Advantech Industrial IoT Blog

In the field of machine automation, the PCI bus has long been the first choice for card expansion interfaces but by comparison, a PCI Express has higher performance and a simpler I/O configuration while offering accurate real-time transmission and a layered structure. Advantech offers impeccable solutions in machine vision, motion control and data acquisition to meet the needs and improve the overall efficiency of various industries. 

As electronic products required larger numbers and more intricate arrangement of electronic components on printed circuit boards (PCBs), the PCB development trend of high density wiring has brought about innovations and advances in drilling technology. Of these innovations, the non-contact laser process, requiring no blades, has become an important process instrument for high density PCB manufacturing. Besides precluding problems such as blade blunting and chipping, its pros include better performance on hole diameter accuracy, process speed and quality consistency. 

As technology progresses from research laboratories into practical implementations and as advancements are made in the underlying hardware and software, there has been an exponential increase in machine vision capabilities and applications. The manufacturing marketplace continues to apply machine vision systems in innovative ways to improve performance and quality. This is largely due to high-performance devices being economically applied to solve a variety of problems. Another major contributing factor is ease of use, as new solutions are becoming increasingly simpler to deploy and support compared to their older hardware and software counterparts. To meet the various requests that are emerging with this trend, Advantech offers three major solutions for different fields: configurable solutions, all-in-one solutions and machine learning solutions. 

Ceramic covers have been developed as a new and innovative material for mobile phones. Their production requires complete automation in order to prevent defects during such processes as loading/unloading, polishing and laminating. Concurrent automated visual machine inspection is also necessary to maximize yield. Demand and production standards are exceptionally high for this market, and thus fully automated around-the-clock production is essential to ensure both production quantity and quality. 

The semiconductor industry has some of the most demanding applications, a combination of extreme accuracy and precision combined with high throughput. The semiconductor processing can be divided into two parts - "frontend" and "backend".

The term Backend refers to dicing the wafer into individual chips and all the processors thereafter; such as test, assembly and packaging. 

To deal with faster and more powerful chip technology, semiconductor process linewidth technology has continued to evolve down to the nano-level, and the backend of semiconductor processes also needs to provide a shorter production cycle, in order to increase production throughput per unit of time.

In manual electronics manufacturing processes that require the application of adhesives, it generally takes double the effort to complete in comparison to when automated dispensers are used. When traditional adhesive dispensers are used, the process involves using contact-type dispensers to apply adhesives to such surfaces as electronic components and LED packaging.

Urgent and customized orders are recurring trends in the PCB industry. To shorten production times, it is necessary for production lines to be highly flexible while still satisfying customer quality control requirements. Common to traditional PCB factories are systems for solder paste printing, sampling, reflow soldering, and so on, all of which store relevant information for each corresponding station. Low-level equipment information, such as that from PCs, PLCs, and sensors, is typically not integrated, thus limiting maintenance and management processes that require production data,leaving manufacturers unable to promptly clarify the root of any issues that arise.

Smart productions systems provide a solution to this problem,and these can be realized only by establishing equipment connectivity. The obvious advantages of such systems are that the complete production history can be recorded and yield tracing can be conducted while integrating the data in the control room.

Advantech offers a comprehensive selection of flexible backplanes equipped with up to 18 PCIe slots, providing substantial expansion capacity in an all-in-one platform.

Advantech is pleased to announce its USB-5800 series of isolated digital I/O modules with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 capabilities. Advantech’s USB-5800 modules are aimed at diverse industrial control applications that require easy-to-install portable digital I/O capabilities, particularly for systems without PCI/PCIe slots. Featuring SuperSpeed USB 3.0 capabilities, USB-5800 series I/O modules provide high data transfer speeds (up to 5 Gbps), extend the system I/O functions, and support daisy chaining for easy I/O expansion. The front-facing LED indicators, ID switch, and terminal blocks provide convenient access for easy installation and maintenance. To prevent sudden failures or disconnection, the USB-5800 series modules also feature exclusive Auto Recovery® technology to ensure zero failures. Moreover, the inclusion of surge protection ensures stable operation even in high surge environments, making the modules ideal for a wide range of industrial applications. Furthermore, to ensure easy deployment and integration with existing systems, the USB-5800 modules support numerous development tools, including C#, C++, LabVIEW, VB.Net, MFC, BCB, VB6, Java, Delphi, and Qt, and are compatible with Windows XP/7/8/10 and Linux operating systems.