PCB Manufacturing, Assembly & Test Blog

Hi there This may seem a strange topic for a Process Engineering Blog but bear with me on this. Over the past few years, car manufacturers seem to be in a race to develop the cars with the highest number of gear ratios in them. Currently cars on the market have automatic gearboxes with 8 forward ratios. Manual gearboxes exist with 7 forward gears now.  I have also heard about possible future gearboxes … Read More

programming, AOI, data preparation, vPlan, bill of materials, BOM

Hi there One of the areas that we constantly look to enhance with each release is our support for the machines that are in use with our customers. Although we use the Mentor Ideas site as a opportunity to derive feedback from yourselves, I also wanted to take this chance to ask you to let me know which machines you still need us to support either because they are new to the market or needed to address … Read More

Enhancement, AOI, Flying Probe, ICT, data preparation, AXI, bill of materials, Design For Test, Automated Optical Inspection, Automated X-Ray Inspection, documentation, boundary scan, BOM, process, vPlan, SPI, THT, Solder Paste Inspection, programming

Hi there We recently had a successful trade show at Apex 2013 in San Diego. During the event I was interviewed with iConnect PCB007′s Andy Shaughnessy. We discussed the main themes that we were promoting on the booth in the area of Process Preparation, namely being able to use a single solution for all areas of PCB manufacturing data preparation as well as simplying the many types of part library … Read More

IPC, vPlan, AOI, documentation, Flying Probe, ICT, AVL, data preparation, AXI, Design For Test, Automated Optical Inspection, Automated X-Ray Inspection, BOM, bill of materials, testability, SPI, Solder Paste Inspection, programming, process

Hi there I recently discussed the new capability in Valor MSS Process Preparation 11.3. I mentioned that I would go in to more detail on some of the areas that are part of this version and I will cover the new Test Probe Placement capability today. We have added an all new Test Probe Placement Session in 11.3 that performs the physical test probe placement analysis natively within the application. … Read More

AOI, Flying Probe, ICT, data preparation, AXI, bill of materials, Design For Test, Automated Optical Inspection, Automated X-Ray Inspection, boundary scan, BOM, process, vPlan, testability, VPL

Hi there The Valor team are here in San Diego at the IPC Apex Trade Show. We’ve had a great couple of days, meeting our customers, plenty of new ones as well as meeting with some of the other vendors at the show. Our theater presentations have been well received, bringing people in to the booth and then stopping afterwards, asking questions and looking for more information. If you are at the … Read More

Enhancement, documentation, programming, Solder Paste Inspection, AOI, Design For Test, SPI, apex, stencil, testability, Automated Optical Inspection, VPL, BOM, Automated X-Ray Inspection, vPlan, boundary scan, approved vendor list, data preparation, AXI, AVL, bill of materials, Flying Probe, Planning, mixed vendor, OIB, IPC, ICT

Hi there Last week I discussed the new capability in Valor MSS Process Preparation 11.3. I mentioned that I would go in to more detail on some of the areas that are part of this version and I will start with our new capability for inspection machines. There are three main types of automated inspection machines, Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), Automated X-Ray Inspection (AXI) and Solder Paste Inspection … Read More

data preparation, AOI, aperture, Solder Paste Inspection, SPI, stencil, Automated X-Ray Inspection, AXI, process, Automated Optical Inspection

Hi there We have just released a new version of Valor MSS (11.3) that brings a number of significant enhancements to existing customers as well as those looking to invest in cutting edge process preparation solutions. I’ll be covering some of these enhancements in more detail in future blogs but here is a short summary of some of the new capability that we have in 11.3. We have made significant … Read More

OIB, mixed vendor, vPlan, AOI, Flying Probe, ICT, BOM, AVL, documentation, bill of materials, Enhancement, Design For Test, data preparation, VPL, testability, stencil, programming, Planning, process

Hi there Next month on February 19th, 20th and 21st is the annual IPC Apex Convention in San Diego and there will be more than 400 exhibitors from 50 different countries represented at the show. Here are five reasons you should attend: 1. The Valor Division of Mentor Graphics will be exhibiting at booth 1227. So, you will be able to meet the U.S. sales team as well as some of the Product Line personnel … Read More

mixed vendor, Flying Probe, AOI, apex, ICT, IPC, bill of materials, BOM, approved vendor list, documentation, data preparation, Design For Test, vPlan, stencil, Sequence, programming, san diego, process

Hi there A few months back I talked about in-line AOI but this time I’ll mention a similar capability we have in the Valor MSS Process Preparation suite of in-line Solder Paste Inspection or SPI. The idea with in-line AOI and SPI is for the outputs to the different inspection machines to understand where components are being placed in the line and to create output that matches the placement. … Read More

vPlan, bill of materials, AOI, data preparation, programming, BOM, SPI, stencil

Hi there It has been a few months since we launched the World Class Process Preparation Webinar including a video of an overall product demonstration. Over the past couple of months I have met with a number of people who implemented the Valor MSS Process Preparation solution and are achieving the efficiencies and improvements that we describe in the Webinar. Therefore I would like to provide you with … Read More

mixed vendor, Flying Probe, AOI, ICT, BOM, boundary scan, AVL, bill of materials, documentation, data preparation, Design For Test, vPlan, Planning, testability, VPL, stencil, programming, process

Hi there I have been posting comments on my blog now for a number of months. The topics have been based on the feedback and conversations I’ve had with many users of Process Engineering software, both Mentor Graphics and non-Mentor Graphics products, all around the world. Many of you have also taken the time to add comments on these postings which I really appreciate. I’d like to open … Read More

mixed vendor, Flying Probe, AOI, ICT, BOM, boundary scan, AVL, bill of materials, documentation, data preparation, Design For Test, Planning, testability, vPlan, stencil, programming, process

Hi there I spent last week in the wonderful town of Zug about 45 minutes from Zurich in Switzerland. My European colleagues organized a two day seminar for over 60 of our Valor MSS Process Preparation customers at the Siemens facility in Zug. The agenda consisted of some Valor presentations, Valor demostrations of the upcoming software, presentations by actual users of the Process Preparation software … Read More

programming, AVL, process, AOI, data preparation, documentation, Flying Probe, bill of materials, ICT, BOM, Design For Test, vPlan, testability, VPL, stencil

Hi there As a follow up to my posting last week on measuring test coverage, which you can read from the following link: http://www.mentor.com/pcb-manufacturing-assembly/blog/post/how-do-you-measure-test-coverage–77cbb106-851f-4f26-a548-4857098f23d4 I would like to hear from test and process engineers on what types of equipment form part of your test and inspection strategy. How do In-Circuit … Read More

Design For Test, Flying Probe, AOI, testability, vPlan, ICT, data preparation, BOM, programming, boundary scan

Hi there I have covered a number of areas of process engineering in this blog over the past few months and there is now an opportunity to see how these areas all come together next week in our Webinar titled “World Class Process Preparation”. We will be discussing a number of ways that the users of Valor MSS can streamline their process preparation tasks to make them more efficient and … Read More

Planning, AOI, mixed vendor, BOM, data preparation, documentation, AVL, Flying Probe, bill of materials, ICT, Design For Test, process preparation, vPlan, Webinar, testability, stencil, programming, Sequence

Hi there This week sees the all new Valor MSS 11.2 version that supports all areas of PCB Process Engineering and Shop Floor. One of the new features of this release is the ability to include Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) machines in-line with the SMT placement machines. This provides the ability to create specific AOI programs depending on where the machine is in the line relative to the point … Read More

data preparation, approved vendor list, vPlan, AOI, BOM, process, AVL, programming, bill of materials