Preface

 

 

 

Before purchasing placement machine equipment, you must conduct market research to understand the market conditions of the entire equipment market and save costs for the company. Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you carry out purposeful negotiations and purchases. Some companies are reluctant to spend the time and expense of research. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. You must know that the cost of research accounts for a small proportion of the entire production line, but it will save a lot in equipment purchase. As for time, remember that sharpening the knife does not waste time cutting wood. The money and time spent on market research is worth it.

 

 

 

Market research methods include manufacturer research, user research, and industry research. Manufacturer research is to conduct a one-by-one survey of all manufacturers selling placement machines to find out the entire market situation. The survey content includes equipment origin, price, performance parameters and services, etc. User research is a survey of users who have already used a certain machine. User feedback is the most direct, and this step is critical. The survey includes equipment usage, such as equipment stability and reliability, comparison of equipment nominal parameters with actual usage parameters, flexibility of product replacement, and equipment maintenance and maintenance difficulty, etc. Industry research mainly investigates the reputation of the equipment in the industry. You can consult with senior personnel or experts in the industry to avoid detours.

 

 

 

 

 

1. Research on chip placement machine suppliers

 

 

 

1. Source of equipment suppliers

 

 

 

When conducting market research, start by understanding the source of equipment purchases. Generally, relevant information is obtained from the following channels when purchasing equipment: manufacturers that provide system solutions; manufacturers that provide professional equipment; agents that provide comprehensive solutions; and used equipment manufacturers.

 

 

 

① System supplier: A manufacturer that provides system solutions. It can not only provide placement machines, but also provide system solutions from printing machines to reflow ovens. Its characteristic is that the equipment is relatively expensive, but the stability and matching of the equipment are very high.

 

 

 

② Professional manufacturers: Manufacturers that provide professional equipment are characterized by their specialties and are better than those of system solution manufacturers. However, since they provide a single device, the matching of the entire set of equipment must be confirmed by the user.

 

 

 

③ Equipment agent: The agent of the comprehensive solution is an intermediary, which is characterized by integrating equipment from various professional manufacturers to provide enterprises with a set of solutions, including production line establishment plans and equipment maintenance/repair.

 

 

 

④ Second-hand equipment manufacturers: The characteristic of second-hand equipment manufacturers is that their equipment is cheap. The price of old equipment is 1/3 or less than that of new equipment. However, the performance indicators of old equipment are difficult to guarantee and the failure rate is high, so the cost of repair and maintenance is high. For some consumer electronics products, such as radios, VCDs and other household electrical products, it is more cost-effective to use second-hand equipment during production. In addition, not all major manufacturers have high-end products. If they also deal with low-end products, they may also have old equipment.

 

 

 

For the large number of suppliers mentioned above, each supplier has a certain amount of data that needs to be collected. After synthesis, there is a considerable amount of data that needs to be studied and processed. This work is complicated and time-consuming, and it is almost impossible to complete within a limited time. A feasible approach is to screen suppliers, initially select a few suppliers, usually 3 to 4 suppliers, and comprehensively assess their non-technical capabilities.

 

 

 

2. Collect supplier information

 

 

 

After mastering the sources of equipment suppliers and initially identifying 3 to 4 suppliers, you need to understand these suppliers before making an evaluation. Therefore, considerable information is required. There are the following aspects to collect supplier information.

 

 

 

① Sales philosophy: Each supplier has a different sales philosophy, some are market-oriented, some are technology-based, and some are based on strength, etc.

 

 

② The model, brand and sales history of the machine sold, as well as its credibility in the industry and market reputation.

 

 

 

③ Market sales performance: The proportion of the equipment sold by the supplier to the entire market share, that is, market share.

 

 

 

④ The quality of supplier personnel: including the service quality, service attitude, and technical level of sales personnel and maintenance/service personnel, that is, the technical level response of the overall personnel.

 

 

 

⑤ Whether a global standard service network has been established, the number of sites and staffing situation, whether corresponding sales and repair/maintenance sites are allocated globally, in each region, and in this region, the number of staffing at each site, and whether after receiving a call for help, Service can be performed within 24 hours. This reflects the seller's economic strength and sales strength.

 

 

 

⑥ The price of after-sales service: such as the maintenance engineer’s appearance price and spare parts replacement price, etc. For example, supplier A’s maintenance hours are 900 yuan/h, while supplier B’s equipment maintenance hours are 400 yuan/h. But A’s spare parts are cheap, B’s spare parts are much more expensive, and so on.

