1. As PCB circuit board designs become increasingly complex and circuit densities rise, gold fingers have evolved from simple shapes to various intricate forms (such as fingers, circles, squares, and even localized areas requiring gold finger plating).
2. In traditional gold finger electroplating, manual wrapping of anti-electroplating blue adhesive paper is used to protect non-plated areas. This method is constrained by the lengthy and difficult training required for workers (generally 1-2 months) and the slow speed, making it challenging to handle complex shapes.
3. Some PCB factories in Taiwan use manually opened skylights to speed up the blue glue wrapping process. However, manual handling risks scratching the green oil and graphics, necessitating the addition of green glue paper post-skylight, which increases costs and complicates control for high-grade boards.
4. For large-scale production of gold finger boards, various methods (such as increasing voltage, gold concentration, and liquid temperature) can enhance output. Yet, this often involves borrowing unskilled workers from external processes, leading to low quality of blue coated adhesive tape and increased PCB board scrapping.
5. As production volume rises, a few skilled workers may be underutilized. The consumption rates of blue coated adhesive tape for different gold finger board models vary significantly (from 1 piece/min to 1 piece every 8-10 minutes). PPC must consider these varying consumption times when planning production schedules.
6. Special-shaped gold finger boards are particularly time-consuming, labor-intensive, and material-heavy (requiring manual wrapping of green adhesive tape), with quality still difficult to ensure. The repeated changes in the consumption plan for gold finger electroplating workshops due to tape wrapping issues have led to a low completion rate.
7. The tape wrapping station has become a bottleneck, impeding the efficiency and output rate of gold finger electroplating. This paper analyzes detailed examples to identify bottlenecks and propose improvements for enhancing the gold finger electroplating process.
**Gold Finger Electroplating Consumption Process:**
1. Take up the board.
2. Cut the board edge.
3. Apply blue adhesive tape manually.
4. Apply green adhesive tape manually (optional).
5. Press the adhesive tape.
6. Nickel plate gold.
7. Remove the adhesive tape.
8. Wash the board.
9. Reflect.
**Analysis of Consumption Ability of Gold Finger Electroplating Stations:**
**Bottleneck Station Analysis**
With a monthly order of 120,000 ft² and fluctuating daily consumption between 2,000 ft² and 6,000 ft², the manual blue glue application and gold-plated fingers are identified as bottlenecks. At 6,000 ft²/day, these stations create a backlog and delay in the consumption scheme. Even continuous manual wrapping of blue glue cannot meet demand due to necessary break times and the inefficiency of a 12-hour shift. Foremen and workers report that slow consumption rates are due to insufficient blue-coated glue supply. With adequate blue glue, the nickel-gold consumption rate could increase by 20%, aligning with consumption plan requirements. Thus, the blue glue station is the true bottleneck. To streamline the scheme and consumption logistics, improvement measures are necessary.
**Analysis of Improvement Methods**
A. Add 5 workers per shift; however, workers may be idle during lower production periods (e.g., 2,000 ft²).
B. Aim for 4,000 ft² per day; this is overly idealistic and difficult for PPC to manage.
C. Use 10 workers per shift under normal conditions and 15 during high output periods; veteran workers’ efficiency is low (30-50% of standard output) with minimal assistance.
D. Adopt Tl04-07 automatic blue coating glue machine; though it requires a large investment and results in the loss of 4-6 workers per shift, it also wastes 20% of blue glue and 70% of green glue costs.
**Tl04-07 Automatic Blue Gluing Machine Using PCB Circuit Board Design CAM Technology**
CAM, or Computer-Aided Manufacturing, utilizes computers to assist in the manufacturing process. Narrowly, CAM involves the complete manufacturing process from raw materials to finished goods, including both direct and indirect processes. Broadly, it refers to using computers in specific stages of manufacturing. In CAD/CAM, it often denotes computer-aided machining, where output information includes process paths and contents for parts, and input information includes motion paths and NC sequences for tool machining.
2. In traditional gold finger electroplating, manual wrapping of anti-electroplating blue adhesive paper is used to protect non-plated areas. This method is constrained by the lengthy and difficult training required for workers (generally 1-2 months) and the slow speed, making it challenging to handle complex shapes.
3. Some PCB factories in Taiwan use manually opened skylights to speed up the blue glue wrapping process. However, manual handling risks scratching the green oil and graphics, necessitating the addition of green glue paper post-skylight, which increases costs and complicates control for high-grade boards.
4. For large-scale production of gold finger boards, various methods (such as increasing voltage, gold concentration, and liquid temperature) can enhance output. Yet, this often involves borrowing unskilled workers from external processes, leading to low quality of blue coated adhesive tape and increased PCB board scrapping.
5. As production volume rises, a few skilled workers may be underutilized. The consumption rates of blue coated adhesive tape for different gold finger board models vary significantly (from 1 piece/min to 1 piece every 8-10 minutes). PPC must consider these varying consumption times when planning production schedules.
6. Special-shaped gold finger boards are particularly time-consuming, labor-intensive, and material-heavy (requiring manual wrapping of green adhesive tape), with quality still difficult to ensure. The repeated changes in the consumption plan for gold finger electroplating workshops due to tape wrapping issues have led to a low completion rate.
7. The tape wrapping station has become a bottleneck, impeding the efficiency and output rate of gold finger electroplating. This paper analyzes detailed examples to identify bottlenecks and propose improvements for enhancing the gold finger electroplating process.
**Gold Finger Electroplating Consumption Process:**
1. Take up the board.
2. Cut the board edge.
3. Apply blue adhesive tape manually.
4. Apply green adhesive tape manually (optional).
5. Press the adhesive tape.
6. Nickel plate gold.
7. Remove the adhesive tape.
8. Wash the board.
9. Reflect.
**Analysis of Consumption Ability of Gold Finger Electroplating Stations:**
**Bottleneck Station Analysis**
With a monthly order of 120,000 ft² and fluctuating daily consumption between 2,000 ft² and 6,000 ft², the manual blue glue application and gold-plated fingers are identified as bottlenecks. At 6,000 ft²/day, these stations create a backlog and delay in the consumption scheme. Even continuous manual wrapping of blue glue cannot meet demand due to necessary break times and the inefficiency of a 12-hour shift. Foremen and workers report that slow consumption rates are due to insufficient blue-coated glue supply. With adequate blue glue, the nickel-gold consumption rate could increase by 20%, aligning with consumption plan requirements. Thus, the blue glue station is the true bottleneck. To streamline the scheme and consumption logistics, improvement measures are necessary.
**Analysis of Improvement Methods**
A. Add 5 workers per shift; however, workers may be idle during lower production periods (e.g., 2,000 ft²).
B. Aim for 4,000 ft² per day; this is overly idealistic and difficult for PPC to manage.
C. Use 10 workers per shift under normal conditions and 15 during high output periods; veteran workers’ efficiency is low (30-50% of standard output) with minimal assistance.
D. Adopt Tl04-07 automatic blue coating glue machine; though it requires a large investment and results in the loss of 4-6 workers per shift, it also wastes 20% of blue glue and 70% of green glue costs.
**Tl04-07 Automatic Blue Gluing Machine Using PCB Circuit Board Design CAM Technology**
CAM, or Computer-Aided Manufacturing, utilizes computers to assist in the manufacturing process. Narrowly, CAM involves the complete manufacturing process from raw materials to finished goods, including both direct and indirect processes. Broadly, it refers to using computers in specific stages of manufacturing. In CAD/CAM, it often denotes computer-aided machining, where output information includes process paths and contents for parts, and input information includes motion paths and NC sequences for tool machining.
