In this interview, Editor Nolan Johnson and Richard Heimsch of Super Dry preview the key criteria for component moisture management. If you can’t make it to IPC APEX EXPO, don’t worry. We’ll be bringing you interviews with the engineers, managers and technologists who are making a difference in our industry.

To listen to this Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO interview with Rich Heimsch, click here.

Or read the Audio Transcript:

Nolan Johnson: Hi, Nolan Johnson for real time with IPC APEX EXPO. And I am speaking with Richard Heimsch, director of the Americas at Super Dry. Richard, welcome.

Richard Heimsch: Thank you.

Johnson: Richard, it seems to me like there is quite a bit of ongoing interest in moisture management. Is that true?

Heimsch: It’s very true. Interest in 2021 within the electronics industry increased immeasurably as more and more people are trying to get control over their moisture sensitive devices and the management of those devices within the assembly environment. The interesting thing is that it’s often a case of you don’t know what you don’t know. And so, what questions to ask when I’m looking for a dry cabinet come up much more frequently than one might imagine. People are generally familiar with the fact that there are different levels of moisture sensitivity. The MSL is level one, two, three, four, and so forth, down to less than 24 hours from an unlimited, no control necessary. It’s imperative that the floor life exposure be known at all times in order to prevent moisture damage. That damage is in two categories. One is absorption by the encapsulant, which can crack during reflow and the other is oxidation, which significantly compromises the solderability of components that have been left in ambient atmospheres for excessive periods of time, 0.1, 5% relative humidity.

That’s the threshold at which the encapsulants stop absorbing moisture and thus the IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033 states that 5% or less you have provided unlimited, safe storage time. We also sometimes refer to that as stopping the clock and each MSL, each sensitivity level, dictates a floor life exposure time beyond which the components are not safe to be reflowed. Expired components can be dried, and the floor life can be restored, but that’s somewhat of a separate discussion from what we want to begin with here. There’s four basic questions that can be asked and you need to narrow down your identification of what kind of dry storage, what kind of safe storage do I need? First, do you wish to safely store or to reset floor life, or perhaps both? The next is how frequently do you intend to access the storage cabinet? See, it’s not the ability to get a low humidity that’s the critical performance factor.

It’s the ability to maintain the desired percentage within a working environment. The most powerful dehumidifier, most powerful dry storage may or may not be necessary. The more frequently you need to access the cabinet, the more powerful you need the dehumidification capability to be so that the recovery time back to the desired less than 5% level is not excessive. Then there’s long term storage, which typically requires less than once a week or even once a month access. That kind of infrequent access means that a powerful, fast recovery time is not necessary. There’s no need to invest in a very powerful, dry storage solution. Long-term storage has a couple of categories. Some can be the traditional, like military automotive avionic, where storage needs to take place beyond the manufacturing component, and manufacturers recommended handling lifetimes. Three years, five years, 10 years, 15 years. Even more common and consumer-type products that manufacturers are facing that issue because they’re being forced to buy forward quantities of components for a couple of different reasons.

One is the relatively short product life cycle, which can easily mean that we’re onto our next generation of product, but I have to support the old one and component availability, that’s its own topic today. For those reasons, what we might refer to as medium term storage, is increasingly required. In both cases, infrequent access of the cabinet dictates that you don’t need a highly sophisticated, highly powerful dehumidification capability and that keeps you priced down. As you move up into hourly or more than hourly, then you need to be able to have recovery time. So, the third question is how much storage volume do you require?

In some cases, simple bench stop enclosure is more than enough. In other cases, walk in room. And so, the sizing, the storage capability for the correct volume or the necessary volume of parts that are being managed would be question number three. And the last one is a newer question, a new horizon: more focus in the last few years and that’s whether or not you require climate data traceability and/or network compatibility, which any industry 4.0 situation would call for? So, summarizing, do you wish to safely store or reset floor life, or both? Because there are products that can do both. How frequently do you need to access the store cabinet? And that dictates your necessary recovery time. How much storage volume do you require and whether or not you’re looking for climate data traceability or network compatibility. Answers to those questions will significantly narrow down your range of choices. And in some cases, it can save you quite a bit on your investment.