 

 

 

⑦ Business operation mode: For example, the equipment purchaser and delivery method, such as 20% payment in advance, 70% payment after the goods arrive and acceptance, and 10% payment after one year; there is still greater flexibility.

 

 

 

⑧ The warranty period promised for the equipment, as well as the scope and details of pre-sales and post-sales technical information provided.

 

 

 

⑨ Provide the scope, content and depth of training free of charge, as well as the cost of paid training.

 

 

 

⑩ Advertising intensity and economic strength.

 

 

 

⑪ Other users’ evaluations of various indicators of the equipment manufacturer.

 

 

 

2. Research on placement machine equipment

 

 

 

After conducting research on equipment suppliers and initially selecting several suppliers, it is necessary to conduct research and collect data on the related equipment they sell. You can ask for technical information from the selected suppliers, and also collect information through other channels to ensure that you have sufficient information for subsequent analysis. The more information you collect, the more you know about the equipment, and the more thoroughly you can understand the weaknesses of the equipment. The capabilities, stability, reliability, and design complexity of the equipment will be more conducive to equipment selection.

 

 

 

1. Determine the equipment model sold by the supplier

 

 

 

Equipment suppliers sell a certain brand of machinery, each of which comes in many models, each serving a different purpose. When researching equipment, first determine the type and model of a certain brand of machine, the characteristics and application scope of each model, the year of launch and applicable situations, and list it in a table, as shown in the table below.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Detailed information for each model

 

 

 

Equipment information can have two aspects. First, request information from the equipment supplier. Generally, suppliers will provide public technical information, that is, product introduction books for promotion, but this is far from enough. You should ask the supplier for more and further information and information, such as the functions, principles, and feeders of the equipment. Information, equipment development and economic information, and even equipment application instructions, etc. Second, information must be collected from other sources. Such as equipment stability and reliability, software usability, market reputation, market share and brand awareness information, etc.

 

 

 

① The function, performance and principle of the equipment.

 

First understand the functions, performance and placement principles of the equipment. Each device is for mounting components, but each machine will have some special functions or features set according to the specific situation. What the equipment can do, to what extent, and with what accuracy. The placement head structure and placement principle, and understand the structure of the placement machine, whether it is a translational type, a rotary type or a combined type. At the same time, understand the type, structure and distribution of nozzles.

 

 

 

② Technical indicators and parameters of the equipment.

 

Obtain the basic parameters of equipment technical indicators from the equipment supplier, including placement speed, placement accuracy, placement component range, substrate size, material rack support, placement head configuration and other special indicators, device optical alignment accuracy and camera resolution and stability, etc. For specific parameter cases, please refer to the following two cases (as shown in the table below).

 

 

 

 

 

③ Equipment application capabilities.

 

By investigating the customers who use it, the difference between the nominal parameters of the equipment and the actual parameters used, as well as the placement discount rate, are retained. Different customers use the same company's equipment. Due to different products and batch sizes, the results will be different. It is necessary to inspect several companies.

 

 

 

④ Stability and reliability of equipment use.

 

The stability of equipment use means that the equipment always and continuously maintains a working state, so that the quality of the produced products is in a consistent state. For example, the repeatability of the placement machine maintains the repetition of placement positions, and the welding quality is consistent. Equipment reliability refers to the probability that the equipment will continue to work without failure during the effective working time, that is, the frequency of equipment failure during production. The higher the reliability of the equipment, the lower the machine failure rate.

 

 

 

⑤ Flexibility and versatility in product replacement (model replacement).

 

The mass production preparation time of the equipment, such as the convenience, flexibility and speed of software programming, the length of time required to switch product models, the speed of feeding the feeder, whether it is suitable for various board production, etc.

 

 

 

⑥ Software usability.

 

Whether the software operation is simple and convenient; whether the interface is commonly used and easy to connect with other computers and software; the software has rich functions and is easy to program, and can be used online, offline, visual calibration, and data input; it has built-in program checking functions, etc.

 

 

 

⑦ Maintainability.

 

The ease and frequency of equipment maintenance and upkeep, whether special operations and tools are required for maintenance of a certain part, etc.

 

 

 

⑧ Feeder information.

