because of their advanced technology and functionality, which sets them above many other providers.

Jiri Kucera, Altus Operations Director, said: “Today’s complex electronic assemblies require precision manufacturing. Voids in solder joints can reduce their reliability, so it is critical to use innovative equipment to prevent them. VP6000 from ASSCON is the ideal solution for CIL. The system combines the benefits of vapour phase technology with a vacuum chamber to reliably produce solder joints and prevent voids and is engineered for the soldering of small and middle-sized board series.

“Its capability ensures CIL meets the exacting requirements to manufacture advanced PCBAs from both NPI and production runs.”

Further investment to advance CIL’s SMT production processes included the Scienscope AXC-800 III X-ray component counter for booking all components in and out of their stores. Altus recommended this revolutionary system because it utilises state-of-the-art X-Ray technology to capture images of components inside the reels and uses an intelligent AI algorithm to count the quantities with an accuracy of 99.9% in less than two seconds per reel.

This intuitive system makes inventory management and component counting faster and more accurate and ensures automatic traceability, an essential requirement for CIL’s advanced electronic assemblies and its customer’s high standards.

CIL Managing Director John Boston said: “The equipment from Altus gives us the capability and capacity to enable both our existing customer base and to realise growth potential. It also positions CIL as a central enabler in the ‘Driving the Electric Revolution’ and ensures we continue to be a leader in electronic manufacturing. With the global component shortage still on-going, stock accuracy has never been more important than it is right now.”