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Ersa Helps ACC on Its Continual Path to Improvement

By Curt Williams, ACC Electronix, Inc.

 

ACC Electronix has provided manufacturing services to a range of industries for more than 40 years. The company’s goal is to help every customer reach its highest level of success.

ACC Electronix has been providing world-class electronics manufacturing services (EMS) to a diverse customer base for more than 40 years. It is an ISO 9001-2015 certified contract manufacturer that got its start in 1976 by providing quality equipment to the broadcast industry. In 1992, the company expanded on this foundation and began providing its electronic manufacturing and assembly services to other industries. Today ACC serves customers in the industrial, agricultural, off-road, construction, mining, and medical markets.

 

 From prototypes to proven designs, ACC can help its customers achieve its goals for quality improvement, on-time delivery, inventory control, and cost reduction. Additionally, it develops a custom formula to assist in each customer’s success.

 

The company’s process engineers work constantly to improve ACC’s manufacturing processes. Improvements range from selecting new manufacturing equipment to selecting solder with improved formulations. Other benefits of working with ACC include design for manufacturability, design for testability and manufacturing process selection. 

 

ACC supports customers that have environmental concerns and need hardened electronic products (potting, conformal coating, adhesives, etc.). According to Mike Parker, Vice President Manufacturing, ACC has experienced tremendous growth over the past two years as top line revenue has grown over 2.5 times. ACC has generated this growth by investing in the best equipment and capabilities, which add value customers in terms of speed, quality and lower cost. Parker added, “We show no signs of slowing down in 2019 based on current new product launches as well as new customer demand.”

 

ACC partnered with Ersa two years ago and since that time has purchased two VersaFlow 4/55 systems to provide effective selective soldering solutions for customers.

 To keep up with that type of growth, ACC needed to purchase additional equipment. They looked to existing partner Kurtz Ersa. In 2017, the company purchased its first dual pot Ersa VersaFlow 4/55. Based on its excellent performance, ACC purchased and installed a second machine 12 months later, in December 2018. Parker stated that ACC chose this same machine over any competitive systems because of Ersa’s long history in providing selective solder systems and its reputation for robust design and top-in-class process repeatability.  

 

ACC is already noticing measurable benefits from having two of Ersa’s systems in its facility. “Our customers’ need for two-sided mixed technology with extremely tight component spacing has increasingly eliminated wave soldering as an effective process solution. The control and repeatability of our VersaFlow machines allows our process engineering team to dial in the solder process for each joint, resulting in consistent quality,” said Parker. “Originally, we were concerned about throughput of the selective soldering process, but with the modular design of the VersaFlow and its ability to have units at each stage of the process (flux, preheat, solder), we have been thrilled with the speed and quality output.”

 

Meeting customers’ needs while being flexible and providing high quality is an important part of ACC’s mission. From hand-built to prototypes to high-volume production, the company has the resources needed. Its production facility is designed to efficiently handle diverse customer production requirements, product testing and final product assembly. Additionally, the company views its customers as partners. Parker said that ACC acts as an extension of their electronics-manufacturing departments. “ACC’s personalized customer service is most effective when we are partnered with our customers,” Parker added. “By involving our manufacturing experts early in the design process, we can provide valuable assistance that will significantly reduce startup problems, increase quality and reduce cost. ACC will use our ISO-certified procedures to build customers’ product.”

 

As a result, ACC knows how important strong service is to the success of any partnership. Parker said that after the initial trip to Kurtz Ersa, ACC knew that Ersa was going to be a good fit, and that they were impressed not only with the equipment, but also with the people and support of the Ersa team. He added that ACC has received quick, informative responses to application questions whenever needed, and that Ersa’s service has been excellent.

 

 ACC’s facility is customized specifically for electronics manufacturing and runs updated programs to maximize quality and efficiency. Other facility features include high-efficiency lighting for maximum illumination in the hand assembly area, air locks and power humidifiers for temperature/humidity control, conductive floors for maximum ESD protection, and an ESD program in which foot/wrist straps and conductive jackets are worn to dissipate electro-static energy in a controlled manner into its conductive floors and work benches. Additionally, ACC uses online work instructions to eliminate paperwork and control documents as well as cell workgroups to improve efficiency and quality by eliminating batch processing. Finally, all employees continually attend lean training to further improve efficiency.

 

ACC values its employees and provides regular training to help improve efficiency across the facility.

ACC provides arrange of electronics manufacturing services. While full product assembly is its specialty, PCB assembly is core to everything built by ACC. This includes surface mount assembly as well as fine-pitch placement, BGA/LGA placement, through-how assembly hand-built prototypes, product verification builds (pilot runs), high-volume production, in-circuit testing, functional testing, monitored burn-in, conformal coating, final assembly services (box builds), full-range manufacturing services and in-warranty/out-of-warranty repair. As additional resources, the company provides design for manufacturability assistance and design for testability recommendations.

 

Quality is another important aspect to ACC Electronix. It is ISO 9001-2015 certified and committed to the ISO concept of continuous improvement. The company uses IPC-A-610E as its soldering and assembly standard and, depending on customer need, it solders to either IPC Class 2 or Class 3 industry standards.

 

For more information, contact Curt Williams, Vice President of Sales, at ACC Electronix, Inc., 420 Wylie Dr., Normal, IL 61761; 309-888-9990; E-mail: cwilliams@accelectronix.com; Web site: www.accelectronix.com.