The KIC Advantage

Why KIC?

Let’s face it. All serious equipment and software suppliers in the manufacturing industries offer accurate and reliable products at cost effective prices. So why is KIC the dominant market leader in reflow and thermal process control and smart oven technologies?

• Customers get our help to be more successful

It’s not only about manual and automatic oven profilers. It’s about enabling users to solve or prevent problems, to run an efficient operation, and to help them succeed. KIC has achieved this by developing uncomplicated products that acquire and deliver hard to get information in an actionable format allowing users to make better decisions. With optional analytics and machine learning, most decisions are made in real-time, automating manual tasks. This results in consistent quality, reduced cost, and a more competitive factory.

• Products that create simplicity

In hectic manufacturing environments, operators, technicians and management have many, varied responsibilities. KIC systems can automate several manual profiling and thermal process control tasks, alleviating a number of production line chores.

Our PWI tool is a perfect example of how we create order from chaos. The reflow oven’s ultimate function is to create a robust thermal profile for every product. Hundreds of thousands of data points are measured to generate this reflow profile. The PWI (Process Window Index) reduces all the information down to a single number. This number clearly represents the accuracy of your product’s profile, within your established process specifications. Less than 100% your process is in spec. Greater than 100% your process in out of spec.  Now anyone can instantly determine the acceptability of the profile.

• Award winning customer support

In the past 20 years, KIC has recruited a worldwide team of highly skilled customer support engineers to trouble shoot, train and assist customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This dedication to our valued customers has been recognized with 5 industry awards for excellence in service. We know the best way to ensure KIC’s success is by helping ensure your success in reflow and thermal process control.

• Building for the future

We have a long history of improving capabilities for installed equipment, and for offering generous trade-up allowances. In recent years we have broadened our R&D to include the design of smart oven technologies going beyond sub-optimizing your reflow ovens and wave solder machines. We optimize all of your production line. Our system connects data from every oven to the network, the MES, direct to machines and more. Real-time data over the factory network, data analytics and machine learning are all now possible with our Smart Factory Starter Kit. The kit includes key smart capabilities such as:

• Process transparency & traceability
• Flexible production with faster line changeover
• Extreme automation
• Machine learning
• Energy reduction
• Data connectivity

Electronics manufacturing is moving into an era requiring intelligent use of large amounts of data in order to run a flexible, efficient and successful manufacturing operation. KIC is at the forefront of this trend providing customers an easy path along this ‘smart factory’ learning curve. As you move into this new era, you will find easy solutions in the KIC ecosystem of smart oven technologies – you’ll reap the early rewards of electronic manufacturing’s new future.

Internet of Manufacturing Event

Watch Miles Moreau, Technical Product Specialist, talk at IoM about simple steps to get your factory on the road towards Industry 4.0. Smart Oven Technology provides process transparency and traceability, reduced costs, consistent quality through a new level of automation, instant oven changeover and more.

Click here to view:   IoM speaker, Miles Moreau

Process Window Index

For precise ranking of profile performance, KIC’s software tools use the Process Window Index™ (PWI). The PWI measures the profile’s fit to the process window (process limits) in a mathematical and objective manner by using a single number.

• PWI under 100 signifies a profile is in spec.
• The lower the PWI number the closer the profile is to the center of the process window.
• PWI above 100 signifies a profile out of spec

The PWI concept provides a powerful tool for quickly evaluating the quality and strength of any thermal process. The PWI structure allows for KIC’s prediction software to do an exhaustive search of the billions of alternative oven setups for each product and within seconds choose the very best oven setup based on your selected criteria:

• Lowest PWI
  • The more efficient and stable the process. There is more room for process drift while the profile still stays in spec
• Fastest conveyor speed
  • Maximize throughput while maintaining a deep in spec profile
• Minimize electricity use
  • Selecting the oven setup that uses the least amount of electricity while still maintaining a deep in spec profile