Electronics Sourcing Electronica 2024 Special
Visit Adaptsys’ stand at Electronica 2024 to explore the company’s Re-flex II technology and discover why in-house carrier tape production beats preformed options.
Tape and reel is a popular form of packaging for presenting a variety of parts into the automated pick and place process. The carrier tape offers flexibility when it comes to part placement, while offering a high level of component protection during transit.
While most component manufacturers and distributors can operate taping capabilities in house, the pocketed carrier tape used is often purchased preformed from external suppliers. Various tape widths, pocket sizes and designs are needed to provide suitable protection for a variety of components both manufacturers and distributors will handle.
When considering the range of ICs, discretes, passives and connectors used today, one realises a large volume and variety of tape is needed to support the process. Components come in such a range of sizes there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. To tape components efficiently, manufacturers need to understand the risks involved with preformed carrier tape.
Orders cannot be fulfilled if suitable tape is not available. Component manufacturers and distributors then face the challenge of ensuring the right types of tape are always in stock. This carries many negatives and can cause issues down the line: a large storage space will be needed to handle the variety of tapes and regular inventory management is essential.
As an alternative, producing the required tape in-house, as and when needed, helps overcome these challenges. Adaptsys introduced Re-flex II as a cost-effective, efficient solution to overcome the risk of preformed tape.
Owning the pocket- forming process enables companies to take control of carrier tape production and inventory. By making pocketed tape in-house, they no longer carry the risks of orders not being fulfilled, the need for large storage/preformed tape variety and regular inventory rotation.
By using the raw unformed carrier tape, up to 95 per cent of storage space can be saved as unformed tape is more compact. Users also get greater efficiency from unformed tape as Re-flex II can hold reels up to 1500 m lengths. Being able to hold reels this large means significantly less changeovers and minimal operator intervention.
One reel of tape in Re-flex II allows up to eight hours of continuous operation at 2 m per minute directly into the tape and reel process before the input reel needs changing. Assuming a pocket depth of 6 mm, a similar reel of preformed pocketed tape can only contain 40 m and would require a reel change every 20 minutes.