DoMicro is a technology company developing innovative production technology for hybrid electronics and micro devices. DoMicro asked PPS Holland to examine a concept for a new integrated production solution. PPS Holland was involved from the start of this project.

PPS Holland built a feasibility test set-up to confirm the requirements. Time to market is shortened by design of the critical part fitting the end solution to avoid introduction of unpredictable parameters.After confirmation of the requirements the process of the feasibility set-up was integrated into a production solution.

• Delivery of the system architecture specifications.
• Design and building of the feasibility set-up, including mechanical parts, electronics and software including interface and data-logging system.
• Design and delivery of the mechanical and electronical for the production solution afterwards.

The software integration on the production solution was done in cooperation with DoMicro.

Marcel Grooten:

“PPS Holland brought our innovation in a creative way to the next phase of industrialization: pragmatic, quick and with an effective solution that surprises by its simplicity.”

Farmertronics is developing an unmanned sustainable tractor. It will run on electricity. With this development a cross-over is made between the sectors high tech, automotive and agriculture. An initial requirement investigation and small size feasibility study model were supported by PPS Holland.

• Requirement investigation for software and hardware.
• Design feasibility robotics set-up.
• Manufacturing proto small size study model.

Thieu Berkers:

“In good cooperation PPS Holland made a promising translation starting from the initial idea and transforming it into a first small size study model for Farmertronics.”

LG-Philips Displays produces the glass tubes all around the world. Later on the tube is integrated into a television. In the production process moulds are used to glue two pieces together in a furnace at 400°C. The furnace contains 400 moulds of 80 kgs each. Adjustment of each mould is done two times a year through a reference mould and takes two man-hours work while the mould is offline, thus generating no production. PPS Holland was involved to develop a quicker and more reliable adjustment procedure.

A review showed that 20% of the furnace capacity wasn’t used. Together with the factory process engineers a new procedure to control the adjustment process has been developed. The operators were trained on the new procedure.

Results:

• Reduction of the adjustment time for one mould from two hours offline to one minute inline.
• Substantial increase of product quality.
• Average displacement error reduction from 0.7 mm to 0.1 mm.
• Standard deviation error reduction from 0.4 mm to 0.1 mm.

The increased speed of the furnace process also had influence on the front part of the production line, this became more stable resulting in a higher yield.