The productronica innovation award 2021 in the SMT category goes to SMT Maschinen und Vertriebs GmbH & Co. KG in Wertheim. The award was given to “Profiling Plus” – an interplay of optimized air flow as well as individually controllable fan units and an innovative heating zone concept.
The requirements for a reflow soldering system are identical for all customers who often have to convert the systems to new soldering profiles due to the high variance of the products: Reduce the changeover times in order to reduce downtimes and thus increase productivity.
The reflow systems from SMT have an enormous advantage over other systems in order to achieve this goal: The innovative zone concept enables - in addition to an optimal air flow and adjustable fan units - individual parameterization of the soldering profile.
The approach is the same for every customer and therefore every system: The first step is to define and group the products into different categories. Borderline cases are identified - the thermally heaviest product is operated at full power and the temperature at which the optimal result can be achieved is checked. The procedure is then repeated with the thermally lightest product and reduced performance. In this way, the two extremes are covered and the intermediate stages are identified.
The fan speed and temperature are then optimally parameterized until the desired profile is achieved: For the lightest product, the temperature of the heaviest product is maintained and the fan speed and thus the air flow is minimized. Due to the high performance of the oven with the unique heating zone concept, the result is an optimal temperature profile for all products. Temperature differences of up to +/- 10 °C can be achieved per product.
The challenges for SMT lie exclusively in the precise determination of the customer's product range and in the precise parameterization - but this could be largely standardized through the specially developed test procedure.
“I am delighted with my success at one of the most important prizes in the industry. The award is a great confirmation of our work,” says CEO Dr. Christian Ulzhöfer.
Put to the test - SMT Wertheim examins independent testing by TÜV Süd
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