I.C.T Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) to Improve SMT Line Efficiency

I.C.T Provide SMT Production Line solutions with Automated Optical Inspection (AOI)

AOI is short for Automated Optical Inspection, which is widely used in the electronics industry to check the appearance of PCBA assembly at the back end of the circuit board assembly line. The basic principle of AOI is to judge whether the object to be tested meets the standard by comparing whether there is a large difference between the object to be tested and the standard image by using image technology. AOI emits a 4-color light source to the PCBA board, which is automatically scanned by an industrial camera for catastrophic failures, such as missing components or quality defects. Therefore, the quality of AOI depends on the image imaging ability, algorithm parsing ability and image discrimination technology. I.C.T AOI has done well in these aspects.

Some customers will consider whether it is necessary to buy AOI machine, and one of the solutions to improve quality efficiency is to use AOI. If the fault can be found in the production line, it can be corrected immediately, so the defect rate can be greatly reduced, and the information can be fed back to the front of the production line, so many of the same problems can be solved or avoided from the front.

Introduction of I.C.T AOI machine

I.C.T AOI has two options - Online and Offline

You can decide which one to choose based on your capacity and budget. There are several types of online AOI, which are determined according to your production line. I.C.T-V5000H is used for the front and back end of reflow soldering in SMT production lines, generally placed in the back end of reflow oven. Which be placed at the front end of the reflow oven to test the SMT condition of the SMT machine. Placed at the back end of reflow soldering is used to detect the PCBA after soldering.

Both I.C.T-V5200 and I.C.T-V5300 are placed at the back end of the DIP line and can quickly and accurately detect any problems with the solder joints. The difference is that the I.C.T-V5200 contains an inverted function, One PCBA side is deteced, the other side is deteced after inversion. The I.C.T-V5300 is an upgraded version of the I.C.T-V5200. It has two light sources and cameras at the top and bottom, It can detect the top and bottom at the same time, which can save 2.2 times the detection time.

The I.C.T-VC5000 is placed in the coating line, at the back end of the IR or UV curing oven, to inspect the PCBA after coating.

In addition to the above online models, the offline model I.C.T-V8 also has a high sales volume. Except that a person is required to manually place the board for detection, other configurations are the same as the online model, and the accuracy and detection speed can be called perfect.

The working principle and characteristics of AOI

1. RGB+W four-color coaxial LED ring light source.

The biggest feature of I.C.T AOI is the use of four-color LED circular light source: RGB+W, which respectively refers to red, green, blue and white light. The red, green and blue primary colors can more accurately capture the amount of tin in each solder joint. The circular light source can achieve 360-degree detection without dead Angle, allowing the camera to record the most real solder joint pattern. White light increases brightness, which increases recognition. And the four-color LED light source is coaxial light, also parallel to the industrial camera, so the design can greatly reduce the image distortion.

2. Industrial FOV camera

I.C.T AOI uses a 5-megapixel industrial camera that is perfect for capturing pads and solder joints of 0201 and smaller components. FOV accuracy is 15μ, shooting speed is 0.2S/FOV, each FOV size is 80cm²/ S. You can feel the detection speed of I.C.T AOI from the following video. Add Equipped with telecentric lens to ensure than the image is not distorted.

3. Algorithmic software developed by I.C.T

With the detection results of RGB+W four-color light source, we have our own algorithm software, which can test the quality of SMT patch and DIP solder joints. Different from other brands AOI, I.C.T adopts more advanced algorithm, through accurate color extraction contrast, in addition to solder spot detection, can also accurately detect whether the PCB pads and components are damaged.

I.C.T AOI also has an independent repair station, which can automatically transfer the data to the computer so that the repair station department can instantly check the data of the problematic PCB board.

4. Marble construction

An I.C.T AOI weighs about 1150KG, because the marble platform with a mass of about 320KG is included in the middle. The marble platform allows the center of mass (particle) of the whole machine to sink, avoiding vibration caused by AOI during work. That means I.C.T`s AOI can achieve a shooting speed of 0.2s/foV, which can greatly improve the efficiency of production and inspection.

5. High quality Firmware

I.C.T`s AOI adopts internationally famous brand firmware, such as Omron PLC, with high transmission quality, fast speed and stable broadband, to ensure the speed and the quality of the machine.

What Problem can AOI test for?

AOI can be used to detect many surface defects, including scratches, nodules, stains, open, short circuits, inadequate or excessive solder, incorrect components, missing components, faulty polarity of components, etc.