Although our first dual Y axis machine was sold in 1998, the recent economy has helped to increase the urgency for greater productivity gains with manageable cost structures! And so we have decided to put together an illustrative demonstration of the advantages of a dual Y system.

With a typical batch mode system, all operations are serial in nature: the operator loads a part, the operator presses run, the machine does its function and stops, the operator unloads the part and the cycle starts over again. The load and unload sequence is something that we conservatively estimate at a 10 second time cost. As the cycle time drops below about 1.5 minutes, the consequence of this 10 second layover becomes more significant. If you have a 10 second cycle time and a 10 second change over time, fully half of your plant productivity is given to getting parts on and off of the machine!

At a certain point (also around the 10 second mark) it gets to be more difficult for a line operator to keep up with the machine and then something with automated material handling, such as our ICP line, should be considered. Some parts are simply too awkward to be able to load and unload quickly and safely.

One of the interesting elements of New Precision Technology's take on this type of configuration is our "queued" over-ride. The operator loads the parts and as soon as they are loaded, they can press the RUN button and the machine will begin a new cycle right after it finishes the current cycle.

NOTE! With these systems relying so heavily on operator loading consistency, some consideration should be given to validating the part load by way of sensing. Often, New Precision Technology will employ vacuum sensing, prox sensing, ultrasonic sensing, or tactile sensing where appropriate. A very effective example of vacuum sensing can be seen in the hot melt video found through the supplied link. In this example, the presence of a plastic sheet is sensed both when applied and when removed. In this double test method we can actually use the vacuum sense as a run cycle signal, allowing for a seven second cycle time!

    Helpful links for all engineers!

    Under our TOOLS AND RESOURCES tab, we now have additional resources which will consist of various links to industry web sites and various white papers we have issued. For the moment, the two papers we have incorporated into the site cover

1) Return-on-investment issues (ROI determination for a given project) and
2) Process control through height measurement and needle tip calibration.

We are planning several additional articles, and as they are added, we will mention them in our newsletters.

    UV cure materials have many critical production floor advantages, but many UV cure materials are skin sensitizers and present contact dermatitus issues. In low cycle time, high volume applications, the newly formed gasket or dispensed conformal coat is passed on automatically to a UV cure lamp by either conveyor or index table. In low volume applications this additional automation can be cost prohibitive, causing many to opt for operator load and unload of uncured parts.

At New Precision Technology we have an alternative for low volume production: on-board uv cure. With this process, a gasket or coating is dispensed and then the part is driven to the back of the dispenser where a UV lamp exposes the material and the material then solidifies. As a result, the operator is not exposed to uncured material through part handling. As there are no handling steps between dispense and cure, there is no opportunity for accidental deformation due to handling. Gasket slumping is controlled as the interval between dispense and cure is strictly defined.

While this is not a new process for us - we have systems with on-board UV cure that have been in the field for more than ten years - our new graphical-user-interface tightly integrates a variety of differing UV manufacturer's systems with our controls. This tight integration allows better diagnostics, improved shutter control, and in many cases, more precise exposure control.

    Leveraging the advantages of pc platforms, New Precision Technology has incorporated a USB video interface into our DispenseLink software. This now enables us to offer video from directly within the DispenseLink interface. This video feed overlays an adaptive crosshair atop the image and also offers up to 8x digital magnification.
The camera is considered one of four possible heads on the platform, complete with its own offsets and built in calibration to relate the crosshair center with the dispense tip and other heads. This makes the camera an exquisite tool to update CAD coordinates with part as-molded variations.
Another interesting use of the camera is as a tip calibrator for angled tips that are theta rotated. The 8x magnification makes +/-0.001" repeatable tip location a production floor level reality. In one case, six different operators calibrated dispense tips using this system with no discernable variation in gasket quality.