Johnson: Quite a number of things to balance there.

Heimsch: Particularly around access frequency. That’s more significant perhaps than any of the other.

Johnson: Richard, I look forward to seeing you in San Diego.

Heimsch: Okay, great. Me too.

Johnson: Once again, I’ve been speaking with Richard Heimsch, director of the Americas for Super Dry, and thanks for listening.

EMS providers Zollner, based in Altenmarkt Germany, use 72,000 component reels across 23,000 different part numbers in their SMD assembly. Before the introduction of the automatic Dry Tower system all order picking and storing of components was handled manually.

Due to constant growth Zollner were faced with the challenge of optimizing their SMD processes. Among the priorities were the needs to reduce floor space and optimize the control of moisture sensitive devices (MSDs).

In the first phase three Dry Tower Quattro modules with a capacity of 25,000 reels were introduced, followed later by a fourth to handle up to 36,000 reels.

The investment in the Dry Tower not only reduced the storage area by 80%, but also optimized many processes. The Dry Tower software ensures that the appropriate material is available at the right time, in the right quantity, at the right set-up location.

Through the integration with the ERP software, the customer always has an overview of the inventory and the status of the MSL Floor Lifetime.

The success of the Dry Tower project at Altenmarkt, Germany, has led to Zollner installing a further Dry Tower solution at their plant in Hungary.

The video shows the project details.

Find out more about Dry Tower

Birkholz, a leading German EMS, was founded in 1980. Today the company has 50 employees with a main focus on industrial electronics, especially for customers in the fields of medical, mining, automation and railway technology. With 7 automatic placement machines, automated dry storage, wave and selective soldering machines as well as testing and development facilities, Birkholz is modern and future-oriented.

Back in 2013 there were almost no suppliers of automated storage systems for SMD materials. There werent even any reference systems, let alone fully developed products. Birkholz was one of the very first companies to take the step of partnering with a manufacturer, Totech, to develop a custom, automated dry storage project.

The challenge at Birkholz was how to manage the fast changeover between components. Great amounts of time were being lost through manual handling. An automated storage system was created to perfectly fit the space available. Managing Director, Mr Bernd Birkholz recently commented “Our storage area has been significantly reduced and the access time to individual containers drastically shortened. Working with Totech is still fun after 7 years and is characterized by mutual trust and partnership. Should something not work, 24/7 support is available.

So 2013 was the beginning of a relationship that has proven to be mutually beneficial. Birkholz have acquired a highly economical and reliable storage solution for its SMD components. And Totech, the dry storage specialist, is today the market leader for the central, automated storage of component reels and trays.

See the full details of the Birkholz project.

ASYS offers the industry’s largest product portfolio of machines and material logistics solutions for the entire shop floor. With the integration of Motives Software GmbH into the ASYS Group, the portfolio of software solutions is now also expanding. The latest addition is Factory Conductor, a factory level software tool which complements the existing machine and line-oriented ASYS software solutions, PULSE and OIC (Overall Inline Communication).

The Factory Conductor is the core element in the “Material Manager” software which ASYS uses for Material Logistics. It is a modular link between ERP and the production lines and supports process optimization across the entire electronics production. The software also coordinates the multi-level material flow between the main warehouse, production warehouse and the production lines. It completes the broad software product portfolio in the MES environment for the entire shop floor.

The Factory Conductor software tool is advancing other innovations such as the “dynamic magazine control” in production, the “automatic planner” of the material flow and the “visualization of operating data”. In the future, the portfolio of Industry 4.0 solutions will be expanded on both a hardware and software level. Topics such as cloud solutions and BigData will also be included.

Find out more about Factory Conductor Software.

