This article is describing exactly same situation.
Our customer required reading of 2D DataMatrix. You can ask - what's difficult with it? Many customers are reading DataMatrix for years without any problems and no innovations needed. What was challenging on this project? DataMatrix was lasered on printed circuit boards (direct part mark) and reading should be done in motion on a line during machine PCB shouldering.
Yes also these projects are documented in various data sheets. Many vendors will assure you that this will not any problem for their devices. But how many such projects can they demonstrate? Brochures are sometimes different then reality. What can be achieved in the laboratory conditions may not work in the reality of every day production.
How did we persuade the client that our solution is the best and fully functional? There were 2 fundamental factors:
Good experience with some previous project. Customer must see that the supplier offers reliable and quality solutions, including installations. It is very bad if the vendor sells only hardware with remark install it yourself and read manual if you run into a problem, because the issue is incorrect installation...
The second factor is the pre-installation testing. The testing performed not in laboratory but on customer's production line under the working conditions. Testing not just behind laser marker but at the line output after PCB went through soldering, shouldering and other work-in processes. That means in place with the highest quality issue probability. Not testing of 50 pieces taking one hour but couple of days under full operation on 10 000 marked PCBs.
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Our client did not plan to equip only one work place but the whole plant. Before huge investment it was reasonable to make sure that the right solution is chosen. That is why not only ours but also competitors readers were tested in order customer could compare real data from the long term testing. The final choice was based on real data testing.
You are certainly asking: who is the customer? what scanner were chosen?
Client is Panasonic, particularly branch factory in Slovakia producing DVDs and Blue-rays for EU market.
Their choice was definite and uncompromising: Microscan MINI Hawk.
From the table it os obvious that QX HAWK was the winner of the race. Why MINI Hawk was chosen? The reason was one and simple: Form factor of matchbox allowing to mount the reader from the below of the assembly line as some of PCBs are marked on the bottom side. Limited space not allowing to install QX Hawk was the main reason why MINI Hawk was preferred.
What the black fields in the table mean? These are competitive scanners.
What are individual parameters? Celkem = sum of tested pieces. OK = number of good reads out of the sum. NOREAD = number of non reads out of the sum.That means MINI Hawk did not read only 46 pieces out of 9 725. In fact the percentage of NOREADs was even lower as some of them were caused by manual interference into the production line so object detector was triggered although no PCB went through..
Project evaluation
We are very satisfied with Microscan technology. After more readers from various producers had been tested, as for both 1D and 2D reading performance Microscan was absolute winner. Although the price seems to be high and implementation of these projects more difficult, the contribution in the quality and efficiency improvement process in production is considerable. That is why the right partner and the right technology is very important.
František Fečke, Panasonic AVC Networks Slovakia s.r.o., Krompachy, CZ
