Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) held the “Industry Key Trends Seminar - PCB The Networking Demonstration Team of Smart Manufacturing Equipment for PCB has finally teamed up, and it will help 20 small and medium-sized PCB factories to upgrade their IoT networking! After a year of preparation, the PCBECI equipment networking demonstration team today (2/21) held a grand launch ceremony at the Taiwan Printed Circuit Association. The demonstration team is jointly made up of Woya Technology, C Sun Manufacturing, Tongtai Machine & Tool, Ampoc, and Group Up Industrial. They had, at the guidance of the Deputy Director, Yang Chi Ching, from the Industrial Development Bureau, announced that they should work together under the Common PCB Equipment Communication Interface (PCBECI) in order to assist small and medium-sized PCB manufacturing factories to carry upgrade to smart manufacturing. Furthermore, with government support they will, also, strengthen the technology research and development capabilities of local equipment manufacturers, in order to stabilize the leading position of Taiwan in PCB technology around the world. 
        The PCB Equipment Communication Interface (PCBECI) is the industry standard jointly promoted by the Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) and the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI). Due to the complicated PCB manufacturing process and various types of equipment, PCBECI has been generated in order to solve the communication problem between underlying devices. In the meantime, local equipment manufacturers in Taiwan have taken the adoption lead as they have resorted to the team’s demonstration method for deep-rooting the industry. At the same time, the team had, last year (2018), received support from government programs to promote the protocol. 
In 2014, TPCA released the industrial white paper to formulate the smart manufacturing strategy, and in 2016, it worked with SEMI to internationalize the PCBECI standard. In 2017, it promoted the creation of smart manufacturing for rigid /flex PCB alliance, with the aim of constructing an industrial demonstration case and building up data collection, an AI value-added application, and an iCloud smart manufacturing platform that will respond to companies dynamically. In 2018, with the establishment of the PCBECI demonstration team their aim is to help the industry to secure its foundation and accelerate the industrial penetration of PCBECI. 
         In addition to assisting in the upgrading of 20 PCB factories along with its 100 pieces of equipment, it is hoped that the project can establish a visualization model for the PCB industry, including four functions: machine utilization rate, abnormal display of equipment, remote monitoring of equipment status, and data integration. The goal is to shorten the time of information capture and analysis with equipment and production in order to significantly reduce the threshold per PCB factory to transit into smart manufacturing and save on overall construction cost. In addition, the team of manufacturers will develop intelligent functions for critical process equipment, including critical part monitoring, precursor diagnosis, and process parameter control, and more. 
        The PCB Smart Manufacturing Exchange Symposium has invited experts such as King Circuits, Advantech, UTAC-TW, and III to talk about how the PCB industry can promote smart manufacturing from the perspective of the coaching PCB board factory, the smart manufacturing alliance, and the government institute to view how the PCB industry may facilitate smart manufacturing, and their share challenges as well as their development journey until today. Participants also hope that with the help of the demonstration team they may bring greater opportunities to the Taiwan PCB industry.