■ The Difficulty of Maintaining Pitch over Long Runs
At 100 units, it matches.
At 10,000 units, it shifts slightly.
The causes are
material elongation,
tension,
feed,
temperature,
and so on.
In other words, in reel-to-reel, it is necessary to look not at the accuracy of each unit, but at
the cumulative accuracy over the entire length.
■ Tension Control Connects to Pitch Accuracy
The carrier is pulled strongly.
It stretches.
Components are placed in that state.
The tension is released.
The pitch changes.
In other words, in long-run supply,
tension control determines positional accuracy relative to the customer’s equipment.
■ Material Lot Differences Also Affect Peelability
The same adhesive.
A different lot.
Peel force is slightly different.
On automatic machines, that small difference may decide between
peeling success
and peeling failure.
That is why it is important to give equipment conditions margin.
■ Widening the Process Window
Peeling speed,
angle,
and pressure.
It operates stably even if these change somewhat.
This state is desirable.
Components that only work under one specific condition are weak in volume production.
In other words, in automation support, creating stable conditions rather than optimal conditions is important.
■ Collaboration with Equipment Manufacturers Is Important
It is difficult to complete automation from the component side alone.
Equipment manufacturers have know-how in
robots,
suction,
recognition,
and application.
OTIS has know-how in
materials,
processing,
and reels.
The two are combined.
In other words, collaboration between component processing companies and equipment manufacturers has great value in automation.
■ Three-Party Collaboration Including the Customer
OTIS,
the equipment manufacturer,
and the customer.
These three parties decide
component shape,
equipment takt,
application position,
and quality requirements.
This makes it easier to reduce rework.
In other words, automation becomes
not a model of one-way delivery from the component manufacturer to the customer, but
joint process design.
■ When to Show Components to the Equipment Manufacturer
The product design is complete.
Right before volume production.
Showing the components to the equipment manufacturer for the first time.
This may be too late.
From the early stage of design, check
whether this component can be picked up by suction
and whether it can be peeled.
Then there is a lot of room for shape changes.
In other words,
automation studies should start as early as possible.
■ Failure Example: High-Performance TIM Was Converted to Reels but Would Not Peel
Thermal performance was good.
Die-cutting accuracy was also good.
Converted to reels.
But on the automatic machine, it would not peel from the liner.
The material was soft and remained on the liner.
As a result,
changing the liner
and changing the peeling direction
were necessary.
In other words, the failure was deciding the supply design based on product performance alone.
■ Failure Example: Small Film Deforms When Picked Up by Suction
Thin insulating film.
Vacuum suction.
The center is pulled into the suction holes.
Wrinkles during application.
So it was changed to transport with the carrier left on.
In other words, giving it a process support was more stable than handling the individual component directly.
■ Failure Example: The Equipment Cannot Recognize Transparent Components
Dimensions were highly accurate.
But it could not be seen by the camera.
The equipment stopped.
Recognition holes were added.
Marks were added to the carrier.
Then it became stable.
In other words, being visible to machines was also a product design condition.
■ Failure Example: Pitch Narrowed Too Much in Favor of Material Yield
To reduce carrier material, the pitch between components was minimized.
Insufficient peeling space on the equipment.
Suction head interference.
In the end, the pitch was widened.
In other words, local optimization of material yield worsened automation as a whole.
■ Failure Example: The Winding Direction Does Not Match After the Equipment Is Completed
The reel product was completed.
The equipment was also completed.
But the component face direction was opposite to the equipment specification.
Quality assurance is difficult with rewinding.
Process change.
In other words, delayed confirmation of supply specifications caused rework.
■ Failure Example: Good Inside the Factory, Peel Force Changes After Transport
Pre-shipment equipment testing.
No problem.
High-temperature logistics.
Change in adhesive state.
Peeling defects on the customer’s equipment.
In other words, it was necessary to consider logistics as a preceding process of the automated process.
■ The Researcher's Perspective: In Automation, Look at "Materials in Motion"
Material catalogs measure
thickness,
adhesive strength,
and thermal conductivity.
But in automation, behavior when
peeled at high speed,
bent,
picked up by suction,
and accelerated
matters.
In other words, for automation components, it is necessary to look at dynamic behavior, not just static properties.
■ The Shop-Floor Perspective: Look at the Moment the Equipment Stops
An automation defect appears.
Do not think only with data.
Look at the equipment.
Where does it stop?
How does the component remain?
Where does it shift?
At what speed does it fail?
Then it becomes easier to see which of
the material,
shape,
liner,
or equipment
should be improved.
■ OTIS's Perspective: Reel Supply Is Not "a Post-Processing Service"
Die-cutting is completed.
Finally, it is wound onto a reel.
That way of thinking is weak.
From the start, consider
how it will be peeled,
how it will be picked up by suction,
how it will be recognized,
and how it will be applied,
and decide
the shape,
liner,
and pitch.
In other words, reel supply is part of processing design itself.
■ OTIS Can Contribute to Automation Without Making Equipment
OTIS is not an automatic application equipment manufacturer.
However, it can
make components that are easy for equipment to handle,
supply them on reels,
make shapes easy for position recognition,
and increase peeling stability.
