May 5, 2014 – Z-AXIS, Inc. has added robotic IC (integrated circuit) programming equipment to its electronics design and contract manufacturing center near Rochester, NY. This latest capital equipment investment supports the company’s growing business in printed circuit board designs that contain extremely small programmable microcontrollers and memory ICs.
“About 25% of the boards we produce include a programmable IC, and that percentage is growing,” said Michael Allen, president of Z-AXIS. “Ongoing investment in automation is one way we continue to reduce costs, speed throughput and maintain high quality for our contract manufacturing customers.”
The new Xeltek SuperPro robotic programming system at Z-AXIS is five times faster than manual programming, and eliminates the three- to four-week lead time of buying pre-programmed ICs from distributors. The system is capable of programming parts as small as SOT23 (about 1.5 x 3 mm in size). It allows simultaneous programming of four ICs and processes up to 700 ICs/hour.
Most mid-size, high-mix contract manufacturers use manual labor to pick and insert ICs into a programming system. This labor-intensive process has low throughput, high labor cost and high potential for error. Alternatively, manufacturers can purchase pre-programmed ICs from distributors but typically wait several weeks from the time the customer’s program is submitted until final ICs are delivered.
“Automatically programming ICs in-house costs less than outsourcing the process and we pass the savings on to our customers,” Allen explained. “At the same time, we can get our customers’ new products to market faster and implement any software updates the same day we receive new files.”
Z-AXIS has used Xeltek manual programming systems for more than ten years, and selected the company’s automated system based on Xeltek’s proven quality and innovation.