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LEADING DRIVE MANUFACTURER REPLACES ALL STENCIL FRAMES WITH GENESIS
At the core of the Control Techniques' decision to place absolute faith in a single supplier and associated technical support system was its belief in Tecan's ability to identify specific production problems at the most fundamental levels. As the relationship developed, Tecan succeeded in resolving a range of crucial production efficiency issues. "Specifically we were looking for a 'frameless' stencil system that required no loading jig, pneumatics, electrics or hydraulics to attach the foil to the frame, since our previous experience had been that the stencil's edge fingers were easily damaged by such methods," said surface-mount engineer, Paul Burt, Control Techniques. "We evaluated the genesis frame over several months and found the manually operated system was robust, simple to use and eliminated stencil damage during loading. Equally important was the level of experience, expertise and support offered by Tecan when it came to stencil manufacture, we have especially found their advice invaluable during the development of our latest drive product the Unidrive SP." Genesis is an ultra-easy system for mounting and re-mounting stencils which is rapidly gaining popularity. Since its launch, the 'next-generation' system has been readily adopted by PCB manufacturers, who are increasingly benefiting from its consistent accuracy. With Genesis there are no adhesives which degrade over time, no need for pneumatics and air bladders which are susceptible to rupture and no need for cumbersome or complicated loading jigs. The system was developed through a series of evolutionary steps, and as a natural progression from bi-directional tensioning systems, where stencils are secured on a frame with just two fixed and two moveable sides, a technique which industry feedback has repeatedly shown has limitations in producing a consistently flat overall printing surface. The re-mountable Genesis system employs two handles, each operating independently, in a frame with four-directional tensioning through cams on all sides. This allows stencils to be quickly interchanged and held absolutely flat with equal and maintainable planar tension across the whole stencil, ensuring consistently accurate results. In use, the stencil image will not distort during production, with either low or high use, because the tension is constant. The system is foolproof and fast, it does not matter which handle is locked first, stencils cannot be over-tensioned. A typical load or unload sequence can be performed in a matter of seconds.
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