Innovative in Industrial Electronics

STG-BEIKIRCH’s electronic manufacturing department, created in 1999 by the merger of STG Sicherheitstechnik GmbH and the Beikirch Industrieelektronik GmbH (Minden), was always equipped with machines suitable for the tasks required. But the rapid development taking place in electronic manufacturing and the fact, that there were signs of the company reaching its production capacity, convinced the corporation that it had to make a move. Production manager Rainer Spanier reacted in good time and established in 2013 at the SMT Hybrid Packaging Exhibition, the trade show for system integration held in Nürnberg, the first contact with system supplier Ersa. “We naturally were aware of Ersa and its product range well before that time. The first concrete interest in Ersa came 5 or 6 years ago, when it became clear to us that, as an EMS provider, we had to offer a selective soldering process to our customers – with the increase in mixed technology THT / SMT, wave soldering was no longer a fully viable process”, says Rainer Spanier. The attention of STG-BEIKIRCH quickly turned to Ersa, the leader in the technology of selective soldering. Now the question was how to ensure that the selective soldering system could be adequately loaded to operate economically. They started to look to their own products, to see whether they could be converted to the new process. While a number of products could be found, it was realized that often the distances between the SMT components and the through-hole pins were too small. This posed a challenge, even for the most experienced soldering specialists. Of the four suppliers on the vendor list, only Ersa saw itself in the position to positively state: Yes, we can do that! Thus, a number of soldering trials with different boards were undertaken, at Ersa as well as at the other suppliers. “Ersa was the only supplier that could handle the tasks, and, as the result, the purchase order was issued for a selective soldering system type ECOSELECT 1 with two solder bath.  Installation took place in May 2015, and the process accompaniment provided by an Ersa application engineer was extremely helpful”, remarks Rainer Spanier while looking back at their first purchase from Ersa.

But it should not be the last, since even before the negotiations regarding the selective soldering system, STG-BEIKIRCH and Ersa had been in discussions about a wave soldering system. The annual shutdown in Lemgo at the turn of the year 2015/2016 was used to install a new wave soldering system from Ersa, a full tunnel system with nitrogen inertion. This was desperately needed since the old system from another supplier was technologically very much outdated and at the end of its load capacity, unable to meet the required throughput. “The full-tunnel wave soldering system POWERFLOW N₂ is just the system we had been looking for, and the soldering trials performed served to convince us”, says production manager Rainer Spanier. For handling the boards on the infeed- and return conveyors, special solutions had to be developed. To technically realize the project, engineers from both companies’ combined their knowledge to come up with very creative solutions. And since traceability was demanded by the market, it was, for STG-BEIKIRCH, a mandatory requirement which was executed – in close cooperation between both companies – with RFID tags. During production on the full tunnel soldering system POWERFLOW N₂, the data is generated with which it is possible to retrace the production parameters under which the boards have been processed, and in which batch is was manufactured including all process data. This way the finished article achieves a high degree of transparency – from the parameters of the components, the test results of the components and the boards’ right up to the production data of the wave soldering system. “STG-BEIKIRCH and Ersa have complemented each other extremely well in this project: The designers from Lemgo have written custom software tailored exactly to meet their demands, software, that is now running on their Ersa soldering system”, says Ersa’s Ulrich Dosch, the Sales Engineer looking after STG-BEIKIRCH. The highest standards are applied in the safety industry, and STG-BEIKIRCH’s product range in this sector is rather large. For example, boards for emergency release buttons need to be of white RAL color, both before and after soldering. This can be achieved only by an efficient and homogeneous preheating process, which has to be quick and at low temperature, as otherwise the board would go yellow (discolor). Other boards, again, need to be soldered at higher temperatures, and there a powerful preheat system is called for. For these diametrically opposed requirements, as well as for everything in between, Ersa could supply the perfect solution. In the end, STG-BEIKIRCH settled on a virtually fully equipped POWERFLOW system, making sure that all present and also any future demands could be met. A forward looking decision, when considering that STG-BEIKIRCH is continuously increasing its international business. “The relationship, build up slowly over a number of years, has very much intensified during the last year– especially when the subject turns to technology.  As a technician, I very much appreciate the fact that discussions with Ersa take place on a technical level. There is a profound understanding for the subject and the required processes, from which both side generously benefit, as is demonstrated by the solutions installed in our facility. From Ersa we receive what we require: excellent products, excellent advice!” says Rainer Spanier. Automating the building envelope may be a niche market, but it functions very well – so well, that the next project for the two business partners is already on the horizon.