Hi Carrie,

we are "contemplating" the same picture now. We are currently having the
AOIs in-line, before reflow and we are considering moving them post reflow
and do sampling. See comments below.

My advice: do test runs, a couple of weeks before reflow, a couple of weeks
post reflow. It might sound messy, but you can't imagine how important is to
make the right decision and to back it up with facts. No matter what you do,
some time down the road incredibly high ranking personnel will tell you "if
we had put it in the other place, we would have saved..."

Regards,
Ioan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Morse, Carrie [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 3:28 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      [TN] In-Line AOI
>
> We are in the process of deciding whether or not to put our AOI's In-Line
> either after the placement equipment and/or after the reflow oven.
>
> We are a small lot/high mix facility.
>
> We know the advantages of placing AOI in-line -- Catching problems before
> they are reflowed, real-time feedback, etc, etc, etc. [Tempea, Ioan]
> less and less true, the ceramic caps do not carry any marking so you can't
> tell if you have installed the wrong reel. Same for 0402 and it becomes a
> trend for 0603.
        The real time feedback is more a question of operator training, you
will see that the AOI operators tend to excessively use the tweezers instead
of giving feedback upstream.

> BUT...we've have also heard some disadvantages such as the equipment
> being a bottleneck, the need to have an additional operator to run the
> line,
> and, programming time eating into capacity (even though off-line
> programming
> packages are available) to name a few.   [Tempea, Ioan]  the bottleneck
> thing is eliminated by using sampling. For lo vol/ hi mix you inspect 100%
> the first batch and you sample the following ones. But true for the
> programming and the extra operator.
        Post reflow you will also catch the soldering defects, like
tombstoning or bridging.

> My feeling is that I'd love to have an in-line machine before and after
> the
> reflow oven and I'd love to add more operators to man these machines.
> But, I can't always get want I want -- I can try sometimes -- but I don't
> always
> get what I please!
>
> So ... Just wondering what others think about this.
>
> -Carrie
>
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