Delta's FPC Pick-and-Place Machine Elevates FPC Transfer Efficiency

Circuit boards are common key components in the electronics industry. PCBs and FPCs are the two major types of circuit boards. A PCB is a rigid printed circuit board. An FPC is a flexible circuit board made of flexible plastics film and coppers glued together. Compared with a PCB, the FPC features compact, lightweight, and flexible characteristics. It can be adopted in small, dynamic electronics devices with any geometrical shape, enhancing the flexibility of the circuit and mechanical structure design. In addition, an FPC can be applied as an induction coil, and a shield or touch magnetic switch. As a result, many manufacturers are dedicated to FPC production.

However, the low rigidity of the FPC is prone to defects during manufacturing and is difficult to inspect and repair. This is a challenging issue for the FPC production process, which is complicated and adopts different equipment and material trays at every station. Traditionally, manual labor or general FPC pick-and-place machine are used to change material trays, which is time-consuming, low in yield rate, and difficult to changeover. To smoothly connect the production flow among devices, reduce FPC defects, and enhance cycle time, precision and stability, Delta configured anupgraded FPC Pick-and-Place Machine for an FPC manufacturer in Thailand.

Delta's FPC Pick-and-Place Machine adopts two sets of SCARA robots for pick-and-place. With the patent-certified technology and vibration design, the materials can easily transferred. The positioning time is shortened compared with machine vision assisted robots, allowing full-speed operation while saving costs, accelerating cycle time, enhancing precision, and reducing the FPC defect rate.

The action flow of Delta's FPC Pick-and-Place Machine is as follows. First, import related parameters and the material position coordinates of the trays in an excel file to the operation interface. Adopt the Hot Swappable Mid-range PLC AH Series as the master controller, and transmit the motion path command to the Robot Controller with Servo Drive Integrated ASDA-MS Series via I/O signals. The ASDA-MS controls the SCARA robots for pick-and-place. When the materials are placed on the discharge tray, the cylinder commands a vacuum sucker to slide the FPC into its position on the tray to finish the transfer operation.

The Hot Swappable Mid-range PLC AH Series integrates software and an interface with its modular design. The AH Series supports various communication protocols to connect multiple devices. The ASDA-MS Series integrates a robot controller and servo drive, featuring real-time and complete dynamic compensation for different industrial robots and motion paths. With Delta's SCARA robots, the FPC Pick-and-Place Machine fulfills the high speed and high precision demands of FPC transfer. Its benefits include:

• Enhances product precision and quality
The patent-certified design to protect the materials from defects, and effectively enhances tray changeover speed and equipment operation stability. It can successfully achieve tray pick-and-place for 10,000 times without defects, greatly elevating the yields.

• Fulfills various production processes
The machine adopts a different coordinate system for material feeding and discharge. To build a new machining parameter for new products, it only requires the users to import the coordinates of the new material position on the tray to the SCARA robots. In addition, the modular mechanical design fulfills various production processes.

• Real-time monitoring and alarm
The real-time monitoring of the production process provides instant alarm notification to ensure operator safety. Connecting to the DIAMES Manufacturing Execution System, the production data can be uploaded instantly for managers to track the production status.

Delta's FPC Pick-and-Place Machine adopts industrial robots with a vibrating material tray to enhance tray changeover speed, and protect the material intact. It is an efficient production solution for the FPC manufacturing industry to save on labor costs, enhance production flexibility and shorten operation time.