Empfasis - Manufacturer’s Corner: Thermal Profiling

KIC, a manufacturer of thermal profiling instruments for the electronics assembly process, develops tools to help electronic manufacturers improve quality, productivity and traceability. At the Electronic Manufacturing Productivity Facility, the KIC 2000 is an indispensable tool in providing consistency of oven performance and thermal monitoring. The four areas in which KIC 2000 can add excellence to the manufacturing process are:

Thermal profiling
Thermal process development
Continuous process monitoring
Thermal process traceability

Thermal profiling involves measuring the time vs. temperature relationship as the subject board travels through the reflow chambers. The data relayed by the KIC 2000 includes statistics such as peak temperature, soak, time above liquidous, and more. The product’s profile is crucial to understanding the “success” of the thermal process relative to the factors that limit the process. This is known as the process window.

Thermal process development deals with defining the appropriate process window and quickly setting up your thermal process device to achieve maximum effectiveness of the given process window. KIC recommends a three-step, analytical format: Define, Measure & Improve. A correct process window is primarily defined by the specifications for solder, components and substrate. KIC includes a built-in library of specs for hundreds of available solders. The operator can modify the limits of the application based on the tolerances for the specific application to arrive at the correct process window. To improve the process (or machine recipe), the process itself must be measured to determine its effectiveness. The measurement must include actual process data and the profile’s “fit” to your process window. KIC’s oven recipe search engine automatically selects the “One Best” oven setting by reviewing billions of alternative oven settings within a few seconds. You can choose to optimize the results and thereby improving the full scope of the reflow process.

Continuous process monitoring takes the error away from a time consuming process. Once the reflow process is up and running, a certain fluctuation or drift is unavoidable. KIC’s automated and continuous process monitoring solution provides all critical statistics for every part that passes through the oven. As the real-time data is collected, KIC’s system will warn if the process drifts out of control and it will shut down the feed conveyor if the process goes out of spec. This essentially ensures a zero-defect thermal process regardless of application.

Thermal process traceability is almost as important as the thermal process itself. Historically, product that has been manufactured and delivered to the end customer does not carry with it information or documentation detailing the thermal process it experienced during production. Only information logging what recipe was used when a product entered and exited the machine may be stored. The KIC 2000 measures the profile for each processed product, the profiles “fit” to the established process window, relevant information such as date and time stamp, product name, oven recipe and so on. This information may be retrieved at any point in time by simply scanning the product bar code.

Since 1999, the year the KIC 2000 was first introduced, continued improvements and innovations have been added to this wireless profiler. Profiling can now be done in a matter of seconds; self triggering features are in place to automate a starting process. Upgraded features such as aluminum tape for attaching thermocouples greatly reduces prep time as opposed to laboriously soldering with high-temperature solders. Perhaps the most revolutionary additions to the KIC 2000 is called “Auto Focus”. This utility builds an application library that is both intuitive and self evolving. Because it can detect solder paste and reflow ovens, simply enter loaded board dimensions as well as weight. The KIC 2000 will instruct the user of the starting procedure. By a single instruction from this starting point, users are guaranteed to be well within their process windows.

KIC has committed that future improvements will include the capability to optimize on energy use. The system will, within seconds, select the oven recipe that consumes the lowest level of energy to produce a product within specification. KIC designs, promotes and dedicates its products with an eye toward greener manufacturing processes.

Oven manufacturers are today building high-quality, stable machines. The KIC 2000 differentiates itself with value-added solutions for process traceability, documentation capabilities and a higher level of accurate and easy to use automation.

For more information related to this article, or to schedule a demonstration of the KIC 2000 thermal profiler located at the EMPF, contact Ken Friedman, 610-362-1200 x 279 or via email at kfriedman@aciusa.org.