CASE STUDY: Reduce costs and save money: clean misprints!

摘要

As one of the world's leading companies in automotive systems and components, Delphi provides comprehensive product solutions to original vehicle equipment manufacturers (OEMs) around the world. In regard to this, the SMT manufacturing site in Liverpool, UK, recently implemented a sophisticated stencil and misprint cleaning process. Delphi Delco Electronics factory in Kirkby, Liverpool, manufactures among others circuit board controllers for automotive sensors. Based on the high requirements in automotive industries, a flawless printed image is very important as well as the salvage of misprinted assemblies, particularly if components have already been mounted onto one side of a board. By an analysis of scrap data during a two-month period it was proven that there would be potential for substantial financial savings if the disposed, misprinted boards were salvaged. Areas within the manufacturing process, which could be improved in order to minimise scrap levels, were identified. However, some process fallout is unavoidable. Therefore a project was started to identify and recommend a suitable process that would cover the cleaning of misprinted boards and stencil cleaning, which was done manually so far.