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In this interview, Wolfgang Heinecke, head of global product management at Mycronic, discusses advancements and applications of jet printing technology, which offers solutions to the challenges faced by traditional stencil printing. He highlights the key benefits of jet printing, and explains the qualification process for solder paste compatibility as well as the software-driven nature of jet printing, which allows for quick program creation and real-time adjustments.
Nolan Johnson: Wolfgang, let’s start with your background.
Wolfgang Heinecke: I started at Siemens in 2000, working in product management and marketing before I moved to SIPLACE sales in France. I joined ASYS Group in 2013; I spent five years in Singapore, in charge of sales and service for ASYS in the rest of Asia, before joining Mycronic in 2018 in Germany as sales director for DACH. About 18 months ago, I joined Mycronic headquarters to lead product management. I have a team of five people, each one in charge of different product lines, including jet printing.
Jet printing is a completely different approach. It avoids all the challenges of stencil printing. Nothing touches the PCB so there's no need for stencils. You don’t need alignment between the stencil and PCB. You have the freedom to operate and to bring in the amount of solder paste you need in each place.
The printing challenges are increasing. If you look, for example, into heavy EV boards, you’ll find small chip components close to tall connectors. This puts stencil printers through a lot of challenges because you need either step stencils or you need to find a solder paste compromise for the complete PCB. However, with a jet printer, we have the possibility to solve this.
The jet printer itself is built on a high-performing gantry system and a printhead capable of depositing ultra-small droplets: one to two nanoliters, up to 300 times per second (300 Hertz). This means one million dots per hour or even more. This combination makes jet printing technology perfect for random dot dispensing.
In 2005, with the MY500, the goal was to replace stencil printing. We’re not there yet fully. Stencil printing has its place when it comes to printing speed—like in a placement machine, the jet printer goes from pad to pad, shooting solder paste deposits on the fly.
Nevertheless, market demand for jet printing is on the rise due to the increasingly challenging characteristics of PCBs. Some large automotive electronics manufacturers are looking into this because their EV boards have bigger component variety. Now they are combining stencil print and jet print to bring all the advantages together.
To continue reading this interview, which originally appeared in the September 2024 SMT007 Magazine, click here.
