KIC’s Ecosystem: All the Solutions to Your Thermal Reflow Problems
By David Wilson, Competitive Edge Solutions LLC
I’m a former engineer and have been a sales representative for many years. Like most people, I love when things are simple, easy to use, make life better and logical in nature.
In the sales world it’s advantageous to carry products that are understandable, impactful and easy to use. Customers appreciate this type of performance in products and in sales. KIC and their thermal ecosystem of products do exactly this. Easy-to-use products that provide solutions for all the reflow thermal requirements. Easy to use, easy to deploy, easy to get results that are actionable and impactful.
There are three main tasks to the reflow process:
1. Find the correct profile to set up the oven
2. Make sure all the PCBs are built in-spec
3. Show that all the PCBs were built in-spec anytime, anywhere, at your fingertips along with Cpk data
- PROFILING
SPS – Smart Profiler System allows users to quickly define a process within specification but truly understand their process. One simple number allows users to discuss in spec/out of spec while still providing the data that matters. Ease of use is key for KIC users.
Options KIC’s Award winning Navigator Power Optimization Tool, Auto Focus profile creation tool, Sweet Spot allows users to generate their profile/recipe, optimize their process and adjust their center point of their spec if needed. Everything needed in one package along with 24-hour technical support. Who offers that besides KIC?
You’ll hear KIC talk about PWI (Process Window Index) quite frequently. This is a key feature of their Ecosystem in that it allows you to quickly know if your process is in specification (or not) and, if not, why. It also is the beginning to automation and eventually your MES integration and Industry 4.0 needs. Here is a link to a quick video breaking down the basics of PWI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWkHU8ft-Cg
1a. SRA – Smart Reflow Analyzer is KIC’s latest product. It is a tool that allows users to quickly determine an oven’s stability and measure conveyor belt speed as well as heat transfer index (HTI) for each zone, side by side or run to run comparisons and KIC’s PWI process analysis. The SRA is a measurement tool in comparison to a product related profile instrument like a profiler.
- AUTOMATIC PROFILING
RPI (Reflow Process Inspection) – One of several automation tools from KIC, it reduces the amount of profiling required and line downtime. Users can monitor in real time each reflow process and obtain process control data and traceability data for each product in the production run (not just the profiled PCB). RPI also becomes the first step in automating your data stream using LDO (Live Data Output) and RPM (Remote Process Monitoring). No longer will you ask what happened; you’ll have the historical data to understand if there were any process trending warnings (Cpk) or out-of-process specification alarms and KIC’s system can also prevent PCBs from entering the oven in the event a process is out of specification (i.e., preventing a defect/rework). - CONNECTIVITY
Vantage Factory Software – Brings meaning to your data and makes the data ‘actionable’. As part of your first Industry 4.0 initiative, Vantage uses connected devices at your reflow ovens to automatically feed your analytical data to the database so we can then display it via our dashboard and allow you to achieve MES integration and/or further analysis/understanding. Being browser-based, our solution allows access to your data when you need it most. Sort it, analyze it and share it. It will relieve you of the ‘Black Box Syndrome’ of ovens and be an easy point of entry in Industry 4.0 initiatives without big budgets or complexity issues.
So why make this complicated? The tools are there to make your life easy in a very logical way. KIC’s got the solutions for your reflow-related needs and problems.