Glassboro, NJ — Essemtec, a leading manufacturer of surface mount technology production equipment, announces that it will display SP200-AV, a fine-pitch printer with automatic vision adjustment, in booth 501 at the upcoming APEX 2008 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place April 1-3, 2008, in Las Vegas.

Solder paste printing is a significant process step in the SMT production chain. Bad quality produced at this step cannot be corrected later, neither by the pick-and-place machine nor by the reflow oven. Therefore, the quality and reproducibility of the printing operation is very important.

The stencil printer SP200-AV is an easy-to-operate semiautomatic printing machine that controls and regulates all printing parameters. The only manual task is to slide the PCB into the machine. All other operations, including the positioning of the PCB, are fully automatic and reproducible.

SP200-AV offers users numerous benefits including a fast two-point vision system, automatic PCB positioning with vision, automatic printing process, automatic stencil cleanliness check and fast PCB loading with side drawer. Additionally, the printer provides an unlimited number of printing programs, an integrated operation manual, simple changeover between jobs and easy operation with Windows XP software. As an additional benefit, all printing parameters are programmable.

Two cameras look straight through the stencil to the PCB. Simultaneously, the vision system checks the cleanliness of the stencil and the alignment of the PCB. Misalignment is corrected automatically. The camera position and the pad to be inspected can be selected by the programmer. All types of pads can be used, even those with connectors at the periphery.

The printer’s operation software is based on a Windows operating system. Programming is a simple task because all parameters are clearly arranged on one screen only. A computer mouse and a complete keyboard are installed for all entries. Also, the storage capacity for different printer setups is unlimited. Different access levels can be password-protected on the operation, and the process manual is directly integrated into the software.

SP200-AV supervises and regulates all process parameters automatically; operator errors are excluded. Printer construction is very rigid, designed for the highest precision. Printing of the finest structures is possible without problems. The side drawer enables simple loading and unloading of PCBS, efficient production and high throughput.