IoT and Industry 4.0 showcased at APEX show

23rd March 2018

Viscom

Enaie Azambuja

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Viscom has announced that it had its best IPC APEX EXPO to-date with a record number of visitors inspired by its intelligent cross-linked systems – ready for i4.0 applications. From 27th February to 1st March, 2018, the company presented a complete range of advanced inspection systems, including 3D SPI, 3D AOI, 3D MXI and 3D AXI, and won a 2018 NPI Award for its X7056-II cutting-edge inline X-ray technology.

Viscom also partnered with the IPC Connected Factory Exchange (CFX) initiative, introduced for the first time ever at the IPC APEX EXPO. The CFX Showcase included live demonstrations of standardised Internet of Things (IoT) data from Viscom machines through the cloud and on to visitors’ mobile phones.

The demo took place during the entire show: On their personal devices, visitors observed real-time analytical reports, such as OEE (overall equipment effectiveness), unit counts, as well as the live data stream showing actual events occurring on the machines in front of them. With no software to install, nothing proprietary, and no middleware required, this illustrated the true nature of IoT, with CFX as the 100 percent open standard.

“As an AOI and X-ray inspection vendor, our systems are the sensors of any Industry 4.0 environment,” commented Carsten Salewski, President and CEO of Viscom Inc.

“Our equipment provides the data that can be used to improve processes and product quality. We have supported the IPC CFX standardisation efforts from day one. It was very exciting to see our industry's first standard based IoT network come to life in San Diego.”

When implementing concepts within the scope of Industry 4.0, 3D inspection systems for SPI, AOI, AXI and MXI from the same source are an obvious advantage. “So naturally Viscom was involved early on with several platforms like our own Quality Uplink and an open i4.0 interface that allows third parties to connect to our equipment” emphasised Salewski.

With the Quality Uplink software feature, Viscom enables intelligent linking of results from the different inspection gates. The operator has fast access to all the essential data and images.

Furthermore, the inspection systems can carry on fully automated communication with, for example, the placement machines and paste printers, and influence their parameters (Closed Loop).

Viscom Open Interface 4.0 on the other hand enables customers who have decided on a Viscom 3D AOI system to combine their results with those from a solder paste inspection for a networked evaluation, even if the SPI system is not from Viscom.