KIC, Mentor collaborate on integrated thermal process technology

KIC, provider of smart oven solutions, reached a technology collaboration with Mentor, a Siemens Business, leveraging KIC’s professional knowledge on thermal processes and Mentor’s comprehensive expertise on surface mount technology (SMT) manufacturing towards Industry 4.0. This cooperation utilizes KIC’s smart oven technology to provide process transparency, traceability, consistent quality and reduced costs through a new level of automation for their mutual customers. 

KIC and Mentor will collaborate on extending the Open Manufacturing Language (OML) to include thermal processes. OML, the leading real-time event-driven communication protocol for PCB assembly, currently supports printer, inspection, test and SMT operations, offering a comprehensive connectivity solution for any manufacturing execution system (MES). This collaboration will improve the thermal process avoiding unnecessary downtime, reducing labor, and improving overall quality.

Monitoring the reflow, wave solder, or cure process in high resolution requires thousands of readings from embedded sensors, generating significant amounts of data. KIC continues to be the technology and market leader in leveraging this data, through real-time analytics, providing automation and actionable solutions. Smart software is used to manage the sensors’ output as real-time events extended to OML and will allow users to track trends and errors when they occur – improving product quality, equipment utilization and profitability.