HAYWARD, CA – C3Nano, Inc. (C3Nano), the performance leader in nanowire-based technologies and conductive inks, today announced the development of SuperGrid™, a novel ink which combines remarkable conductivity and flexibility with room temperature processing – an extension of C3Nano’s ActiveGrid LT (low temperature) ink series, which was announced in 2022.

C3Nano’s SuperGrid™ has electrical properties on par with traditional conductive electrodes like thin film copper and silver pastes, but is more flexible. Additionally, it can be deposited directly from solution and can be cured very quickly (in ambient temperature ~ 25 °C within seconds). As a result, SuperGrid™ can be deposited on a much broader range of substrates and through a variety of methods which are features a wide range of industries have been searching for to bring new innovative products to market.

Customers can utilize SuperGrid™ for bezels, microLED interconnects, grounding, traces around sharp/3D surfaces and EMI and RF shielding applications. Additionally, the low-temperature process gives users more design flexibility, higher throughput, and lower production costs. Compared to other low temperature processed inks, SuperGrid™ is stable at room temperature and only forms the conductive film or circuit after deposition.

“We believe SuperGrid™ is a game changer,” said Dr. Xiqiang Yang, Vice President of Research & Development at C3Nano. “For years customers have been requesting silver nanowire based conductive inks that can achieve very low resistivities while still maintaining excellent mechanical properties. With SuperGrid™ we are introducing a product that is not only less expensive but also more versatile through our low temperature curing process. Its enhanced flexibility will create unprecedented new product and market opportunities for our electronic device, biomedical, automotive, and display customers.”

C3Nano foresees large opportunities for the application of SuperGrid™, especially in advanced displays and interconnects, semiconductor packaging, electronic and RF component shielding. The growing selection of applications in emerging electronics, which require highly flexible and malleable conductive traces to be deposited on ever-shrinking and complex architectures, provide promising application scenarios. The combination of SuperGrid™ with C3Nano’s ActiveGrid™ functionality provides a total package and solution with wide substrate ranges for existing and future customers in the flexible display, touch, and other application fields.

C3Nano’s ActiveGrid™ LT innovation is part of its conductive materials platform composed of nanowires, nanomaterials, formulations, thin films, and coatings, further adding to its broad and industry-leading technology and IP portfolio. In addition to providing the highest quality and largest scale silver nanowires, and the top performing flexible, and stretchable transparent conductive inks, C3Nano now also provides the lowest temperature and fastest curing conductive inks on the market.

SuperGrid Conference Demonstrations

C3Nano will showcase SuperGrid™ and ActiveGrid™ Gen 8 throughout 2023 at key events and conferences, including:

• Nanotech 2023 Japan, February 1 - 3, 2023
• LOPEC 2023 Germany, February 28 - March 3, 2023
• Display Week SID, Los Angeles USA, May 21 - 26, 2023

Partner Development Platform

As part of the development of SuperGrid and the launching of Ultra-Nanowires product line C3Nano is seeking customers and development partners for its novel Ultra-Nanowires technologies. C3Nano believes several unique applications including, heating, direct conductive filler inclusions into melt/extrusion plastics, conductive adhesives and composites, 3D printing, biomedical, and aerospace may all be viable and attractive applications to target.

REDDITCH, UK – Altus Group, a leading distributor of capital equipment for electronics assembly in the UK and Ireland has announced the release of its new 2023 product brochure which includes full turnkey solutions for SMT, THT and component management.

The 32-page, full-colour document highlights Altus’ products and services including the industry’s most highly-advanced technology. With a mix of tier-one suppliers and equipment, the selection of systems and solutions will help to optimise processes, improve production through turnkey solutions, increase the level of quality and cut down overall costs for electronic manufacturers.

Joe Booth, Altus CEO said: “We are really proud of the range of equipment and class-leading suppliers we can utilise to support our customers. What’s more is that we can comfortably support individual system improvements and be a trusted partner to implement full turnkey lines. This includes solutions across SMT, conventional production, post production processes, and full component management.

“Our customers want a partner that understands production from end to end, offers solutions, and highlights the considerations to reduce their risk. That is the value we aim to bring to our discussions with them and in our support for their pre-sales and post sales lifecycle with Altus.”

As well as highlighting the most innovative equipment available to the electronics sector, the brochure underlines Altus’ unrivalled customer support. Joe said: “We appreciate that the selection of a provider is not just about buying the best technology available. What is just as important is working with a partner you can trust and this is why we focus on our support offering. With a team of experts in each area of electronic production, we also have the knowledge to offer sound advice which is important for manufacturers looking for the right solutions.”

New for the 2023 brochure are automatic optical inspection products from Magic Ray Technology. Featured in the brochure is the highly capable 2D THT AOI utilises 2D technology for post wave and post selective soldering applications.

Also featured for the first time is Lazipur high-speed pin insertion machines, including the all new INSERT H2 and INSERT H1 which have been developed with several benefits including being faster, more compact, modular in designed, adaptable, intuitive and user-friendly.

The new brochure also includes our long-standing pre-eminent suppliers including Koh Young, YJ Link, Heller Industries, and Cencorp Automation to name but a few.

