PAL pulls out all the stops for Schweizer

Citation

(2007), "PAL pulls out all the stops for Schweizer", Circuit World, Vol. 33 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2007.21733aab.003

PAL pulls out all the stops for Schweizer

PAL pulls out all the stops for Schweizer

On 1 June 2005, disaster struck at Schweizer Electronic AG (SEAG), when a major fire destroyed large parts of the building and production facilities at their main plant in Schramberg in Southern Germany. As Rainer Hartel, Chairman of the Board of Directors explained when presenting the 2005 results: “Like scarcely any other in our company's 156-year history, the year 2005 was defined by an exceptional event ... one the employees and Board of Directors see as a challenge and an opportunity to achieve even greater performance in the future.”

PAL – Process Automation International Ltd – became very much part of that future. Working very closely with SEAG, PAL Hong Kong with PAL Europe have designed and installed one of the largest automated plating machines ever supplied into Europe. The resulting combined pattern copper/ tin panel copper line is a massive 70m long, 9m wide and 4.6m high. With each load being two flight bars totalling 12 panels, and 36 copper stations there are 216 panels measuring up to 610 × 640mm in copper at any one time.

“Speed was of the essence, and we certainly rose to the challenge” explains Peter Jackson, Managing Director of PAL Europe. “We had been in discussion with SEAG before their fire, regarding machines that could expand their production capabilities, but little did we realise that the contacts we had made would result in an SOS call! We leapt into action as soon as we heard from them. Detailed planning meetings were held in our Shenzhen factory at the earliest opportunity and the design team set to work. The line was ordered in August 2005, installed in January/ February of this year and, after the product underwent SEAG's rigorous quality verification testing, went into production on time during May 2006. Plating is consistently comfortably beating our guaranteed 8.5 per cent CoV by several percentage points.”

“SEAG has proved a pleasure to do business with. We often talk about the best relationships being akin to partnerships. This was certainly the case with this project. The engineering teams from our two companies formed a true partnership with the sole objective of ensuring that SEAG would have a machine to meet their current and future high-technology production requirements. SEAG management was enthusiastic about the introduction of state-of-the-art technology aimed at ensuring the highest possible plating quality, and by our assurance that the project would be completed and commissioned on time and on budget.”

Edwin Böckeler, Production Manager at SEAG, takes up the story. “We were delighted by PAL's very positive response to our call for rapid help. With more than 1,500 automated lines installed around the world, we were confident about their plating technology reputation, their ability to manage large projects and to deliver on time. What came as an additional, and very important feature, was the ability of our teams to work so closely and constructively together. I can only echo Peter Jackson's words `this was a true partnership'. I speak for all our engineers when I say that once we had recovered from the shock of the fire, this was a most enjoyable project.”

The new plating line is achieving excellent distribution across the plating window. OSSTjWin random load software in its German version – one of ten languages in which it is available – enables SEAG to plate mixed loads efficiently. The line features PAL's latest improved shielding design AeroWing™ enhanced floating shields, and a high degree of automation including automatic unload and automatic anode maintenance cycles.

“SEAG published a whole series of newsletters to keep all interested in the machine informed at every stage” explains Peter Jackson. “And once the machine was en route from Hong Kong to Germany there was even a large map posted to show the route the machine was taking. There was very much a sense of ownership – and of expectation. Throughout installation our teams worked closely together, there was no feeling of `them and us'. Speaking for the PAL team, we are delighted that the machine is working so well, and we are hoping to be afforded the opportunity to work on further projects with SEAG in the future.”

For further information on PAL, visit the web site: www.palhk.com; and on SEAG, visit the web site: www.seag.de