Building on the success of our Long Term Storage Solutions, LTS², the most recent development is the acquisition of a new building to expand on capacity & to minimise risk by assuring continuity should a disrupting incident occur in one of the facilities. Tapping into our unparalleled experience and expertise of storing moisture sensitive components, LTS² continues to grow significantly with ever-increasing demand and serving an ever-expanding worldwide client base.

The new facility is compliant to international standards for MSD and long-term component storage & uses patented technologies for temperature and humidity control to ensure components are kept in optimal conditions –  typically 13-14˚C and <5% rh.

Different storage conditions are on offer to manage long term storage, eliminate associated reliability problems and aid manufacturers in their fight against obsolescence.

• Controlled oxidation free environment
• Storage within a Nitrogen environment according to JEDEC JEP 160.

When components are held in storage, they only have guaranteed availability if the storage is safe and secure. The LTS² facility is constructed according to the highest standards. It is Class A fire-proof and secure fences and 24/7 camera systems protect the storage facility and surroundings. All alarms connect directly with the local fire department.

Long Term Storage Solutions

Totech has constantly redefined  the prevention of moisture absorption, oxidation and intermetallic growth while exceeding the requirements of IPC/JEDEC J-Std-033D.  Now, manufacturers can advance their component management processes even further with integrated software tools and intelligent hardware that can track climate, trace components and notify personnel through integration to the ASYS Pulse network . Automated floor life reset, user ID security, component “Pick by Light” and FIFO materials management are just some examples of Super Dry’s Smart Storage Manager’s 4.0 capabilities.  Super Dry® Smart Storage Manager’s modular construction and standardized interfaces further enable communication with other machines and upward with MES & ERP systems in the factory.

From bench top cabinets to walk-in rooms to fully automated warehouse management, Super Dry’s extensive product line now features the Smart Storage Manager and offers the industry’s greatest array of choices to precisely meet its evolving needs. In-situ expansion of capacity is possible with the unique MSD 1222/1223 Modular Dry Cabinets which offer the lowest cost per cubic meter in the industry.  Incorporating the  powerful, closed loop controlled U5000 Series Dynamic Dry Unit, the basic MSD can be expanded in the field without the need for additional dry units, offering savings of 50% or more . Super Dry cabinets can dehumidify to less than 0.5% RH. This qualifies them not only for unlimited safe storage, but also means they can safely remove moisture, thus resetting floor life without the oxidation induced by traditional baking, even at ambient temperatures.  Component floor life restoration can be accelerated with any one of a range of insulated cabinets and walk in rooms that elevate temperature to a safe, uniformly controlled 40-60C, and Smart Manager™ software that will automatically set up and track multiple  reset batches.

Other features of the Smart Storage Manager include the tracking component location and floor life expiration as well as reset status.  This manually piloted product was derived from that which manages Totech’s fully automated, robotically controlled, component handling and storage system – The Dry Tower. Incorporating proven MSD technology and wide-ranging WMS-System integration capabilities, Dry Towers can manage tens of thousands of reels and trays with real time monitoring, full traceability and kitting and delivery to assembly lines, helping manufacturers achieve their vision of a Smart factory and industry 4.0 goals.

We are delighted to announce a partnership with RoodMicrotec N.V, a leading independent company for semiconductor supply and quality testing services.

Totech’s expertise with specialist moisture control equipment provides the backbone for our outsourced Long Term Storage Service, LTS², which brings vital long-term component storage solutions into product lifecycle.  With the cooperation with Rood Mictotec we will now also offer related quality testing services to deliver a comprehensive suite of obsolescence management disciplines. This will comprise electrical tests and physical analysis of components prior to storage, as well as periodic quality monitoring during storage and prior to shipping components back to the customer.

With this latest partnership Totech customers enjoy all the customer service, account management and storage capabilities of Totech, combined with the rigorous testing and analysis of stored components by RoodMicrotec, to ensure their continued quality and reliability.

Automate, Digitalize & Connect: This is the motto and the mission of ASYS, and this will be demonstrated live at Productronica in Munich next month.

