Blakell Europlacer Distribution plans to fill its booth at WNIE with fascination. That’s the promise made by Business Development & UK Sales Manager Andy Jones, with products on display from Aleader AOI, Tagarno inspection, Europlacer pick & place, Speedprint screen printing, as well as a brand new Europlacer product for goods-in relabelling.
While products from the distribution organisation’s own sister company, Europlacer, are just one of the lines represented, it is the Europlacer iineo+ placement platform that takes pride of place at this year’s exhibition. Despite a number of iineo+ sales across the UK, it is the first occasion that the machine has been shown at a public event in this country.
The iineo+ was first launched in the US early in 2017. An update on the company’s popular iineo model, it remains Europlacer’s best-selling platform and is renowned for its exceptional flexibility. The ‘Plus’ upgrade adds multi core processing for faster inter-machine and factory floor communication, an improved intuitive operator interface featuring large touch-screen functionality, enhanced traceability tools and, importantly, integrates Europlacer’s component electrical tester as standard.
Test? Important? Why?
Asked why component testing is considered increasingly important, experts at Europlacer, and across the wider electronics community (notably component suppliers), point to the prevalence of substandard and counterfeit parts leeching into the electronics supply chain as price pressures and shortages blight the industry. The integrated tester built into the iineo+ platform is a Kelvin-connected LCR bridge. With it, manufacturers have the option to electrically test selected components – or every component – between the actions of picking it from a reel or stick and placing it on the board. The tester returns real electrical values on-the-fly to weed out faulty parts. In turn, that drives up end-of-line product quality and confidence, reducing downline rework – or worse: field failures.
A key feature released with iineo+, and subsequently revealed to be the foundation required for Europlacer’s award-winning high-speed and ultra-flexible atom platform range launched late last year, is the upgraded operating system: RC5.16. This is the power behind the client/server architecture that now features on all current Europlacer platforms. It facilitates process-intensive tasks such as machine vision analysis to streamline productivity as well as an enhanced Package Library function that includes the display of non-optimal package settings, exact shape representations for different device types, and a new special analysis mode for difficult devices.
Scan Your Parts
No, this is not a modern take on the old office trick of photocopying your backside to amuse your work colleagues. It is, no less, another fascinating WNIE ‘first’! Blakell Europlacer Distribution will show a brand-new relabelling station from Europlacer designed for use by incoming goods teams.
The incoming goods station scans SMD component reels, dry packs and cartons. It features 5-megapixel cameras and an intelligent mirror deflection unit that automatically orientates the camera to the barcode and other labels affixed to the pack, irrespective of where the pack is placed on the scanner’s generous reading surface.
In less than one second, the system locates and identifies any number of labels on the pack or reel, captures label content at high resolution with millimetre precision, matches selected (or expected) labels to a database of suppliers, validates for plausibility, and transmits the resulting data directly to an ERM system or to a label printer to produce a bespoke label specific to the user’s inventory and storage requirements. The new relabelling station interfaces seamlessly with Europlacer’s Lzero3 intelligent lineside storage cabinets.
The Reward of Awards
A hot topic around this year’s WNIE event is the industry awards. In collaboration with publisher Datateam Business Media (responsible for such luminary industry titles as Automation, Design Solutions and Process & Control), these new awards include a category for Best Customer Service. Specifically, this category is judged by the panel assessing direct feedback from the contenders’ customer base. Blakell Europlacer Distribution entered and has been announced as a finalist. With more than 150 satisfied customers across the UK, the team is hopeful of a win – or at least an honourable mention. Europlacer Americas has picked up the prestigious Customer Service Award in the US for the past five years in a row. That same exemplary customer-centric philosophy is at the core of the UK operation too.
Europlacer has also entered its new atom3 placement machine into the fray for the snappily-titled award category: Aerospace/Military/Defence Product of the Year. Again, the company is shortlisted as a finalist. The atom3 features the twin turret technology found in top-end iineo+ II models alongside an eight-nozzle Pulsar pipette head to deliver the trademark flexibility at breathtakingly fast placement rates up to 65,000 component per hour. “The machine has already won a major industry award in the US, so fingers crossed,” says Andy Jones.
Where Should I Go First?
Find Fascinating Firsts on the Blakell Europlacer Distribution stand No. C56 at WNIE. Learn more at www.blakell-europlacer-distribution.co.uk or email andy.jones@europlacer.co.uk.