 

The number of 8mm feeders that the host feeder can place; the versatility of different machines of the same brand, and the versatility of 2mm steps and 4mm for 8mm feeders, whether it is mechanical or electronic; the simplicity and ease of maintenance and calibration Complexity.

 

 

 

⑨ The optimization ability and line balancing ability of the equipment itself.

 

 

 

⑩ Equipment shortcomings and limitations, such as poor vibration resistance of the machine or complex maintenance, etc.

 

 

 

⑪ Market share of models.

 

 

 

⑫ Equipment technology development.

 

Whether the equipment can meet the requirements of future packaging technology development, and whether the equipment can achieve the required purpose with a slight modification. For example, the current product only uses 0201 components, and the placement machine should have the ability to mount 01005, and the configuration of nozzles can be fewer. In addition, whether the placement machine can mount POP components through simple modifications needs to be investigated. In addition, you also need to know whether the reflow oven is equipped with a nitrogen interface for future use.

 

 

 

⑬ Economic information.

 

Economic information includes the price of purchased equipment models, configuration prices, spare parts prices, repair service prices, maintenance costs and downtime costs, as well as the remaining cost of old machines on the market.

 

 

 

⑭ Brand awareness information.

 

 

 

⑮ Safety: the safety of personnel, product safety, and the safety of the equipment itself.

 

 

 

⑯ Other user reviews.

 

All requirements can be assessed according to their respective requirements by classifying them as above.

 

 

 

3. Other information collection

 

 

 

1. Research on related companies in the same industry

 

 

 

It is necessary to conduct research on relevant companies and competitors in the same industry to understand their current situation, technical status, production line configuration and development status, etc. Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you fight without danger.

 

 

 

2. Understanding the development of device packaging, materials and processes

 

 

 

With the development of component packaging forms in the next 3-5 years, the corresponding processes will change accordingly. For example, if medical electronics is currently applied to BGA and CSP, will FLIP CHIP and WALF be used in the future? Will POP and 01005 etc. be used in mobile phone production? The placement machine purchased must have the ability to mount these packages to ensure that the purchased production line will be able to handle these packaged components after 3 years. It is necessary to pay attention to the development of electronic auxiliary materials, especially the development of metal materials. From lead solder to lead-free solder, the process has changed and the equipment has been updated accordingly. Currently, SAC305 is commonly used. Is it feasible to use 105 in the future? Even new materials are constantly emerging. , response measures, etc.

 

 

 

3. Development of information and data management

 

 

 

Management is developing in the direction of information technology, especially in the United States. After entering the data era, attention should be paid to whether equipment can provide various data processing capabilities, and whether data can be tracked, reported, and fed back in real time.

 

 

 

4. Information collection methods

 

 

 

(1) Participate in various exhibitions

 

 

 

There are many exhibitions related to electronic manufacturing equipment at home and abroad every year. Powerful manufacturers from all over the world will participate, especially some exhibitions that have been recognized by the industry, such as NEPCON in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and the Munich exhibition, which have concentrated many Manufacturer's products are very helpful for comparative analysis when selecting equipment.

 

 

 

(2) Visit the equipment sales supplier display center

 

 

 

Generally, suppliers with a certain scale and strength have their own equipment display centers, laboratories or display service agencies that cooperate with manufacturers for buyers to visit, participate in training and provide technical consultation.

 

 

 

(3) Visit and inspect relevant enterprises

 

 

 

For equipment that needs inspection and research, visit the factory of the company that has purchased the equipment to understand the actual performance, actual efficiency, actual use effect and reliability of the equipment. This is the most reliable first-hand information to understand the situation of the equipment. .

 

 

 

(4) Expert consultation

 

 

 

Consult professional experts or consultants, especially those who have used related equipment, or communicate with peers, face users directly, learn more about usage, avoid one-sided words from salesmen, and at the same time learn about many easily overlooked, Details.

 

 

 

(5) Participate in various seminars

 

 

 

Participate in various seminars and training courses organized by education and training institutions, industry associations or manufacturers. Seminars organized by manufacturers can provide a deeper understanding of newly launched products and the process capabilities of the manufacturer. Other seminars, such as related conferences organized by associations, provide a platform for everyone to communicate and use this opportunity to communicate with each other and learn what they need to know. Participating in training is the best opportunity to learn about the equipment. Not only can you get to know the user units, equipment experts and various talents, but you can also use this platform to gain an in-depth understanding of the equipment.