Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials is launching its "First-time-right" NPI (new product introduction) Stencils Initiative for its ALPHA branded "engineered products" (stencils) product line, with the goal of helping electronics assemblers and prototyping houses engaged in NPI assembly activity to reduce their NPI cycle times.
"NPI is a critical business process in launching new products. With the dramatic increase in electronics product diversity and compression in product lifetimes, it is critical for the OEMs, ODMs, and EMSs to have a streamlined NPI process that is able to meet the short cycle time requirements for function verification, prototyping, manufacturing readiness and multi-facility rollout," said Ravi Bhatkal, Cookson Electronics' VP and GM, Engineered Products.
One of the key elements of meeting short NPI cycle time requirements is the ability to design the stencil correctly, produce it first-time-right and have prompt delivery of the stencil for use.
Cookson Electronics' Engineered Products Group helps the NPI community by:
- Engaging with the customer early in the design process, to understand customer requirements.
- Supporting the design effort by providing Cookson's design recommendations, that are based on Cookson's deep knowledge of the printing process, that enables the right paste volume to be deposited in the right place, consistently.
- Automated application of pre-programmed customer and OEM/Product-specific design rules through Cookson's patented DIMENSIONS® system, that reduces the possibility of CAD errors in applying design modifications.
- Application of DIMENSIONS® system to apply one set of design rules at multiple sites globally (via both pre-programmed and continuous addition of new design rules).
- Providing Cookson's PCB Scaling Service that can optimize the stencil to better correct for board stretch. Scaling of the stencil design to the corresponding PCB, thus reducing defects and rework, and improving first pass yield in the NPI process.
- Regular monitoring and control of the positional accuracy of Cookson's lasers, to provide accurate and consistent stencil quality.
- Providing stepped stencils and unique aperture designs developed by Cookson to allow single stencils designed for broad range of deposit volumes to provide the right paste volume where needed.
- Providing fast turnaround of the stencils from one of our 12 strategic global locations.
- Providing ALPHA® Global Technical Service and Support, and Cookson's deep technical knowledge of the printing process, to help implement our stencils in the field and troubleshoot if necessary, enabling the customer achieve higher first pass yields and faster implementation.
