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In this interview, IPS President Mike Brask shares some insights about the company’s latest automated ENIG line installed at SEL’s new $100 million PCB facility in Moscow, Idaho. As Mike explains, this line features quite a few innovations not usually seen in North America.
Barry Matties: Mike, let’s start with some details about the features of this fully enclosed ENIG line. Just how long is this line?
Mike Brask: Overall, this line is 81 feet long. Typically, ENIG lines haven’t been this big in North America. One of the things we also had to do on this line was to elevate it two feet to facilitate the above-ground drain system SEL installed. Everything has gravity feeds into their pump stations to move solutions to their zero-discharge waste treatment area.
One other feature to note is that each tank has a continuous level-control system to automate the dosing of chemicals, which allows them to dial in their concentrations of water and chemistry. They’re totalizing water flow usages, productivity on all the rinses, and maintaining checks and balances on all the key tanks so that this line can run without constant operator intervention.
We have installed individual double-jacketed nickel tanks that allow for smaller batches of boards to work. With any of these hot processes, the trick is to cool that tank quickly. These have jacket coolers on them that are plate heat exchangers and will refrigerate that jacket down out of that active plating zone within an hour. We also have our latest 45-degree oscillation features here, along with bump vibration.
Matties: How are you offering ongoing support to your customers?
Brask: All of our lines are networked into our facility. So, if customers have questions or need troubleshooting support, we employ two full-time programmers who do remote training to solve problems, or whatever is needed. That remote work gives us instant access to all our lines in the field.
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the August 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.
