NSW Automation Sdn Bhd

Penang,  Bayan Lepas 
Malaysia
http://www.nswautomation.com

• Booth: A416

A manufacture in the world’s smallest solder paste dispenser

NSW Automation (NSW) is a Malaysia-based company specializes in precision fluid dispensing systems in the microelectronics and semiconductor industries.

Headquartered in Penang, the company provides solder paste micro-dispensing solution to achieve tiny dispensed dots or lines sizes from as small as 80μm. This solution has huge demand in today’s microelectronics packaging industry, including Electric Vehicle (EV) components, 5G devices, MEMS, SiP or PoP packages as well as active and passive components like 01005, 008004 assemblies in Hybrid SMT assembly process. Aside from solder paste, NSW’s micro-dispensing solution is also applicable for various materials such as conductive silver epoxies, UV adhesives, silicone gel, epoxies, etc.

NSW has expanded its business footprints around the world with professional sales and technical service authorities in the USA, China, Taiwan, South Korea, SEA countries, Germany and Russia, among others.

With over 18 years of experience in the advanced dispensing industry, the company remains committed on delivering precision liquid dispensing solutions to support the customers’ automated dispensing needs, serving industries such as EVs, semiconductor miniaturization, green energy, aerospace, consumer and wearable devices as well as 5G photonics.

NSW has plans to gain market share in the precision fluid dispensing systems, which accounted for 7% of the global semiconductor equipment market. Holding on to that, NSW constantly assesses external opportunities to gain a lucrative market segment. Moving forward, NSW will continue its existing working models that yielded good results and head for greater heights. NSW will invest in the extension of market surveys and R&D to create additional products that address consumer needs.

Please log in to our website to get more futher info:

https://nswautomation.com/NSW/

 Press Releases

• How to Prevent Solder Paste Dispensing Clog Issues (Apr 14, 2022)

  Best Practice and Tips to Prevent Solder Paste Dispensing Clogging issues.

  How do you prevent solder paste dispensing clog, blockage or choke? As the dispensing industry continues to grow, there has been a demand for intelligent, innovative new ideas to make dispensing easier. However, one of the major problems with solder paste dispensing is clogged or jammed dispensing valves.

  Adhesive dispensing systems constantly process dispensing applications with fluids like solder paste, epoxies, and other types of adhesives. When dealing with such materials and maintaining control of repeatable, accurate, and measurable results, it is essential to upkeep your dispensing systems properly to avoid potential clog problems.

  What are the top issues that dispensing equipment operators usually deal with? Here are some situations we often hear from industry players. You may be familiar with some of these issues too:

  1. Loss of Yield and Unwanted Downtime Due to Clogged Needles

  Under normal conditions, a dispensing valve can handle a wide range of viscosities, but if the viscosity increases past a certain threshold, the valve tends to clog. Not only is it an inconvenient hassle, but operators also need to spend time to change and clean the clogged needle. The whole operation is halted as you need to set up the machine to re-run the process again. Such downtime can hamper your efficiency and production.

  2. Clog Time Can Be Tiresome and Costly

  What are other losses besides production efficiency and volume of output? You would also spend unnecessarily on replacement needles to gain optimized results. You cannot rely on a clogged needle for optimum yield. Not only that, but you also waste solder paste during the removal of material and cleaning process. It disrupts work cycles to clean the needle and valves so that work can go on again.

  3. Product Failure Due to Inconsistency

  The last thing you would want to encounter a batch of products that are unsalable to the market. Tiny issues like clogged valves lead to big output problems causing product output to drop. It significantly lowers your UPH (Unit Per-Hour) productivity and quality output of your dispense operations, causing you to redo batches and productivity interruptions.

  
  A clogged dispensing valve is a problem because it can cause the dispensing of a product to stop, which can be both frustrating and expensive.  You certainly do not want to face such pointless downtime and potentially costly repairs.

  

  What to Do Before Dispensing to Prevent Blockages and Clogging?

  For optimum dispensing outputs, it is best to prepare and check on certain conditions before you start. Here are some situations that you might want to take note of to prevent solder paste dispensing clog.

  1. Use Dispensing Grade Solder Paste.

  For best performance, use dispensing grade solder paste for dispensing process. Using non-dispensing grade solder pastes (like for stencil printing and reusing unused paste from other processes) may seem like a good idea to save cost, but however its quality may be questionable and may cause more harm than good. One of the major setbacks is inconsistency. This is due to tiny micro bubbles that jams up your needle – hindering smooth quality prints.

  2. Storage Climate Stability.

  Store fluid materials like solder paste at the proper temperature according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. It is best practice to store your materials in a cool room of <15 °C/ 59 °F or according to the recommended manufacturer’s advice.

  3. Place the Solder Paste in a Tip-down Position.

  This placement avoids separation between flux and solder ball.

