ACW technology selects phoenix|x-ray from Contax

Assembly Automation

ISSN: 0144-5154

Article publication date: 26 September 2008

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Citation

(2008), "ACW technology selects phoenix|x-ray from Contax", Assembly Automation, Vol. 28 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2008.03328daf.003

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


ACW technology selects phoenix|x-ray from Contax

Article Type: Mini features From: Assembly Automation, Volume 28, Issue 4

Production automation system specialist, Contax Ltd, has recently supplied a phoenix|x-ray microme|x system and new x|act software (Figure 3) to a major contract electronics manufacturer, ACW Technology Ltd This new system enhances their existing X-ray inspection capability, and will provide ACW with greater inspection accuracy so improving process control and fault diagnosis.

 Figure 3 When used with x|act software, the phoenix|x-ray microme|x systems
X-ray capability is improved

Figure 3 When used with x|act software, the phoenix|x-ray microme|x systems X-ray capability is improved

Explained Dave Norris, Process Engineer at ACW Technology Ltd “Our existing system was over 5 years old, X-ray technologies have moved on considerably since then and we wanted to take advantage of this technology leap.”

“Boards are becoming more of a challenge,” he continued. “We are being asked to build higher density circuit boards with ever increasing numbers of Area Array packages, which are either high mass high ball count BGAs, or sub-miniature CSPs, and all this with an ever-growing quantity of components being placed on the underside of circuit boards, directly beneath these arrays.”

Commenting on the current status of the installation, Dave concluded, “We are still in the process of learning the software – but it does everything we want and more. Because of the image quality and high magnification, we are now able to detect even very subtle faults that may not have previously been flagged. This visual feedback will enable us to set up, control and monitor our processes more accurately, and provide an invaluable tool for our diagnostics engineers,” he finished.

x|act software

Launched at Productronica, November 2007, the new x|act software allows fast, CAD-based fully automated inspection of solder joints at the highest magnifications. It comes with a specially designed, intuitive inspection program, which requires only a simple, one-time configuration. Using a scanner, the component’s CAD-data is read into the X-ray system and laid over the image (live CAD-Overlay). This allows the user to have the complete sample data available at all times, even with rotating and tilting the sample and during ovhm.

The software platform features a CAD view, which is constantly displayed in small view on the screen, to facilitate navigation of the sample.

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