Publication date: 01 April 2011
Companies that have relied on fixtures to periodically check on their reflow ovens have been in a Catch 22 situation for years. On one hand, they did not have the luxury of sacrificing real production boards for multiple profiling needs and, on the other hand, heavy fixtures did not represent the profile on their actual PCBs as requested by their clients. Now, these electronic assemblers can get the best of both worlds with KIC’s MVP fixture with integrated virtual profiling technologies.
The KIC MVP uses embedded sensor technologies that accurately measure the profile of an individual PCB without the need to use the actual PCB beyond the initial program run. With the MVP, there is no second guessing how the changes observed in the oven environment will affect the profile on the production board. Changes are instantly displayed on a profile graph, along with a single number that tells the operator whether the profile is in spec. Best of all, when the MVP detects an out-of-spec situation, the software will inform the technician how to adjust the oven in order to achieve an in-spec process and quickly resume production.
Please feel free to stop by the booth during the show to take a shot at KIC’s man vs. machine game. Beat KIC’s auto-prediction Navigator for a chance to win a selection of prizes, including an Apple iPad 2.
For more information about KIC, visit www.kicthermal.com.
Based in San Diego, KIC is an industry leader in automated thermal management tools and systems for reflow, wave, cure and semiconductor thermal processes. The company pioneered the development of oven profilers and process development tools, and then worked to create the next generation of thermal systems to help manufacturers optimize and monitor thermal processes.
In addition to KIC Explorer, products include the KIC 24/7 continuous monitoring system, the KIC Vision automatic profiling system and more. With the introduction of cutting edge tools, the company continues to stay on the leading edge of process optimization and real-time thermal management systems, and has won numerous industry awards.