ASYS and Totech are your technology partners for your journey towards intelligent manufacturing.

With PULSE software, you can move even closer to achieving a true Smart Factory. Discover more at Productronica – more performance than ever. The smart assistance system enables the operator to react twice as quickly, operate proactively and keep production moving. PULSE transparently connects man and machine through information.

Equip yourself for the future with additional software tools: our solutions create a reliable flow of material and information. We integrate all systems in your production and planning environment.

Are all your machines already communicating with each other? Then let us help you take the next step towards autonomous production with Material Logistics. The goal: a completely networked production environment beginning with goods receipt. Benefit from material tracking right from the start and lowest WIP rates thanks to centralized warehouse solutions.

Dive with us into the world of tomorrow’s automated production! Visit us at Booth A3-277.

The smart factory – a complex matter? Not for us!

At SMT Connect Totech and ASYS are your number one when it comes to designing the overall material logistics solution for your shopfloor. Whatever ideas you may have, we will work with you to implement them.

We keep an eye on all processes:

• Incoming goods: Traceability through fully automatic identification and marking
• Shopfloor storage solutions for the demand-oriented provision of materials
• Just-in-time supply of the production lines via AIVs
• Shopfloor software for material management, monitoring and operator support

Our focus: your vision of a smart factory.

With our scalable solutions, we can implement the degree of automation you want. We offer you a broad portfolio that can be modularly combined and built on one another. Together we work out the right concept for your production.

Our Dry Tower is the central warehouse for your component reels. These are stored with full traceability and at specified ambient conditions (MSD) and delivered again as required. Thanks to the connection to the higher-level “Material Manager” software, you can always check the current status.

Witness our shop floor logistics scenarios at SMT connect.
With our holistic solutions you can build a comprehensive concept for your production. We look forward to your visit!

Find out more.

Totech and ASYS Group Sales Teams
Booth# 4A/441 and 4A/324 

At IPC Apex show in San Diego last month, Guest Editor of I-Connect 007, Kelly Dack spoke with Richard Heimsch, director of Totech, about some of the differences between storing components and other materials for assembly floor storage versus long-term storage, and how Super Dry can help combat intermetallic growth:

Kelly Dack: I’m sitting with Richard Heimsch, director of Totech, at IPC APEX EXPO 2019. Super Dry is a moisture-management, humidity-control system specialist. The job of the day, every day, is to help customers eliminate or control the humidity in their storage environments for components and other materials, correct?

Richard Heimsch: That’s right, which is particularly significant with electronic components. All of the components are hygroscopic. Once they absorb a certain amount of moisture, they pass their available floor life because they become susceptible to microcracking during reflow. So, managing the floor life and even resetting the floor life are the two fundamental tasks of the equipment sets that we manufacture.

Dack: For your equipment or services, what is the size of your customer’s requirements?

Heimsch: The storage volumes would go from 150 liters on a bench top to thousands of square feet of walk-in rooms and everything in between.

Dack: And your equipment scales to fit?

Heimsch: Correct. There are different challenges with very large warehouse-sized rooms maintaining below 5% than a bench top dry cabinet of course, but we have both extremes and lots in between.

Dack: Specifically, what are the challenges? Do you use larger equipment and more equipment, and does the cost increase?

Heimsch: Well, you need a different level of dehumidification. And when you have people working in the room, they’re bringing moisture in with them and raising the relative humidity. Thus, 5% is the critical threshold for moisture-sensitive devices. At 5% and below, you have unlimited safe storage. Above 5%, you are consuming floor life.

Dack: Are your customers throughout the U.S. or worldwide?

Heimsch: We’re a worldwide company, but I specialize in North and South America.

Dack: And is there any differences in requirements for a customer that lives in a high-humidity environment like Louisiana versus somewhere like Arizona?

Heimsch: No, it’s not a contributing factor whatsoever because in all cases, the working environment is going to be above 5% humidity; therefore, you’re consuming floor life.

