Europe's largest electro-plating line has been installed at Schweizer Electronic AG

Citation

(2007), "Europe's largest electro-plating line has been installed at Schweizer Electronic AG", Circuit World, Vol. 33 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2007.21733dab.001

Europe's largest electro-plating line has been installed at Schweizer Electronic AG

Europe's largest electro-plating line has been installed at Schweizer Electronic AG

Schweizer started out in life in 1849 producing enamelled metal items in an area known for watch and clock making. This area is Sulgen, just outside the town of Schramberg, in the magnificent Schwarzwald region of Germany. To drive to Schramberg from the west is to take in some magnificent pine-clad mountains, veils of mist curtaining the sharp peaks, whilst driving with infinite patience behind some vast logging truck. Quite apart from the dangers of such tailgating, it is worth noting that Schweizer began printed circuit board (PCB) production as far back as 1958, and a visit to their high-technology PCB plant, opened in 2002, indicates that you are inside one of the largest companies in this industry in the world today.

Schweizer Electronic AG posted a sales figure of 62.375 million in 2006, and doubled their profitability from the previous year. Employing 750 people, they are a strategically vital supplier to the German automotive industry, as well as circuitry for medical and industrial electronics. About 83 per cent of production goes into the EU, 8 per cent to Asia, the balance being divided between the USA and the rest of Europe.

A major fire in 2005 almost brought the company to its knees, but sheer determination, team spirit, and an investment of e53 million had them up and running again in less than 12 months, with a new 4,000m² high-technology manufacturing building. Here, it was PAL who installed Europe's largest automatic electro-plating line, producing 1,000sqm every day. That it was PAL who was the supplier was down to several factors – technology, compatibility with preferred chemistry, and delivery time. The second PAL line has now been installed and is presently running through commissioning and final acceptance. About 68m in length, and 9m in width, this is a giant of a machine, and operated by just one person (Figure 1).

Figure 1 The new PAL electro-plating line at Schweizer

Herr Böckeler, the Technical Manager at Schweizer Electronic, was frank about his experiences with PAL: “PAL is an extremely customer- orientated company, they take a positive line with every request you make of them, and then surprise you by delivering better equipment than you expected.” Schweizer run 24h a day, seven days a week, and allow one shift per week for maintenance on both lines. “Thanks to the overall high standard of equipment efficiency” continued Herr Böckeler: “We maintain high loading rates, PAL have a great depth of experience with handling large lines such as ours, and that we only require one person per line to manually load and supervise the complete operation is a testament to the degree of automation PAL have brought to electro-plating.” The cost-efficiency of such minimal labour requirement for an operation such as this cannot be doubted, especially when twice, or three times the number of people are required for substantially smaller front-end systems.

Herr Böckeler commented that they had had only good experience from the first PAL line, and “Their support is good, the equipment is sophisticated, and with through-hole metallisation you can leave nothing to chance, and PAL certainly haven't.”

Schweizer operate with three standardised panel sizes, all HDI technology, and run between 60 and 70 lots per day. The PAL system has a unique control system that allows instant changes on plating voltage, depending upon laminate being specified for each job. In response to the question about future demand, Herr Böckeler said that the specification for the PAL line was based upon three year projections, one advantage of supplying the automotive industry in Germany is that there is a stable ordering pattern, and one can work quite far ahead. Schweizer are producing 2,000m² per day as a matter of routine, and the capacity is there to meet future potential.

There is very much an “open” culture at Schweizer, they believe in being completely honest with both their customers and with their suppliers, and this is a virtue that works two ways, leading to excellent working relationships and complete trust.

They are strong believers in innovation, and have recently instituted a six-months training coursed on PCB production at the University of Midweidi, for adult training in production management and PCB technology from beginning to end. This has permitted them to maintain their high-quality standards, it allows for new technology to be communicated, and an understanding of the role of R&D and technical sales support.

As with so many parts of Europe, maintaining staff levels is not always easy, and with unemployment down to less than 3 per cent in the region Schweizer has no less of a problem than anyone else. It will be comforting to know that where PAL is concerned, the equipment may have been delivered in 31-40 containers, and may have been erected by a swarm of engineers from Hong Kong, but only one person is needed to run it.

The specifications of the PAL line installed at Schweizer are as follows.

This is a pattern and panel vertical plating machine, with an overall size of 9,078mm wide, 4,380mm high and 79,000mm in length. It has 36 Copper stations, each taking six panels across, on two flightbars, yielding 2,880 panels per day (610 × 640mm).

It has an automatic anode flightbar exchange system based on AH consumption, and PAL's own software – OsstjWin for control and data monitoring with stand by backup system. Random load allows variable process times and mixed loading of different process sequences. In house software design capability means support is rapid and guaranteed.

There are water-cooled saddles for anode and cathode connections, and the line has the PAL patented floating shields and latest “Aero-wing” shielding in plating stages for optimum distribution. There is a spring type semi-automatic loading system, and a fully-automatic unload system with conveyorised panel stacker.

There are long life, PP coated spring loaded top clamps for automatic racking of panels up to 7.5kgs, with auto “rack open” device for optimum rack strip.

If ever there was a coming-together of two highly professional companies, culminating in the successful commissioning of this mammoth item of equipment, it was here.

J.H. LingAssociate Editor, Circuit World.