Mar 04, 2008 Siemens SIPLACE X4i offers speed and flexibility for a wide variety of applications and line concepts. Its record breaking placement speed of more than 100,000 cph is not based on theoretical benchmarks, but on the basis of the non-proprietary IPC 9850 standard. The SIPLACE X4i comes standard with a flexible dual lane conveyor and has four 20-nozzle high-performance heads. In dual lane mode it achieves a placement performance of 120,000 cph for board sizes up to 250 mm x 380 mm. However, larger boards up to 436 mm x 380 mm can also be processed when running in single conveyor mode. What is truly remarkable is the X4i delivers a speed of over 100,000 cph with a machine footprint of just 8 feet�.
The X4is most important innovation is its new i-Placement mode designed to shorten the gantry travel distance between feeders and the board. The circuit boards are transported into the placement area in dual lane mode � on two parallel conveyors. This allows both boards to be populated with two placement gantries � one placing while the other is picking components and vice-versa. Both conveyors are located as close as possible to the feeders which allows both boards to be populated simultaneously � and fully independently. The benefit is shorter travel distance, higher placement density, and an average speed increase of 30%.
Greater productivity and flexibility gains are possible with the new �Productivity Lane�. The Productivity Lane enables the X4i to be run in �parallel mode�. When machines are operating in parallel it increases the total line productivity. If one machine stops, the boards that arrive on the stopped machine simply pass through to the next downstream machine and production continues.
