European manufacturers of automotive lighting are leaving traditional electrical production processes behind and becoming high-speed manufacturers of precision electronics

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In recent years, the LED lighting revolution has changed both vehicle design and the quality of road illumination. At the front and rear of vehicles, the change is reflected in new designs, new shapes and distinctive branding. The cars are illuminated more brightly and are clearly visible at any time of day or night. The brighter, whiter headlights highlight the course of the road more intensively. In the interior, the revolution is reflected in improvements such as the customizable lighting atmosphere, which allows occupants to determine their own desired sense of space.

The switch to LED lighting is also leading to changes in the manufacturing processes for these “light generators”. A large number of individual LEDs can be arranged in grid structures or strips. This also requires associated power supply and control circuits. The required components are placed on rigid or flexible printed circuit boards using surface mounting technology. It is a huge change compared to conventional techniques, in which the production of lamp units is transformed into a high-precision process chain that can only be managed with the help of specialized automation technology.

Yamaha Robotics SMT Section is a leading supplier of surface mount equipment chosen by renowned OEMs and EMS companies for the production of LED lighting assemblies for the automotive industry. Yamaha’s customer base ranges from multinational Tier 1 companies to new market entrants with innovative concepts.

Working directly with customers in this industry and through its network of distributors and dealers across Europe, Yamaha has supplied complete surface mount lines for lighting and general electronic assemblies for the automotive industry. These include electronic control units, power modules, sensor modules, chargers and inverters for hybrid and electric vehicles.

All automotive assemblies must be manufactured to specific, high standards. Automotive manufacturers typically apply their own quality specifications to evaluate the components and subsystems supplied by their suppliers. To be successful in this market, one must commit to delivering large quantities according to tight schedules required to keep the automotive assembly lines running.

Many of the companies now taking on the challenges of manufacturing LED assemblies have many years of experience as automotive suppliers and have been manufacturing conventional lighting products for many years. Some of them have in-house optical, potting, mechanical and electrical/electronic design facilities and are enhancing and expanding these capabilities with new tools such as computer-aided lighting software, modeling and simulation, including thermal performance and hue analysis.

On the other hand, many are taking their first steps in the surface mounting of electronic assemblies. “Our customers are looking for automated inline systems that are capable of placing components at high throughput rates in the shortest possible time. They demand fast product changeovers, minimal line interruptions and support for traceability, which is a must in the automotive industry,” comments Shuichi Imai, SMT Sales General Manager at Yamaha Robotics.

1 STOP SMART SOLUTION

The Yamaha 1 STOP SMART SOLUTION brings all these capabilities together in a portfolio of stencil printing, part assembly and automatic optical inspection (AOI) platforms that communicate closely to ensure uninterrupted production with comprehensive diagnostics and reporting capabilities. Operators are kept continuously informed in real time of the current status and progress towards production targets. Each of these machines can also be supplied individually to upgrade slower or less highly automated equipment from other manufacturers. The YRi-V 3D AOI machine can even be used as a standalone system with automatic program generation using Yamaha’s YSUP software to reduce the time to market for new products.

“Sometimes prospective or customer teams come to us knowing exactly what production capabilities, speeds and features they need, while others need more advice and assistance,” explains Shuichi Imai. “Of course, we have a lot of experience in general SMT assembly, LED-specific know-how and in-depth knowledge of the requirements of the automotive sector in order to offer the right advice in each case.

As part of the 1 STOP SMART SOLUTION, theYRP10 stencil printer impresses with its excellent repeat accuracy and high level of user-friendliness. Its features include a standard cycle time of just five seconds and the 3S print head (Swing Single-Squeegee), which automatically optimizes itself when the solder paste roll gets smaller. Automatic stencil loading and set-up effectively reduces the time between job changes to zero, so the next job can start immediately.

YRP10 from Yamaha

The YRM20 pick and place machine can place components at a placement rate of up to115,000 CPH. They process a wide range of components from 0201 (mm) with the multi-purpose head option, which ensures high speed and versatility as well as minimal changeover times. The lateral component detection determines the pick-up status without delay and the placer automatically generates detection data for customer-specific or other unusual components.

The YRi-V AOI system combines powerful image processing with high-quality optics and high camera resolution. The illumination offers multiple light angles and wavelengths as well as laser height measurement to verify correct component placement and solder joint integrity. The YRi-V delivers reliable results in a short cycle time, enabling consistently accurate quality control even at high production throughput. In early 2024, Yamaha introduced a new multi-part alignment check feature for the YRi-V machine, which is ideal for LED array assembly. The time and complexity previously associated with programming the machine to check the correct positioning of large LED arrays is significantly reduced.

Checking the multi-component alignment ensures precise LED alignment

All machines are designed for quick product changeover. This enables lighting manufacturers to produce a wide variety of products and expand their customer base among those automotive manufacturers looking for the best ways to produce advanced lighting for their new vehicle models.

Shuichi Imai summarizes: “Our 1 STOP SMART SOLUTION meets all requirements for surface mounting and inspection of components. At the same time, it is highly flexible and can be configured to meet the requirements of a wide range of customers. In collaboration with our sales partners, we offer customized solutions that help companies successfully enter the world of automated and highly productive high-speed electronics assembly.”

About Yamaha Robotics SMT Division

The Yamaha Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Section, a subdivision of the Yamaha Motor Robotics Business Unit of Yamaha Motor Corporation, produces a comprehensive range of systems for high-speed in-line electronics assembly. This 1 STOP SMART SOLUTION includes solder paste printers, pick and place machines, 3D solder paste inspection machines, 3D assembly inspection machines, flip-chip hybrid pick and place machines, dispensers and management software.

