KIC Press Release July 7, 1997 - KIC Thermal Profiling Offers Board Sensors As a KIC Prophet(tm) System Option

(San Diego, CA -- July 7, 1997) : KIC Thermal Profiling is pleased to announce that they now offer a Board Sensor option for their Prophet Thermal Manager System. The Prophet consists of up to 30 thermocouples permanently mounted in the thermal process tunnel, that sends real-time temperature data back to the Prophet software which is installed in a local or remote PC. This data is collected every few seconds, 24 hrs. a day. The Board Sensor option consists of a light switch that is mounted at the oven tunnel start and tunnel end, and is triggered whenever a board moves over the switch. This allows accurate recording of board length, board count, and actual conveyor speed, along with the continual thermal data recording.

The board sensor option not only gives an accurate count of boards and conveyor speed, but it can also compensate for shifts in belt speed, using the new speed to compensate in the calculation of the "Virtual Profile" during production. The Prophet software has the ability to take the continual data collected from the oven and create a calculation using data entered from the ideal product profile to create a "Virtual Profile". The Virtual Profile feature, when activated, creates and accurate product profile of every board processed during production, and warns the user to stop production should the process profile shift into a level that would affect the perfect reflow of the boards. Conveyor speed significantly affects the product profile and thus defect level and product quality. The Board Sensor feature enables the Prophet System to use the actual conveyor speed to calculate each product‘s Virtual Profile. Substantial production costs can be saved. Animated graphic "boards" are actually seen on the PC screen as the sensors are activated, showing the exact load of the production run. It allows the user to have an accurate count of the products run during each shift, or over any desired time period.

This feature is a great enhancement to the Prophet System capabilities, and is a key tool for any company that wants to take the step into the production control required to create a world class manufacturing facility.

About KIC
Based in San Diego, KIC is the industry leader in automated thermal management tools and systems for reflow, wave, cure and semiconductor thermal processes. The company pioneered the development of oven profilers and process development tools. KIC remains on the leading edge of the thermal industry with innovative tools for process development, optimization and real-time management.