Mar 07, 2012 
KIC announced that it has been awarded a 2012 NPI Award in the category of Soldering - Wave for its new KIC 24/7 Wave. The award was presented to Dave Nason, R&D/Production Operations Manager, during a Tuesday, February 28, 2012 ceremony that took place at the San Diego Convention Center in California.
The new KIC 24/7 Wave utilizes embedded sensors in the wave solder machine to automatically measure the thermal profile for each and every processed PCB to the acceptable process window. A thermocouple also is installed in the solder pot to constantly measure the pot temperature.
Any out of spec situation is immediately identified, while the standard SPC charts automatically provide Cpk numbers with the ability to provide alarms when the process starts drifting. Every PCB profile is recorded for easy retrieval for full process traceability. Traceability down to the individual PCB is achieved when bar codes are used.
The initial programming of the KIC 24/7 Wave is performed with a KIC profiler. The KIC profiler is capable of quickly identifying the appropriate wave solder settings for an improved process.
“The wave solder process has been one of the last holdouts in the electronic assembly industry where the quality was dependent on manual tweaks performed by individual engineers. KIC has now changed all of that by introducing software optimization for machine setup and automating process control. This leads to improved quality and productivity as well as consistent results,” said Bjorn Dahle, KIC’s President.
Premiering in 2008, the NPI Awards program is an annual celebration of product excellence in electronics surface mount assembly. Premier products based on the finest examples of creative advancement in technology are chosen by a distinguished panel of industry experts.
Based in San Diego, KIC is the industry leader in automated thermal management tools and systems for reflow, wave, cure and semiconductor thermal processes. The company pioneered the development of oven profilers and process optimization tools, and then worked to create the next generation of thermal systems to help manufacturers improve the thermal process quality while reducing cost.
In addition to KIC Explorer, products include the KIC RPI reflow process inspection system, the KIC Vision automatic profiling system and more. With the introduction of cutting edge tools, the company continues to stay on the leading edge of process optimization and automatic thermal management systems, and has won numerous industry awards.