Bringing the Yamaha approach to electronics manufacturing, these systems emphasize intuitive operator guidance, efficient coordination between all in-line processes and modularity that enables users to meet the latest manufacturing requirements. The Group’s expertise in controlling servo motors and camera-based image processing systems ensures maximum precision at high speed.

The current product line includes the latest generation of YR machines with advanced automation features for programming, set-up and changeover, as well as the new YSUP management software with state-of-the-art graphics and integrated data analysis.

By combining expertise in design and engineering, manufacturing, sales and service, the Yamaha SMT Section ensures operational efficiency and easy support access for customers and partners. With regional offices in Japan, China, South East Asia, Europe and North America, the company offers a truly global presence.

http://www.yamaha-motor-robotics.de/

The Vanstron New Inline Laser Marking Machine comes with a double laser head (top and bottom). It is customised for the customer and can be operated with different laser sources for different applications: CO2 lasers, UV lasers and fibre lasers.

 

The new Vanstron laser marking machine with new software has a preview marking function. The machine is equipped with a side camera that supports barcode recognition and thus shortens the cycle time. Another notable feature is that the machine is equipped with standard RGB illumination sources, which is a new solution to facilitate the decoding process.

New functions increase speed, accuracy and user-friendliness

The Yamaha Robotics SMT Section has introduced performance-enhancing upgrades for the YRi-V 3D AOI system. They include faster handling of assemblies, a multi-component alignment check and improved LED coplanarity measurement.

Yamaha YRi-V

 

The new, stop-free transport system brakes and stabilizes each assembly electronically after it enters the machine, thus reducing the time required to position the assembly. The cumulative time saving accelerates the completion of each batch and thus noticeably increases overall productivity.

The new alignment test for multiple components simplifies the programming of the YRi-V for measuring the distances between components arranged next to each other, such as LED spotlights in automotive or general lighting. In the production of automotive headlights, users can use the recorded AOI position data to individually optimize the placement of the lenses for beam focusing for optimum light output. The alignment test can be used to determine the distances between numerous other components, such as Hall sensors for precise motion control.

The multi-component test helps to set up the YRi-V to measure component alignments and distances in order to make corrections or record positions

 

The advanced height measurement system based on a blue laser ensures accurate and repeatable height measurement for components such as transparent LED housings, which can only be measured to a limited extent with conventional systems. The YRi-V system now offers even more possibilities and helps lighting manufacturers to ensure higher product reliability with superior optical performance and optimized visual appearance. The YRi-V system can also be equipped with a 25 megapixel camera, which significantly expands the image area that can be captured simultaneously.

“The latest upgrades expand the YRi-V system’s ability to optimize quality assurance to support the most advanced automotive, industrial and consumer applications,” says Daisuke Yoshihara, General Sales Manager. “Our customers benefit from ongoing improvements to their YRi-V systems, as we continuously provide new functions that are made possible by developments such as new machine vision technologies, motion control and AI.”

Yamaha’s YRi-V 3D AOI systems, like the YRM high-speed placers, are based on highly rigid frames that form the basis for super-sharp image capture with maximum line performance. With multiple camera resolutions, an 8-directional 3D projector and a state-of-the-art image processing unit, the system achieves extremely high throughput and detects hard-to-detect defects such as flaking and cracks in wafer-level packages. Offline editing tools and AI-supported automatic library matching accelerate the creation of inspection programs and help to minimize the time required to introduce new products. There are also tools that facilitate the creation, conversion and fine-tuning of data. During operation, fault information is immediately exchanged with other devices on the line via M2M communication to speed up analysis and troubleshooting.

As an integrated part of the 1 STOP SMART SOLUTION concept, the YRi-V system is connected to Yamaha’s complete SMT equipment. This includes solder paste printing and inspection, high-speed assembly and smart factory software and ensures a high level of integration and coordination. The latest functions for flawless transport, alignment inspection and laser height inspection are now available for all new machines and for upgrading existing systems in the field.

 

Neutec electronic ag becomes exclusive distributor of Seamark X-Ray inspection solutions for the Swiss market

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neutec electronic ag, a leading company in the field of electronics and automation technology, is proud to announce its exclusive partnership as a distributor for Seamark X-Ray inspection solutions on the Swiss market. This pioneering cooperation enables neutec electronic ag to offer its customers in Switzerland first-class X-ray inspection solutions that are characterized by Seamark’s many years of experience and quality.

The agreement between neutec electronic ag and Seamark X-Ray enables Neutec to distribute Seamark’s complete product portfolio of state-of-the-art X-ray inspection solutions to the Swiss market. These solutions are widely used in various industries, from production to quality control, and offer innovative technologies for precise and reliable inspection, inventory management and component management.

Mr. Gianni Affinito, Managing Director of neutec electronic ag, commented on this partnership:

“We are very pleased about the exclusive partnership with Seamark X-Ray as a distributor on the Swiss market. Seamark’s innovative inspection solutions are groundbreaking in terms of precision and efficiency. This cooperation enables us to provide our customers in Switzerland with state-of-the-art technology and meet their needs in the field of X-ray inspection in various industries. This partnership will enable us to make X-ray technology available to the masses in Switzerland”

Seamark X-Ray is internationally recognized for its high quality inspection solutions, which are valued in the industry for their precision and reliability. The exclusive partnership with neutec electronic ag strengthens Seamark’s presence in the Swiss market and offers customers in the region direct access to first-class X-ray inspection solutions.

The exclusive partnership between neutec electronic ag and Seamark X-Ray comes into effect immediately. Both companies are convinced that this cooperation will help to meet the requirements for X-ray inspection solutions in Switzerland and strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic industry.

About Seamark X-Ray: Seamark X-Ray is a renowned provider of X-ray inspection solutions with a wide range of applications in various industries. The company is characterized by its industry-specific expertise and its commitment to excellence.