  4. Take Note of the Expiry Date of your Materials. 

  Surprisingly, many operators tend to overlook this vital factor. Expired material may have dried by the time you use it, causing unwanted clogging.

  5. Pair the Right Needle to Solder Paste Type.  

  It is essential to pair the right needle according to the specific dispensing requirements. It is recommended to use type 5 solder paste and above for general dispensing. Solder paste types depend on the dispensing size requirements. 

  For further info detail about clogging, please refer below links:

  https://nswautomation.com/NSW/prevent-solder-paste-dispensing-clog/

• Stencil Printing vs Dispensing (Apr 14, 2022)

  How to choose? Stencil Printing (screen printing) or Fluid/Epoxy Dispensing

  There are many discussions on the differences between stencil printing and fluid dispensing in the semiconductor industry. The conversations of especially its pros and cons, happen because these are two primary technologies currently used to automate the distribution of non-conductive and conductive fluid such as solder paste or silver epoxy in precise volumes.

  Both technologies dispense fluid, adhesive liquid or epoxy for electronic devices, but each has distinct functions. The differences between stencil printing and fluid dispensing are essential, as it influences the overall cost and efficiency of the automation process.

  In addressing these differences, here is something that we have written to help our users understand the differences between the two technologies. We have also listed some of the pros and cons associated with each method.

  What Is Stencil Printing (Screen printing)?

  Think of stencil printing as silkscreen screen printing. Primarily In the automated manufacturing industry, stencil printing technique is where conductive adhesives such as solder paste, silver epoxy, or other epoxy are printed unto printed writing boards or a substrate through a pre-made template through a relative aperture layout. This printing happens at a very fast pace in a mass-production setting.  

  Stencil printing is the technology that enables manufacturers to produce large volumes of identical, complex printed components or assemblies. Such printing is used for PCBs, modules, printed circuit boards (PCBs), printed wiring boards (PWB), as well as printed circuit assemblies (PCAs). 

  What Is Fluid Dispensing?

  Fluid Dispensing (in terms of Micro-dispensing) is a method that uses dispensing technology to precisely dispense a controlled quantity of any fluid, solder paste, silver epoxy, or other epoxies to a chip, substrate, or electronic device (e.g., MEMS, 008004, 0201, 3D-SiP, LED, VCSEL and etc.). The goal of this method is to dispense the exact amount of fluid into targeted areas accurately. Therefore, conductive materials that are dispensed are at low quantities and precise volume.

  The technology enables manufacturers to dispense a desired quantity of a liquid material automatically and accurately unto targeted areas of a substrate. This method is also suitable to dispense specialty substances on uneven surfaces too.  

  Pros and Cons of using Stencil Printing Equipment. (Screen Printer)

  Here are some disadvantages and advantages of the usage of stencil printing equipment.

  Pros of Stencil Printing Equipment 

  1. Lower Investment Equipment Cost

  • Stencil printing equipment is generally cheaper as compared to dispensing machines.
  • However, it may result in more cost for your bottom line in the long term (after a minimum of 3 years). This is particularly true if you use stencil printing for low volume production instead of investing in a dispensing machine. Such costs are reflected when extra labour costs, materials (like cleaning materials and stencils), reworks, and wastages are taken to account.

  2. More Room for Your Workspace  

  • You save space when using a stencil printer for adhesive or epoxy printing. This is because, as compared to fluid dispensers, there is no need for numerous dispensing machines running together concurrently to meet the speed of a stencil printer: fewer machines, more room space.  

  3. Excellent Throughput 

  • Stencil Printing is fast and saves time. A typical tact time of printing is 10 to 15 seconds per board (which can produce 4 to 6 PCBs per minute) compared to 1 printed circuit board per 4 minutes (on component placement). However, this speed is only advantageous for “high-end, high-speed” chip-shooters and not for detailed printing that requires time.  

  Cons of Stencil Printing Equipment 

  1. Costly Cleaning

  • Since stencil printing is fast, there is equally a need for fast maintenance. Cleaning is required every 2 to 3 hours to maintain performance and prevent aperture clogging issues. The cleaning chemicals used are hazardous (xylol, acetone, etc.) and poses a safety concern to the operators involved.  
  • It is also costly to install safety equipment like exhaust fans to clear toxic fumes (close to US$6000).  
  • Averagely, the cost for stencil cleaning rates between US$12,800 – US$40,000.00, and this excludes the cost of cleaning solutions/agents.  
  • The average time for cleaning time is around 2-3 minutes per stencil. Therefore, it could be exorbitant when extra costs like labour summed to your expenditure. 

  2. The Cost of Stencils is High

  • Unlike fluid dispensing machines, users often find themselves replacing stencils quite frequently. Replacement happens whenever there is a problem in design layout, new products, or revisions that affect PCB layout. Unfortunately, frequent changes also mean higher costs, which means a heavy bottom line to bear.  