In other words,
designing the component just before it enters the automation equipment, not inside it.
This becomes OTIS’s area.
■ Partnering with "Companies That Sell Equipment"
OTIS makes reel components.
The equipment manufacturer makes the application equipment.
They are proposed to the customer as
component + equipment.
This way, the customer less needs to
buy only materials
or buy only equipment
and connect them on their own.
In other words, through collaboration with automation equipment manufacturers, OTIS can broaden the scope of its proposals.
■ What Is Sold to the Customer Is Process Improvement, Not Components
Converting to reels can be expected to bring
reduced personnel,
shorter work time,
improved positional accuracy,
reduced foreign matter,
and improved traceability.
In other words, the value proposed to the customer is not “these are reel products.”
It is “we can automate and stabilize this process.”
■ It Also Addresses Labor Shortages
On manufacturing floors, securing personnel is becoming difficult.
In particular, work such as
applying small components one at a time
and visually checking orientation
tends to be a target for automation.
In other words, reel supply is
not only about thermal management, but also
a manufacturing response to future labor shortages.
■ Automation Is Not Only About Eliminating People
Skilled operators perform
position adjustment,
air bubble removal,
and foreign matter checks.
That know-how is transferred to component design and equipment conditions.
In other words, automation is not simply labor saving.
It is also turning human skill into a reproducible process.
■ Quality Stabilization Can Be the Main Goal
Operator A is skilled.
B is slightly off.
With automatic machines, positional accuracy can be made constant.
In other words, even if quantities are not that large,
there is value in automating to reduce quality variation.
■ It Also Works Well with Traceability
Information is managed
by reel,
by lot,
and by position.
If linked with equipment,
which component was applied to which product
may be recorded.
In other words, automated supply also connects to quality history management.
■ Linking Image Inspection Data with Reel Positions
Each component is image-inspected during processing.
Reel positions are recorded.
The customer’s equipment uses that information.
Such a system can also be considered.
In other words, a reel can become not only a physical supply medium, but also
a unit to which quality information is linked.
■ In the Future, Data Linkage Between Components and Equipment Will Become Important
Component part number,
lot,
processing conditions,
inspection results,
and equipment application conditions
are connected.
Then it becomes possible to analyze
under which conditions defects are likely to occur.
In other words, the more automation advances, the more likely component processing companies will become involved in data processes.
■ What OTIS Can Do
At OTIS, by combining
● Reel-to-reel processing
● Reel supply design
● Carrier design
● Liner selection and composition studies
● Pitch design
● Winding direction design
● Half-cutting
● High-precision die-cutting
● Microfabrication
● Thin-film processing
● High-precision lamination
● Irregular-shape lamination
● Partial adhesion
● Processing of recognition shapes
● Shape proposals considering automatic suction
● Image inspection
● Long-run pitch control
● Foreign matter control
● Supply format design considering customer equipment
● Process design from prototyping to automated volume production
we can turn thermal management components into a state that is easy to connect to automated processes.
■ Outside OTIS's Expertise
OTIS is not a company that specializes in
● Design and manufacture of automatic application equipment itself
● Design of robot bodies
● Servo control
● Development of image recognition algorithms themselves
These are the specialist domain of equipment manufacturers.
OTIS works with equipment manufacturers and delivers value by
designing the component side that equipment can handle stably.
■ Summary: Reel Supply Translates Thermal Management Materials into "the Language of Volume Production Processes"
High-performance TIM.
High-performance graphite.
High-performance insulating film.
They are processed with high precision.
But if the customer
takes them out of a bag one at a time,
holds them with tweezers,
checks orientation,
and applies them by hand,
human skill still remains in the volume production process.
So components are held
at a fixed pitch,
in a fixed orientation,
and at a fixed position,
and turned into a state where the equipment
can peel,
hold,
find,
and apply them.
This is reel supply and automation support.
What matters is not winding components onto reels.
Creating a state where equipment is unlikely to fail, from the component side.
For that, it is necessary to consider even
shape,
liner,
pitch,
carrier,
peeling,
suction,
image recognition,
and winding direction.
The component unit price may go up slightly.
But if it can
reduce manual labor,
raise takt,
raise positional accuracy,
reduce foreign matter,
and reduce equipment stoppages,
the value of the customer’s entire process becomes large.
In other words, the reel products OTIS provides are not just a packaging change.
They are a technology that turns functional components people used to handle into production components equipment can handle.
Material manufacturers make materials.
OTIS processes them into mass-producible components.
Equipment manufacturers apply them automatically.
Customers make products stably.
Establishing this chain.
That is the role of reel supply and automation support at OTIS.
Column Supervisor: Koji Kakumoto (President, OTIS Co., Ltd.)
After studying abroad and working in planning and development at a trading company, he joined OTIS Co., Ltd. in 2011. While primarily working in the Corporate Planning Department, he has also served concurrently in manufacturing and technical divisions, and since 2018 has served as President, working to drive business growth and strengthen the organization.
This article is a general technical explanation intended for educational purposes and does not refer to any specific company, product, or technology.
