PCB Tech - The localization process of SMT placement equipment

Since the introduction of SMT production lines for mass production of color TV tuners in 1985, SMT technology has been applied in China's electronics manufacturing industry for nearly 30 years. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently about 50,000 SMT production lines in my country, and the total number of placement machines exceeds 100,000. The automatic placement machine market has accounted for 40% of the world, making it the world's largest and most important SMT market.

Welding, testing and printing equipment has approached the international advanced level.

Since 2005, domestic SMT equipment companies have basically achieved localization in SMT equipment such as printing presses, welding, and testing, and have occupied 70% to 80% of the domestic market share by virtue of market price advantages.

As for the solder paste printing machine, Nitto was the first in China to successfully develop it. In recent years, many private enterprises have participated in the research and development, and many varieties have come out, reaching the upper-middle level in the world. In 2006, Dongguan Kaige Precision Machinery Co., Ltd. launched a fully automatic printing machine, which soon became the No. 1 brand in China.

In terms of soldering equipment, domestic R&D and manufacturing started very early, and lead-free soldering equipment has reached the international advanced level and has become the most competitive product in my country's surface mount equipment market. At present, the low-end market is dominated by domestic brands, and the high-end market is still monopolized by foreign brands (in terms of stability, there is a certain gap with the advanced level of foreign countries. For example, the lateral temperature difference of a foreign reflow furnace manufacturer is only 0.5 degrees, while the domestic highest Level up to 2 degrees).

In terms of AOI equipment, before 2010, the domestic AOI market was almost monopolized by more than 20 foreign brand equipment. Dongguan Shenzhou Vision took the lead in researching and developing the first domestic AOI equipment Aleader series. So far, it has accumulated more than 4,000 units and annual sales reached 600~700 units. s level.

In terms of X-Ray testing equipment, it started late in China. Since entering the field in 2006, UFJ Technology has achieved independent research and development of core components in 2008, reaching the world's leading level. At present, the company's annual shipment volume has reached more than 400 units.

The placement machine is still 100% dependent on imports, of which more than 60% are from Japan.

The placement machine is the most critical equipment for the SMT production line with the highest technical and stability requirements. For more than ten years, Chinese companies are still in the exploration stage and prototype trial production stage, and have not launched mature products that have passed the pilot test. Almost 100% of them rely on imports (except for small LED placement machines); foreign companies in China will core placement machines The production is located abroad, and the factory in China is mainly responsible for the production of peripheral equipment and the maintenance and debugging of the placement machine.

In 2013, the import value of domestic automatic placement machines reached 1.301 billion U.S. dollars, and the main source of imports was Japan, accounting for 65.2%; imports from South Korea, Germany, Singapore, the United States, and the Netherlands accounted for 17.9%, 6.1%, and 3. %, 1.3%, 0.8%.

1. Difficulties and bottlenecks in localization of placement machines

The placement machine has a wide application field and high technical content, and can drive related basic industries such as precision machinery manufacturing, high-precision sensing, high-performance motor manufacturing, image processing, X-Y servo control system, and software. Since the early 1990s, there have been dozens of enterprises and institutions in China, such as the former Ministry of Electronics, the second institute, the 715 factory, the 43, the 4506 factory, Panda Electronics, Fenghua Hi-Tech, Shanghai Hyundai, Shanghai Microelectronics, Yangcheng Technology, etc. I have tried the localization of placement machines, but no domestic placement machine has entered the market so far.

For example, in 1994, Shanghai Radio Special Equipment Factory once again assembled a placement machine in a joint venture with Japan, but it was terminated due to changes in Japan; in 2002, Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment Co., Ltd. cooperated with Shanghai Jiaotong University to produce a prototype placement machine. Commercialization follow-up news; In recent years, South China University of Technology and Zhaoqing Xinbaohua Electronics Co., Ltd. have also cooperated in the development of placement machines.

Through research, the main reasons for SMT equipment experts at NEPCON are summarized as follows:

First, the placement machine has a complex structure, high technical content, and insufficient domestic basic industry accumulation.

The placement machine is a multi-disciplinary integration of high-tech precision equipment such as electromechanics and optics. There are 10,000 to 20,000 components. Foreign placement machine companies generally purchase 70% of them, and the other 30% are customized by the company. These 30% of domestic companies are unable to produce components due to lack of basic technical talents.

Second, the development cost of the placement machine is high, and the investment risk is high, and private enterprises cannot guarantee continuous capital investment.

At present, the production of placement machines has not received enough attention from the government. In the past, state-owned enterprises developed placement machines, usually the government allocated special funds to set up projects to tackle key problems. The enterprises produced prototypes and organized appraisals, and then the project ended, lacking the motivation for continuous innovation.

Private enterprises have strong innovation vitality and are currently the main force in the development of placement machines (there are hundreds of domestic manufacturers engaged in SMT equipment manufacturing, almost all of which are private enterprises), but they are small in scale, limited in strength, and lack of prototypes for further development and improvement. Capital investment.

At the same time, once domestic companies successfully develop new products, foreign companies will immediately cut prices to suppress domestic companies, causing domestic companies to break the R&D capital chain and fail to survive the ever-changing performance of the placement machine market.

Third, the SMT industry standard system is not perfect.

The standard system is the key to integrating the supply chain. The rapid changes in SMT technology, new materials and new processes, as well as the dual pressures of cost and environmental protection, have forced frequent changes in product specifications and new requirements for the formulation of SMT standards. For a long time, my country's SMT industry has overly relied on foreign IPC standards and has not formulated a complete standard system based on the actual conditions of China's SMT industry. Although domestic standards such as GB19247, GB3131, and QJ165 have been formulated, there are problems such as complex standards and unsystematic standards.

In addition, the international standards initiated and formulated by the domestic SMT have not received strong support and protection. For example, IPC-9853 was the first IPC standard initiated by a Chinese SMT company and lasted for 4 years, but it was revoked by the IPC in July 2013 without any explanation or explanation, which hurt the competitiveness of Chinese SMT companies.