In today's ever-changing, fast paced electronic manufacturing environment, there is a great demand for qualified manufacturing professionals who truly understand the complexities of modern manufacturing processes. There is no time to spend on "trial and error" process development. You must have in place process engineering personnel who can achieve the desired results in a timely and efficient manner. Unfortunately, as good as most academic engineering programs are, they lack the ability to expose the student to "hands on" manufacturing practices. None provide actual "real world" manufacturing scenarios as part of the training curriculum.

The question remains: How do you train inexperienced personnel without sacrificing valuable manufacturing time? The answer to this question can be found at the EMPF. The EMPF recognized the lack of training options available to manufacturers who wanted to expose their engineering and operations staff to actual manufacturing scenarios. For this reason the EMPF has developed an intensive two week training seminar known as "Boot Camp."

The EMPF has a clearly defined mission. Operating a National Center of Excellence under the leadership of ACI and in conjunction with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the goal of the EMPF Learning Center is to provide thorough knowledge based training to engineering and operations personnel involved in the complex world of electronics manufacturing. The EMPF achieves this mission by partnerships with academia, equipment and materials manufacturers and private industry, forming an exceptionally strong alliance to find solutions to the problems associated with today's electronic manufacturing requirements.

The Boot Camp curriculum consists of intensive manufacturing training over a two week period, geared specifically towards those individuals in your organization who will make the decisions on how your manufacturing processes will be deployed. The specific topics covered throughout the curriculum will have great impact on the success of your manufacturing processes. Topics covered include material selection, reliability, acceptability standards, statistical process control tools, design of experiments and all aspects of the manufacturing process. The attendees will learn the fundamental theory and application of processes such as stencil printing, adhesive dispensing, automated optical inspection, automated component placement, thermal profiling, reflow processing, wave soldering, aqueous and solvent cleaning and cleanliness verification. Not only will the attendees have a thorough understanding of the science of the process involved, they will also have the opportunity to perform and "fine tune" the process using our state-of-the-market demonstration factory. The ability of the attendees to use the manufacturing equipment provides a unique advantage in seeing first-hand the effects of process parameter changes to the success of the process.

What happens if squeegee pressure is too high? What effect does insufficient heat in the thermal profile have on solder connections? These questions not only can be discussed but can also be visualized by the hands-on applications throughout the two week session.

Although the volume of material presented to the attendees is great, the course is structured accordingly to provide continuity between theory and application. Each module of the curriculum is presented by technical experts familiar with the particular processes involved. The course material is first presented in lecture form in the classroom environment.

This allows a structured presentation of the material as well as the opportunity for class discussion and interaction. Immediately following the lecture presentation, the attendees will proceed to the manufacturing floor of the EMPF where they can apply the theory into practice. The ability to immediately apply theory into practice is a powerful learning tool. Interaction and discussion amongst the attendees, along with the technical expertise from our staff and the ability to regulate and analyze process parameters and results, combine into an insightful learning experience. In addition, the attendees will be provided with all course material required including study and reference materials for the topics discussed.

Boot Camp will be valuable meaningful training for your engineering staff, providing valuable hands-on-real world manufacturing experience. The two week sessions are scheduled quarterly throughout the year and held at the ACI campus in Philadelphia . The facility is equipped with the latest manufacturing equipment provided through our partnerships with the leading equipment manufacturers in the industry. Manufacturers such as Electrovert, BTU, Cookson, Mirae America , Technical Devices, Glenbrook Technologies and many others help to make the EMPF the premier manufacturing training facility. If you would like to experience the challenge of the EMPF Boot Camp, please call (610) 362-1320 for further information regarding scheduling of classes and registration. Take the challenge and realize for yourself the advantages provided by the EMPF.