  3. High Material Wastage

  • Screen printing generally uses a significant amount of solder paste due to its large stencil size and wide surface coverage. Insufficient fluids may result in an uneven deposition during the end process. Furthermore, solder pastes are likely to degrade under long atmosphere exposure, causing the flux inside to evaporate. Once compromised, it is harder to continue the soldering process onto another conductor. 
  • Generally, a typical stencil life lasts between 3 to 4 hours. It is important to constantly change exposed materials (never “recycled”) after a few usage cycles to upkeep quality, performance, and maintenance as best practice. However, this increases waste and adds cost to your process too. 

  4. Inflexibility of Fluid/Epoxy Volume  

  • The thickness of the stencil defines fluid distribution volumes, which are unfortunately fixed and unchangeable. With the exception of electronic chips, it limits the range of components (stand-off height), which could be easily glued with a stencil.  

  5. Printing is a Challenge Due to Smaller Holes   

  • Due to smaller sized aperture and narrow shape, fluid distribution from stencil printing is more challenging (due to smaller gaps) and causes clogging issues—especially without timely maintenance. This makes it challenging when working with screen printing materials such as solder paste.  

  6. Longer Set-up time

  • Compared to dispensing equipment, stencil printers take more “set-up time” when using a semi-auto printer. 

  7. More Rework is Required 

  • Should there be an insufficient amount of fluid distribution during the printing process, there is a possibility of detachment or skewing during the processing and placement of the printed component. On the other hand, if fluid/epoxy volumes are excessive, it will infringe on the land patterns—causing opens and wastage. This means more costs spent and reworks to do. 

  8. Contamination of materials if not properly cleaned 

  • There is a high possibility of solder paste contamination if there is no proper maintenance done during the process. It is best practice to implement an appropriate stencil cleaner rather than doing it manually to avoid this.  

  9. Dreaded Clogging Concerns

  • Stencil machines need to run constantly to avoid clogging of stencil aperture. In addition, there is a need for constant and consistent changing of materials as averagely epoxy stencil life is around 3 hours up to 4 hours (in a suitable environment). 

  • For further detail info about Stencil Printing and Dispensing, please click into below link:
  • https://nswautomation.com/NSW/stencil-printing-vs-dispensing/

• Indium Corporation Received NSW Visionary Partnership Awards 2022 (Apr 14, 2022)

  Indium Corporation Received NSW Visionary Partnership Awards 2022

  Appreciation Ceremony for Our Dispensing Material Partner

  We are proud to announce our industry partner Indium Corporation has received NSW Visionary Partnership Awards, this award was given during the NSW Corporate Dinner 2022.

  At NSW, We believe connecting electronic components play a crucial role in today’s semiconductor and E&E industry. Indium12.8HF Solder Paste is one of our preferred solder materials to solve multiple dispensing challenges in minimization integration and packaging.

  We collaborated with Indium Corporation in the past decade diligently to create breakthroughs. Today, NSW created the world’s smallest dispensed dots and lines size as small as 80μm with Indium Corporation Type 6 solder paste. This breakthrough is achieved with this solder paste via our patented Clog-FREE micro-dispensing solutions and heterogeneous miniaturization micro-dispensing capability. 

  Having this capability enables us to create world-leading exceptional dispensing results like no others. Our goal is to establish globally recognized microdispensing technology and solutions in the electronics, EVs, Green energy, and semiconductor industry.

  Exploring More Potential Business Partnership Opportunities

  Above all, we’re actively collaborating with various types of material suppliers to improve material compatibility and stability to reach groundbreaking micro dispensing performance.

  Ball grid array solder paste micro bumping featuring Indium 12.8HF Solder Paste.

  About Indium Corporation

  

  Indium Corporation is a premier materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil®.

  Founded in 1934, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the USA. For more information visit Indium Corp.

  https://www.indium.com/corporate/

• We Won Platinum and Silver in SOBA Awards 2021 (Apr 14, 2022)

  We Won Platinum and Silver in SOBA Awards 2021

  NSW Automation is honored to be bestowed upon a dual award of Star Outstanding Business Awards (SOBA) 2021; they are:
   

  • Best Innovation – Platinum Award
  • Best Use of Technology – Silver Award

  NSW Star Product!

  Our Team NSW attended the event, which took place on 24 March 2022 at One World Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; it was a resounding success while strictly adhering to the Covid-19 standard operating procedure that was in place. Over 100 representatives from various organizations, mainly up-and-coming non-listed local and small and medium companies attended. 

  A big appreciation to THE STAR media group for SOBA Award recognition! We have been working hard to deliver the best products and continue to innovate and use technology to create value for our customers. Together we can make Malaysia proud and build a better tomorrow.

  Being the only automation company to have won these awards is unbelievably thrilled, and it encourages us to move forwards for a better tomorrow.

  Read more visit winner list

 Products