Set sail for new horizons at this year’s Viscom Technology Forum

The Viscom AG Technology Forum has a reputation for offering participants wide-ranging content with valuable practical relevance in a compact format. Looking at the big picture is also a key aspect. Held in early October, the event at the Viscom campus in Hannover, Germany, once again offered ample opportunities to experience cutting-edge inspection solutions for electronics manufacturing live and discuss important topics with fellow professionals, just like before the pandemic. Those who could not attend the forum in person had the opportunity to participate in the interactive online program.

How much can our experience help us in a time when changes are happening faster than we are used to in the past? Why do we need a culture today where it’s okay to make mistakes too? In his talk “Never Get Lost – The Art of Making Tough Decisions”, well-known keynote speaker Peter Brandl discussed at this year’s Viscom Technology Forum how we can establish more clarity and direction to actually achieve the goals we set for ourselves. Brandl noted that many projects take on an incredible dynamic of their own. Discussions focus on problems and difficulties and everything goes around in circles without moving forward. Brandl is a consultant, pilot, author and entrepreneur, and he highlighted various decision-making pitfalls to avoid. Some examples include established habits or the familiar bubble that occurs especially online where we are soon surrounded only by people who have opinions and attitudes similar to ours. Brandl urged his listeners to be more willing to take risks and build teams that bring together different strengths and affinities.

One hotly debated issue that requires clear solutions and swift action in our time is the question of which climate strategies are the right ones. Karsten Schischke of the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration offered a fascinating insight into this problem at the Viscom Technology Forum. His talk focused on approaches that can be effectively implemented in companies today, from their own manufacturing to the supply chain. These considerations must take into account the company’s own vehicles, fossil fuel heating, process emissions, electricity consumption and upstream and downstream activities. At the same time, Schischke specifically addressed the production of printed circuit boards and mentioned related influencing factors such as the number of layers in the product or the energy mix that the company uses in its production site.

Both Brandl and Schischke, as well as the speakers from Viscom, presented their topics in the traditional way, live in front of an audience. In 2021, the Viscom Technology Forum was to be held entirely online. It goes without saying that no one involved in the planning can be completely certain that COVID-19 won’t put the personal component of this year’s hybrid event at risk at the last minute. However, the current regulations together with appropriate preventive measures made it possible to successfully connect this event with those held in the years before the pandemic, and Viscom was able to present a wide range of innovations to a large audience of interested attendees. “We showed our best side and we can be proud of how we are moving forward. This is something that becomes particularly clear at an event like this,” says Karsten Salewski, Head of Sales, Marketing and International Business at Viscom. This year’s motto was “New Horizons in Electronics Manufacturing – An Innovative Approach to Automation with Smart Inspection, Artificial Intelligence and Process Networks”. A corresponding English version of the two-day event was held online immediately afterwards.

The chosen motto is a deliberate reminder that quality control must always be one step ahead of market demands in cutting-edge electronics manufacturing, a field that never stands still. The Viscom Technology Forum responded by offering concrete solutions that open up new horizons. One example is an intelligently designed health monitoring solution for inspection systems and the associated peripheral equipment in use, such as that offered by Viscom as part of its vConnect modular platform. This creates conditions for forward-looking actions in line with modern predictive maintenance. Central IT management and efficient handling of large amounts of data are other elements in this comprehensive toolkit, which were discussed from different perspectives during a presentation.

Artificial intelligence is one of the many terms that come up in connection with vConnect. Viscom Technology Forum 2022 has put a special focus on this topic. Customers had the chance to discover what AI is capable of on production lines today during one of the workshops on offer. Whether it’s verifying inspection results or segmenting cavities, artificial intelligence can provide production staff with effective error detection support and help make their work more flexible. Other topics covered in the wide range of talks, workshops and expert meeting sessions include, for example, the use of ECAD data as a basis for creating inspection programs, 3D layer analyzes and volumetric display in the field of manual and automated X-ray imaging, the correct way to handle radiation loads in embedded X-rays using a dedicated dosing server, providing repeatable accuracy of 3D AXI inspection results or fast transfer of 3D AOI data via the open IPC CFX interface.

Industry itself was not the only source of interest in the Viscom Technology Forum. The sphere of politics was also represented by well-known figures from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, such as Bundestag MP and party leader Lars Klingbeil, Bundestag member Adis Ahmetović, the deputy chairman of the parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament Stefan Politze and the regional president Hannover Steffen Krach who attended the event. An intensive discussion focused on various aspects, including where politicians can provide effective support to companies like Viscom. In addition, a short tour provided a vivid insight into Viscom’s way of working and the special features of the inspection systems produced by its employees.

Those at the Viscom Technology Forum who were interested in taking a detailed look behind the scenes of the company had the chance to go on an extensive tour that offered exceptional insight into production and logistics. The items on the agenda included, for example, a visit to the competence center for microfocus X-ray tubes, which, since June 2019, houses a wide range of closely related tasks ranging from development to production and final approval and all the way to individual tube adaptations. The center is home to three radiation shielding rooms to conduct fatigue and stress testing of products. Meanwhile, customized innovation-focused tours at Viscom provided a compact view of the current highlights of 3D SPI, 3D AOI, 3D AXI, 3D MXI, 3D Bond and CCI inspection technologies. Key information was provided directly in each of the verification systems in the form of a quick overview.