Viscom’s Approach to Inline X-Ray 

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

In this interview, Viscom President Ed Moll and CEO Jesper Lykke discuss the importance of inline X-rays for real-time data and board inspection. They also discuss AI integration, customer inquiries, and ROI considerations. Also, as Ed moves into semi-retirement, he reflects on his long career, recent developments, and the evolving X-ray industry. He shares his insights on career opportunities for emerging engineers in the industry.

Barry Matties: Ed, let’s start with the role transitions and title changes.

Ed Moll: Jesper and I have been working together for 21 years. Six years ago, Jesper became CEO, and I became president, and we worked together to run the company.

That worked very well because we've known each other for a long time. I had a five-year contract, and it was up last June. I went into a semi-part-time retirement position, which is what I'm doing now. 

Matties: Congratulations. That is a big transition to come off a long, storied career. Now what do you do? 

Jesper Lykke: We'll still be utilizing him a little bit. Even if he wanted to, we couldn't, and we wouldn't let him go. We'll definitely be contacting him. 

Moll: I like that because it helps me transition into this new phase of my life that I'm not fully prepared for. 

Matties: How long have you been in the industry? 

Moll: I've been in the industry since 1989. Before that, I worked in the X-ray world, but on the industrial side. So, I've been working for a very long time. However, the industry has changed quite a bit since 1989. 

Matties: In those years, what stands out the most in terms of change, or what may have surprised you that you didn't expect to see?

Moll: I would say the downward spiral of equipment pricing; it's more competitive now than it was in those days, especially in the X-ray business. There used to be very few competitors in that space. I was with Fine Focus USA then, and there just weren't that many microfocus X-ray companies. With Viscom, we offer inline X-ray and offline solutions. 

Matties: For all factory integration, you need to be in the inline these days. 

Lykke: Components are not getting any larger, and they're not getting any easier to look at with the naked eye. X-rays are definitely a must, whether you like it or not. You get the real-time data. 

Matties: Talk a little bit about inline X-ray.  

Lykke: Inline X-rays are supercritical. Many customers do a sample inspection, so they have a manual X-ray. They put some boards in, but that can obviously give you the data of that specific board and trend if you do it regularly enough. But inline X-rays, as already indicated, will give you the live data right there for every product. Especially with BGAs, it only takes one little hiccup, and then you can scrap the board, depending on its complexity. 

Matties: Board real estate is quite expensive these days. If you're X-raying, that's most likely an expensive board.

Lykke: Yes, if we are talking about boards for a aerospace, the military, or similar. 

Matties: When customers come to you, what are their challenges or needs? 

Lykke: Of course, they want everything done in a hurry, but it depends on where they come from. Do they know X-ray in the first place? If not, then obviously, that's a little bit of an educational talk—what it is, how it works. They're more, let's say, behind the scenes. There's more needed to get those things done. But the obvious question is: How can we do it? What is the board size, and how quickly can we inspect the sample?

Matties: Are they looking at X-ray to replace AOI?

Lykke: It's an add-on, for sure. Sometimes, it's driven by them; other times, it's driven by their customers. They say you must inspect the whole board, these through-hole components, these BGAs, or whatever other hidden joints underneath the shield of some sort. It really depends on where they're coming from.

Matties: You're talking about educating people on X-rays. What do they really need to understand? What are they missing?  

Lykke: Obviously, that's individual, but some people would think that it's like an AOI. You “take a picture,” analyze it, and then send it out the door. 

Moll: Customers tend to feel that it should work like an AOI machine, but it’s different, and there is more to it. Sometimes, the price of an inline machine shocks them a little bit. We try to explain to them that the prices of these machines have not risen much in 20 years. If you consider inflation, the price of a machine today is less than it was 20 years ago. Yes, it is a big-ticket item and it requires operators who know processes. Otherwise, they don't get the proper use of the machine. 

Matties: Artificial intelligence is a big topic everywhere. Are customers asking you about it? 

Lykke: Absolutely. Of course, AI is a buzzword. “What can AI do for me? What AI do you have?” We have done similar to AI for a long long time; it was just not called AI. It was some behind-the-scenes algorithm mathematics, calculation, and assistance. These days, it's called AI. Of course, anything we can do with our machines and our software to help the customer speed up and make it smoother for them to get the board out the door is appreciated from all sides.

AI can definitely help you in getting things to move faster. It can also reduce some of the tedious and timeconsuming part out of programming. It automatically recognizes components, assigns them, and knows how to inspect them. It can also help with error or defect finding.

AI models see millions of these defects, so it can help with determining whether this is a true defect. You take the human factor out, and then at the tail end of it, once you get the defect report, it alerts you, “I'm 99 percent sure this is a defect.” It gives them an indicator that it’s probably a defect. 

Without AI, there's the operator aspect, where operators need to be focused on every board for eight hours every day. Some customers rotate the operators to avoid fatigue.

AI can definitely help there as well. It can be a comfort to lean on that AI judgment call. But of course, the final—that it’s truly a defect we need to fix—is still the human interface.

Matties: When someone's looking at ROI, you obviously have data from your customers. What should they look for? How do they measure that?

Lykke: It's very different from customer to customer. It depends on how they're doing it today. If they're not doing any X-rays, then that's a learning curve, obviously, and a totally new process. If they don't have any operators, that's an investment, along with the machine. If they already have some manual X-rays, as I mentioned earlier, then the investments personnel-wise might be less and implimentaiton will be a lot easier. 

It really depends on the expectations. If you want an ROI in one, five, or 10 years, that is dependent on the product cost. As you alluded to, what if the product is for military and/or high-reliability products? Again, if it’s regular electronics, consumer electronics may not be as critical.

Matties: Ed, what advice would you give to emerging engineers and people entering the industry?  

Moll: There are a lot of gray-haired people like me in this industry. There are so many opportunities for a young person coming into this industry today. Because of the aging workforce, this is really a good career for young engineers. But they don't seem to gravitate as much to our industry for whatever reason.  

Matties: You are absolutely right. Gentlemen, I have certainly enjoyed our conversation.

Lykke: Yes, we enjoyed it as well.

Moll: Thank you.