ASM and Siemens Building Technologies in Zug

Siemens’s electronics production in Zug is characterized by its versatility and its focus on especially demanding products in the company’s portfolio. On four SMT lines, the company manufactures circuit boards for high-volume products such as fire alarms as well as for products with very small and medium lot sizes. Daily challenges range from handling super-small 01005 components to managing a high component mix to printing with multilevel stencils. An SMT line that is equipped with a DEK Horizon printer, a SIPLACE X4 and a SIPLACE SX2 handles the production of fast sellers by churning out up to 12,000 modules per day. The setup changeover effort is being kept low on purpose in order to be able to handle more changeovers.

Flexible and sophisticated

Flexibility is also in demand at the other three lines, because lot sizes can be as small as 20 units, and two product changeovers per hour are nothing unusual. An efficient setup concept and a stable printing process are essential prerequisites for running an efficient factory.
“Here in Zug we have transformed ourselves more and more from a high-volume to a high-mix production environment in recent years. We manufacture many highly sophisticated products with a broad component spectrum, and industry trends like the advancing miniaturization don’t pass us by, either,” explains Roland Schönenberger. “We consider printing to be a core process in electronics production, which is why we aim to make it as stable and effective as possible. In the past, the minimal component distances on many of our products frequently led to printing and subsequently soldering errors that required manual rework. Such repairs take up valuable time and have a negative effect on your overall productivity.”

ASM ProcessExpert – a completely new concept

Last year, Roland Schönenberger heard from ASM and its Swiss distribution partner Hilpert about ASM ProcessExpert, the world’s first self-learning inline expert system for electronics manufacturing. It consists of the self-learning, real-time ASM ProcessEngine software and ASM ProcessLens, an innovative, high-precision 5D solder paste measurement system – an advanced 3D and 2D SPI system that uses a software-controlled digital light processor with 8 million micro-mirrors.

By continuously adding measurement data to its database, ASM ProcessEngine continuously adds to its printing process knowledge while taking the interdependencies of the various parameters and the stencil design into account. ASM ProcessEngine then uses all this information to propose ideal settings to the operators or optionally control the printing process autonomously.

After seeing a live demonstration of the system at the equipment supplier’s SMT Center of Competence in Munich and a short evaluation phase, Siemens Building Technologies decided in late 2017 to purchase two ASM ProcessExpert systems, which were to be installed in two of the company’s high-mix SMT lines in Zug. “ASM convinced us of the ASM ProcessExpert concept. Being part of such a new approach was exciting for us, and we hope that our experience will contribute to further improvements of this solution.”

Gaining trust in the new process expert

Sascha Schmitz, the project manager for the ASM ProcessExpert at Siemens in Zug, describes the first implementation phase as follows: “One of the systems we integrated into the line very quickly after the initial calibration. The second system for the high-mix line we initially kept offline to allow the team to familiarize itself with the new machine and adapt the standard libraries and process windows of ASM ProcessEngine to our requirements. After this introductory phase, the second system was integrated to the line as well. Both systems are linked and share their knowledge databases. Everything that one machine learns, the other learns as well.”

Over time, the two systems were given more and more control over the printing process. Both systems inspect the results of the DEK Horizon paste printers on each circuit board. Before they can “fall out” of the prescribed process windows, ASM Process Expert initiates countermeasures such as adjusting the cleaning cycle or the paste volume. “In the past, our operators set and monitored the printing parameters. Today, the ASM Process Expert does this on its own,” says Schmitz. “Needless to say, our team had to first gain trust in the system’s actions. But as we monitored our KPIs, we quickly realized that the Process Expert has increased our printing quality significantly and made the process more robust. Today, we rely fully on the system’s functionality.”

KPIs send a message

“When we started out on this project, our goal was to reduce manual board repairs and have fewer soldering errors, a more stable printing process, and an improved job flow,” explains Schönenberger. “We have achieved all these objectives, and the numbers back this up.” Boards no longer need to be re-soldered at the repair station. Siemens places several million components each day, and the ASM ProcessExpert has reduced the dpmo rate by 80 percent to the low single digits. The need for operator assists at the line has declined as well. The production runs much more smoothly and efficiently.

“The cooperation with ASM and Hilpert is superb, and our investment has certainly paid for itself,” says Schönenberger. “What we are especially interested in now are the possibilities being offered by Industry 4.0. We also want more automation for our material handling on the shop floor as well as simplified production scheduling and setup planning. We want Siemens Zug to be a pioneering manufacturer. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with these suppliers in the future.”

Siemens Building Technologies in Zug (www.siemens.com)