Qualcomm Facility Installs 2nd ACE Selective Soldering System
Spokane Valley, Washington, USA - A Qualcomm facility in San Diego, California, has installed a 2nd selective soldering machine, a KISS-103, supplied by ACE Production Technologies, a leading OEM supplier of selective soldering equipment and technology for the electronics manufacturing industry.
The facility is primarily a new product development center characterized by high mix, low volume production of new products for customers within and outside of Qualcomm.
Qualcomm purchased their first ACE selective soldering machine, a fully automated KISS-104, approximately four years ago. The new KISS-103, equipped with ACE's new solder pot exchanger Service Cart and other innovations, was recently added to provide added production capability and flexibility to the process, according to Greg Balas, Manufacturing Engineer at the Qualcomm facility.
"As our assemblies became denser, the wave soldering machines with custom fixturing - expensive and time-consuming - that we had been using for post-soldering attachment simply could not handle the high-density," Balas says. "We switched to hand soldering, but the problem with hand soldering was variability or lack of consistency associated with a manual process."
"In our facility we're running on average a dozen to two dozen different assemblies in a single day," he says. "So speed in changeover and ease of setup, or how fast we can get back up to speed after changeover, are very important factors," Balas says. "Hand soldering has the advantage of not requiring fixturing or tooling, but we needed the consistency that can only be provided by selective soldering. Our new ACE machine complements the capabilities of our first machine and has made our production flow smoother, with fewer defects and faster, more efficient changeover and processing."
The KISS 103 is quick to set up and repeatable, providing both flexibility and large board handling capacity (18" x 24") with tight process control and consistent results. The KISS-103's precise process controls and programmable features provide the tools to set all process parameters, including immersion depths, pre-heat dwells, travel distances and speeds, solder temperature and wave height.
For more information about the KISS-103 and other selective soldering equipment and technology from ACE, visit. www.ACE-protech.com.
About ACE Production Technologies Inc.
ACE Production Technologies is a designer and builder of simple, affordable selective soldering, lead tinning, and related systems suitable for lead-free electronics assembly. ACE's line of rugged, reliable selective soldering systems includes the KISS 101, KISS-102, KISS-103, and the KISS-104 models; all feature lead-free compatible solder pots and are ideal for low to medium volume assembly. For more information, visit www.ace-protech.com, or contact the company at 3010 N. Industrial Park, 1st Street, Spokane Valley, WA 99216; Tel. 509-924-4898, e-mail sales@ace-protech.com.
Press Contact: Randy Allinson
Tel. 860-526-8903
E-mail: rallinson@snet.net
