EPP Europe P2.2023

changes in inspection technologies have been hardware
related,” Tuerk explains. “The next paradigm
shift will be in the area of software. And artificial intelligence
will be the driver.”
Saving costs and personnel
In addition to machinery acquisition and maintenance
costs, personnel costs have the biggest impact
on the price of inspection processes. In addition to
personnel to classify abnormalities at the verification
station, experts are required for the creation of inspection
programmes. In this area, AI can reduce
human effort and save money. A clear trend for customisation
is evident among electronics manufacturers
across the world – small batch sizes need to be
produced and inspected quickly and, of course, costeffectively.
In this case, an inspection programme
that works from the first assembly can be created in
just a few clicks using various assistance functions.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, this will be achievable
without the intervention of an employee in the
future - contributing significantly to a reduction in
inspection costs for very small batches.
The future of programme creation
Artificial intelligence has been used in Goepel inspection
systems for several years. The time employees
require to conduct various processes is already
being reduced. Step by step, beginning with
the semi-automation of processes, we are moving
towards the final goal – fully automated,
autonomous inspection.
In the past, inspection programmes began with
data import. Article numbers were manually assigned
to existing library entries. Finally, the test parameters
were manually adjusted. All of this was time-consuming.
Nowadays, this process looks a little different
- although automated programme creation still
starts with data import. Component parameters
Christina Schellbach,
Public Relations
Manager at Goepel
electronic
(name, position, article number, and so on), layout
and pad information are now readily available but
detailed information about the housing and the
solder joint (dimensions, height, pin shape) is still
missing. To obtain this, the 3D AOI system creates an
exact image of the respective housing and solder
joints using the first produced assembly. This information
is then used to determine the respective
enclosure shape and to assign all required test functions.
The test programme is created and a component
library is automatically generated based on article
numbers. In the final stage, the test programme
is executed and the test parameters are automatically
adapted to the real process variations. To avoid
slippage, tolerance limits are placed tightly around
the actual measured values and corrected according
to real fluctuations, taking plausibility criteria into
account. This is called knowledge-based intelligence.
In the future, it will be possible to create a test programme
without the real image of the first assembly.
A completely digital image of the PCB with components
and solder joints – a digital twin – will be used
in the creation of a new test programme without the
need for an actual physical assembly.
“There are already AI inspection functions that do
not require any setting parameters because they use
a pre-trained AI model for classification,” explains
Tuerk. Examples of this include the x-ray inspection
Andreas Tuerk,
Product Manager
for X-ray systems at
Goepel electronic
Source: Tina Dietrich/Göpel electronic
AI advisor reduces
workload for verification
station staff;
AI also protects
against human error
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