Specialist for pick-and-place machines pushes productivity increase and a more sustainable future with “R” machine series

Kelsterbach, 21 September 2023 – The electronics industry is in the midst of digital transformation. The sector and production requirements are changing. With its “R YOU READY?” campaign, FUJI EUROPE CORPORATION GmbH ( www.fuji-euro.de) is helping companies to solve the challenges posed by this change. In the course of this, the specialist for electronics placement machines is presenting its “R-Series” at “productronica 2023”. These are machines that reduce manual activities to a minimum and are aimed at energy efficiency, flexibility, high-speed and high-precision placement. At the show, FUJI will showcase these and other solutions for automated and flexible placement in Hall A3, Booth 317.

The electronics industry is facing growing challenges. On the one hand, digitization and networking must be driven forward – equipment and systems must be able to communicate seamlessly with each other for end-to-end processes and be integrated into software landscapes. At the same time, market players are facing staff shortages, a lack of raw materials, the energy crisis and fluctuations in demand with rising production costs. Competitive pressure is high.

“Productivity in manufacturing has never been as important as it is today. With our “R” placement machines, we aim for highly efficient and agile production that is also designed for sustainability. Our placement machines of the R-Series support a wide range of production types and prove to be very economical and energy-saving,” says Stefan Janssen, Managing Director of FUJI EUROPE CORPORATION GmbH.

At “productronica”, FUJI will demonstrate various automation solutions as well as an electronics production line without human intervention, consisting of the NXTR PM printer and the NXTR A placement machine, with a connection to an AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot). This allows FUJI to show visitors the interaction of the machines, the heart of the FUJI Smart Factory 2.0, and in the course of this the newly developed RH placement heads, which are used in the R series. The NXTR A automates previously manual processes such as feeder exchange and material replenishment. This frees machine operators from feeder exchange and parts supply tasks, which usually account for the largest share of the operator’s work in front of the placement machines.

Automation and sustainability in placement

The NXTR A and NXTR S placement machines belong to the “R” machine series. They offer a modular design that allows quick adaptations to changing production requirements. Heads, units and even entire modules can be changed without tools. Predictive maintenance is enabled by self-diagnostics that prevent sudden machine stops from affecting the production schedule.

The NXTR models support high-speed panel production, with high throughput without compromising quality. With the intelligent sensor system, stable and high quality placement is guaranteed. The status of the machine is monitored in real time and the load on components and panels is controlled at the same time.

“In response to market demand, we have released new 2RV modules as part of our NXTR S. The 2RV modules are even faster than the NXTR modules without compromising the transportability of the NXTR modules. The NXTR modules have the largest supported plate size among the NXT machine series. This makes the 2RV modules suitable for a wide range of production, including automotive panels, mobile devices, LED displays and much more,” explains Stefan Janssen.

The third and last in the alliance of the R-series is the new placement solution AIMEXR, which also addresses several central challenges of SMT production: Energy saving, individualization and flexibility as well as speed and efficiency. The solution is designed for uninterrupted operation while reducing energy consumption by around ten percent compared to previous solutions. The AIMEXR can accommodate up to 130 different part types and produce panels up to 1,068 x 610 mm, a very high level of versatility.

In addition, FUJI’s support tool “mobile Conductor” makes it possible to schedule woman and manpower in order to save walking distances. This results in reducing downtime, as operators are informed and can act immediately. Notifications can also be made for non-FUJI equipment.

Automation solutions for the entire process chain

At “productronica”, FUJI will also be showing other solutions and tools that enable fully automated processes. “Our aim is to continuously increase efficiency throughout the entire process chain of placement, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact. With our placement machines, we support, among other things, the optimization and automation of logistics, maintenance and changeover processes. This saves time, effort and ultimately energy,” says Stefan Janssen.