Viscom's Technology Forum is known for offering a wide range of content with valuable practical relevance, while also looking beyond the horizon. At the beginning of October, Viscom's campus once again provided the opportunity to experience state-of-the-art inspection solutions for electronics production live and to exchange ideas. Thanks to the hybrid event concept, a large part of the program could also be followed online.
Karsten Schischke sensitized the audience to theCO2 balance in PCB and assembly productionHowmuch does our experience help us in times when changes happen much faster than we were used to in the past? Why do we need a culture today in which it is possible to make mistakes? Under the title 'Never get lost - the art of making difficult decisions', renowned keynote speaker Peter Brandl presented ways to achieve greater clarity and orientation in order to actually achieve goals once they have been set. According to Brandl, many projects develop an astonishing momentum of their own. Problems and difficulties are discussed, things go round in circles and no progress is made. Peter Brandl is a consultant, pilot, author and entrepreneur. He shed light on various decision-making traps that are important not to fall into. These include, for example, entrenched habits or the well-known bubble in which you are quickly surrounded by people who have similar opinions and basic attitudes to you, especially on the Internet. Peter Brandl pleaded for more willingness to take risks and for the formation of teams that bring together different strengths and sympathies.
Expert contribution on the ecological future of electronics production
One much-discussed issue that requires clear decisions and swift action in today's world is that of suitable climate strategies, for example. Karsten Schischke from the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration gave an exciting insight into this. His presentation dealt with approaches that can be effectively implemented in companies today, from in-house production to the supply chain. These include the company's own vehicles, heating with fossil fuels, process emissions, electricity consumption and upstream and downstream activities. Karsten Schischke also looked specifically at PCB production and mentioned influencing factors such as the number of layers in the product or the energy mix that the company uses at the production site.
Viscom application specialist Rainer Duhm demonstrated what needs to be considered when creating inspection programs for 3D layer analyses on the X8011-III 3D MXI system
Julien Jahn from Viscom's Product Development department showed how artificial intelligence can be used in modern quality control today
Successful hybrid event
Both Peter Brandl and Karsten Schischke as well as all Viscom speakers traditionally presented their topics in front of a live audience. In 2021, the Viscom Technology Forum had to take place entirely online due to the pandemic. The regulations now in force in conjunction with the corresponding precautionary measures made it possible to return to the years before the pandemic and Viscom was able to present many innovations in the presence of numerous participants. "We showed our best side and can be proud of the progress we have made. This becomes particularly clear at an event like this," says Carsten Salewski, Executive Board Member for Sales, Marketing and International Business at Viscom. This year's motto was: New Horizons in Electronics Production - Innovative Automation with Smart Inspection, AI and Process Networking. An English-language counterpart to the two-day event took place online immediately afterwards.
The motto is a deliberate reminder that quality control in the ever-changing production of state-of-the-art electronics must always be one step ahead of market requirements. To this end, solutions were presented at the Viscom Technology Forum that open up new horizons. One example is the cleverly thought-out condition monitoring of the inspection systems used and the associated peripheral devices, as offered by Viscom as part of its modular vConnect platform. This enables forward-looking action in the sense of modern predictive maintenance. Centralized IT management and efficient handling of large amounts of data are further areas of this comprehensive modular system, which was examined from various perspectives in a presentation.
Perennial topic AI
One of the many terms used in connection with vConnect is 'artificial intelligence'. A separate focus was placed on this topic at this year's Technology Forum. In one of the workshops on offer, visitors were able to find out what can be achieved with AI in the production lines today. Whether in the verification of inspection results or in the segmentation of voids - artificial intelligence can effectively support everyone in production in finding errors and help to make their tasks more flexible. Other topics in the wide range of presentations, workshops and meet-the-expert sessions included the use of ECAD data as a basis for creating inspection programs, 3D layer analyses and volume representations in the field of manual and automatic X-ray, the correct handling of radiation exposure during inline X-ray with the help of a special dose server, ensuring the repeatability of 3D AXI inspection results and the fast transfer of 3D AOI data via the open IPC CFX interface.
There was plenty of opportunity to talk to Viscom experts, such as the experienced application specialist Tino Mißbach
Wolf Rüdiger Pennuttis, Category Sales Manager at Viscom and one of the main contacts for 3D wire bond inspection, gave a live presentation of the latest developments in this area
One of the stops on the company tour was Viscom's competence center for X-ray tubes, where Zoubir Debbah from Viscom's special production department (at the computer) was available to answer questions
Interest in the Viscom Technology Forum came not only from the industry. On the political side, well-known SPD politicians paid a visit to the event: Lars Klingbeil, member of the Bundestag and party chairman, Adis Ahmetovic, member of the Bundestag, Stefan Politze, deputy leader of the parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament, and Steffen Krach, president of the Hanover region. In an intensive discussion, one of the topics was where politics can effectively support companies like Viscom. A short tour also provided a lively impression of how work is carried out at Viscom and the special features of the inspection systems manufactured there.
Those who wanted to take a detailed look behind the scenes of the company were able to take part in a large guided tour, which gave an exclusive insight into production and logistics. The program included a visit to the competence center for microfocus X-ray tubes, where a variety of closely interlinked tasks have been located since June 2019, from development to production and final acceptance to customer-specific adaptations of the tubes. Three radiation protection rooms are available here for endurance and stress tests of the products. Tailor-made tours on innovation at Viscom once again focused attention on the current highlights of the inspection technologies 3D-SPI, 3D-AOI, 3D-AXI, 3D-MXI, 3D-Bond and CCI. The most important information was provided directly at the respective inspection systems, as the photo examples illustrate.