Dack: How about any customer special requirements? Do you have any stories or anecdotes for customers that gave you a difficult challenge such as a niche situation?

Heimsch: Very long-term storage is a niche area that is growing in significance. Automotive and military people have had the requirement to store electronic parts for five, 10, or 15 or more years, which is well beyond any guidelines from their component manufacturers. That need has worked its way into some other electronic assembly areas. With component shortages and reduced product life cycles, the need to buy forward and store components has increased the demand and the requirement for long-term storage beyond just the extreme examples I gave before of the military and automotive segments.

So, the issues are different than assembly floor storage. Even though the low-humidity storage environment can stop oxidation—which is the principal purpose of it—there are other issues that need to be considered during long-term storage including embrittlement and especially intermetallic growth, which can also render the components useless. There is really no solution to overcome that in the way there might be if there had been oxidation and we could use a more aggressive flux. The ultra-low humidity storage will completely and totally take care of the oxidation problem, but intermetallic growth is a different situation and has been for many years.

Within the past couple of years, we had a breakthrough in that area and proved that by lowering the ambient temperature during long-term storage, we could significantly inhibit the growth of intermetallics. So, what had been one of the simpler product offerings has moved into one of the more complex solutions. We actually do long-term storage as a service, which gives us the opportunity to collect a lot of data on the situation. You need to periodically test components for integrity in many different categories over a quarterly, yearly, or bi-yearly basis, etc.

We recently published new data about the fact that dry storage is at least as effective as nitrogen if not better in terms of preventing oxidation. This has been an age-old, ongoing debate about the need for nitrogen to prevent oxidation. In fact, it’s the loose oxygen atom in the water molecule that’s the problem. You must have an electrolyte to create the corrosion. And it’s that loosely bonded oxygen atom in the water molecule, not the tightly bonded O2 molecules, that are triggering the oxidation.

A lot of people in the plating business, for instance, have known this for a long time. Within electronics, nitrogen was the only solution available 20+ years ago (when standards began to be published). To have any kind of oxidation mitigation, the removal of oxygen was believed to be essential to prevent it, and that has been disproven. Thus, by testing components in three environments over long periods of time or even a couple of years, we have concrete data and proof.

Dack: Again, what are the three environments?

Heimsch: Nitrogen, ambient, and a dry cabinet or low-humidity environments. In an ambient environment, you have oxidation running wild, but nitrogen and low-humidity environments are virtually equal in those results. And though it’s still very niche, the reduction of temperature to manage the intermetallic growth is significant and further extends the useable life of the components.

The elimination of nitrogen is an objective because it’s expensive and wasteful, and it doesn’t do as good a job as an ultralow-humidity environment will do. Getting nitrogen that’s less than 5% relative humidity is not a simple thing to do, and IPC/JEDEC specifications require a less-than-5% environment for unlimited safe storage. The additional issue that an assembly house wouldn’t necessarily need to deal with because their components are being utilized on a short-term basis is the intermetallics. And that’s where the long-term situation introduces or enlarges the need for an additional controlled solution.

In summary, for decades, military and automotive companies have needed to store parts for very long periods of time—10 years and longer as well as for avionics and trains as additional examples—but now, long-term storage is an issue even for more mainstream OEMs because of component shortages and very short product life cycles. This is forcing people to buy volumes of components ahead of time and understand how to store them safely because the storage time far exceeds anything that their component manufacturers have recommendations for.

Dack: Very good. Thanks so much for your time today, Richard.

Heimsch: Absolutely.

“A Line is a dot that went for a walk” – under this motto the 10th ASYS Group Technology Days took place from 14 – 15 November 2018. At the two-day event, the automation experts showed how the production of the future can become reality. Visitors were able to experience the latest technology highlights from the fields of Electronics, Solar and Life Science, live in an exhibition area of more than 1000m².

