Hello bpeach,
I recently purchased AOI system for our company. We are a low to mid range manufacturer as well. I looked at several different vendors around the price range that you are looking at incuding; Mirtech, Viscom, N-Spec, Omron, VI Tech, Orbotech, Yestech and Testronics. I narowed the field down to Mirtec and Yestech.
As a mid range manufacturer, one of my main concerns was quick and easy programming. I found that the programming was very similar between the two machines. Personally I thought that the Mirtec software was more comprehensive. But the main reason why I selected Mirtec was the fact that the machine provided better defect coverage than the Yestech system, especially with regard to solder inspection...there was no comparison. I also ran a very simple Gage R&R test on the two systems to test repeatability. The Mirtec machine won easily.
On a side note, the Mirtec machine was about two and a half times faster with about 20% less false calls as well. This should help with your ROI, but as I mentioned before, defect coverage was my real hot button.
Good luck...
tony_d
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