To download your copy of the 2023 Altus brochure visit www.altusgroup.co.uk

BILLINGSTAD, NORWAY – Kitron has entered into a production agreement with Easy Aerial Inc, a rapidly growing US company that develops autonomous UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) solutions.

The multi-year, multimillion-dollar manufacturing partnership will be supported at Kitron’s Windber, Pennsylvania, facility.

“Easy Aerial continues to expand its operations through collaborations with strategic partners. We are delighted to have signed an agreement with Kitron, which has a leading position in electronic manufacturing services, has the capacity to produce large volumes and offers advanced front-end services,” says Ivan Stamatovski, CTO of Easy Aerial.

“We are very happy that Easy Aerial has chosen Kitron as a manufacturing partner to support its growth. Kitron has a long history within the defense and homeland security market, and the drone segment provides exciting growth opportunities, not least in the US, where our Windber facility is well-positioned to meet that demand. Signing a long-term partnership agreement with Easy Aerial, a market leader in UAV solutions, is great recognition," says Gary Tarallo, Managing Director of Kitron, US Operations.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Easy Aerial has a team of over 100 engineers, designers and aerospace experts. The company develops military-grade autonomous UAV solutions for security, mapping and inspection applications. Easy Aerial, in addition to servicing many commercial verticals, completely services DoD and governmental customers by sustaining USA-based production, and maintaining NDAA compliance with associated certifications (ISO, AS, CMMx) as to fit federal operational requirements.

“Since its founding, Easy Aerial has rapidly grown in both size and scope. Today, its mission includes using drones to save lives , and protect both assets and infrastructure. Easy Aerial’s solutions are also capable of providing situational awareness to emergency first responders, monitoring crowds, and assisting with security management among several additional commercial uses,” says Ido Gur, CEO of Easy Aerial.

SUWANEE, GA – While many processes are already automated and run quite smoothly in modern electronics factories, the flow of materials is still an exception in many cases and causes unnecessarily high costs. The initial plans and the actual needs on the line often diverge because of static material requirements planning. This leads either to material bottlenecks during production runs and ultimately to line stops or to the preventive accumulation of space-wasting “emergency stocks” directly at the SMT line. A new application in the WORKS smart shopfloor management suite from market and technology leader ASMPT effectively counteracts this. WORKS Material Demand Calculation dynamically calculates the material requirements for definable time intervals taking all incidents into account and continuously adjusts the material requirements. The goal is to always have the right material available at the right time in the right quantity in the right place and to create maximum transparency in warehouses and around the lines.

Always up to date

Many electronics manufacturers still calculate their material requirements in static processes prior to the start of production and use the results for the entire production cycle. Too tightly calculated material supplies or unexpected events can quickly lead to expensive line downtime. If the calculations include overly large buffers, however, materials may back up at the line WORKS Material Demand Calculation (MDC) continuously analyses material consumption, cycle times and production progress and combines this data. In this way, it continuously computes actual material requirements and updates them dynamically.

Since no two factories are alike, the time intervals for the material requirements calculations can be defined individually. WORKS Material Demand Calculation thus turns rigid material planning and supply into a time-based and flexible closed-loop control system that dynamically computes even non-linear material consumption during setups and teardowns and compensates for disturbances such as increased scrap or non-scheduled maintenance cycles. “This new solution optimally complements our proven applications in the WORKS smart shop floor management suite for the the ‘Logistics’ workflow. It enables us to offer our customers unprecedented added value by providing them a basis for their comprehensively automated material supply that is always adapted to current conditions,” says Erwin Beck, Head of Product Management Automation Solutions at ASMPT.

Valuable space on the shop floor

Like unscheduled line downtimes, unnecessary manual activities or travel times between lines and warehouses, wasted space on the shop floor is a disruptive factor that drives up costs. If “emergency stocks” no longer need to be stored at the line, the freed-up space can be used much more effectively for productive machines, special equipment or autonomous transport systems (AIVs).

Seamlessly integrated into ASMPT’s Open Automation concept

“Like all the applications in our WORKS suite, the Material Demand Calculation fits seamlessly into our modular Open Automation concept and paves the way for electronics manufacturers to implement their Integrated Smart Factory in stages,” says Erwin Beck. WORKS Material Demand Calculation completely eliminates manual reordering processes and thus makes an important contribution to the automation and optimization of internal logistics. AIV fleets can now take over the material supply completely and independently, whether according to the milk-run principle, with dedicated deliveries, or according to other criteria. In addition, employees get relief from unnecessary trips and are notified and instructed automatically and just in time regarding new material supply requests by WORKS Command Center – via smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch.

WORKS Material Demand Calculation in the ‘Facts on Open Automation’ livestream

WORKS Material Demand Calculation is also a topic in our ‘Facts on Open Automation’ livestream on February 22, 2023, in which everything revolves around perfection in material management.

This ASMPT show format offers viewers each month a roughly half-hour English-language livestream around ASMPT’s Open Automation concept with live feeds from international SMT hot-spots, interviews with experts, practical examples from SMT productions, and much more.

More information about the ‘Facts on Open Automation’ series of livestreams is available at https://facts-on-open-automation.smt.asmpt.events/