Blue Chip Technology increases SMT capacity by up to 400%

A long term user of Europlacer equipment – Blue Chip invested in a Europlacer Progress 6 around 10 years ago – the technical demands placed upon the production line have increased recently to the point where the Progress 6 machine was operating beyond its original specification.
“We have been very pleased with the performance of the Europlacer machine over the years, it flexibility and accuracy have been excellent. However, with the increase in complexity and volume on our computer products, we found that we have had to use the Progress 6 machine to place devices that did not exist when the machine was developed!” stated Mark Kenny, Production Engineer.
Although the ‘easy’ choice for Blue Chip was to purchase a Europlacer machine, Mark decided to survey the market to see what choices were available – “with the passage of time, we felt we should take a look out in the SMT market to see how systems have improved over the years, and although there are many capable machines available, we felt on balance that Europlacer could offer us the best solution for speed / flexibility / accuracy” commented Mark.
The decision was made to purchase a Europlacer XP system to place in line with the existing Europlacer machine. The small footprint XP has a limited feeder count and is primarily designed as a capacity boost to an existing line - Mark Kenny was impressed with the specification “the Europlacer XP machine allowed us to add significant capacity in terms of CPH, but since we already had the Progress 6 machine with its 198 x 8mm feeder slots, we did not need to have a huge feeder capability on the new system. The accuracy and range of devices that we can now place between the 2 machines is superb”. The addition of the small footprint XP machine has boosted Blue Chip’s capacity considerably since its installation and Mark Kenny commented on this boost “One of the products that used to take us 13 minutes to produce is now being assembled in just over 3 minutes!“