Autonomous material supply is the central element of the production of the future. At the Technology Days, the ASYS Group impressively demonstrated a complete solution for material logistics. For the first time, the automation experts used RFID technology for material tracking and setup control. In the scenarios demonstrated, magazines and component rolls were equipped with an RFID transponder. Material could then be traced across mulitple stations within the production line, including by means of Smartwatch.

Clever storage systems with AIV connection, such as the “Magazine Warehouse”, the “Totech Dry Tower” for the storage of component rolls and the material stations rounded off the portfolio. The group presented the Dry Tower with an upstream X-ray system from Optical Controls. It counts the exact number of components on a roll – so the incoming goods inspection or the return delivery of rolls to the warehouse can be traced precisely. To ensure that the right material arrives at the right place at the right time, ASYS relies on its latest software solution – the “Material Manager”. The application collects data on all elements of a production process – from AIV, through warehouse systems, to process machines and modules installed in machines. These are evaluated to implement automated and orderly order processing in production, including control of the autonomous transport robots.

New visitor record

The Technology Days are an in-house event of the ASYS Group. The company’s latest developments are presented every two years. This year a total of 350 customers and partners travelled to the headquarters in Dornstadt.

Not sure? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. 

This is simply one of many MSD management issues facing today’s manufacturers; when it comes to evaluating your dry cabinet’s performance, it can be difficult to know where to start. Fortunately, we’re here to help!

1. Check your cabinet’s recovery time

This is arguably the single most important performance parameter for desiccant dry cabinets, though Minimum RH level is the most frequently cited. Recovery time is the time required for the cabinet to reduce the RH level back to its set point after the door has been opened and closed.

2. Assess how powerful your dry unit is

To give you an example of benchmark power, the latest Super Dry cabinets employ a Closed Loop Dynamic dry unit which is measurably more powerful than any other technology. The graph below demonstrates how our MSD modular cabinet quickly achieves its <1%RH set point and then recovers following 4 door openings of 30 seconds.
In addition, this “Dynamic Dry Unit” is closed loop responsive to changes in demand. Instead of time cycles, it regenerates at whatever frequency is required to maintain maximum efficiency of the desiccant . Superior stability AND superior energy efficiency are the result.

Have you ever measured your cabinet under similar conditions? If not, it’s time to start. If you get stuck, contact our team who will be happy to advise you.

Watch the video of the MSD Series Dry Cabinets

Keep Your 3D Filament Dry

3D prints may partially or completely fail if moisture ingress has occurred in the filament used. Without appropriate dry storage procedures in place, at some point problems during printing will almost certainly arise due to humidity. Filaments absorb water molecules from the ambient air in a natural process known as hygroscopy. This absorption can occur in just a few hours if filaments are left exposed to the atmosphere. Nylon filaments are most at risk. The situation is even worse with specialty filament like PVA which is extremely hygroscopic and needs special storage conditions to maintain its usefulness.

3D printing problems typically caused by moisture absorption are:

• increased brittleness
• diameter augmentation
• filament bubbling
• filament degradation

The degree to which these problems arise depends on the type of filament. For instance, PET is not dramatically affected by ambient air moisture while Nylon will saturate quite quickly and may pose problems printing if not stored properly.

If the filament spools have already been exposed to the air over a certain time, they are likely to already be saturated with moisture and a drying process may be required first.

There are a couple of solutions and the choice will ultimately depend on the volume of product to be stored and available budget.

The most sophisticated solution is to dry and store using a dry cabinet. Totech XSD desiccant cabinets deliver outstanding performance for floor life reset of moisture sensitive 3D printing materials, components and PCB’s, as well as coatings, sprays, molding pellets and moisture absorbent materials of all kinds.

The advanced technology of XSD desiccant cabinets delivers a process combining ultra low humidity (<0.5%) and mild temperatures (40-60°C) for moisture removal and safe long-term storage.  These temperatures are well within the “glass transition temperature” of even the least heat resistant polymers. Higher temperatures will affect the filament properties changing them from hard and brittle to soft, molten and unusable.

For a more budget friendly option, but nothing like as sophisticated, Moisture Barrier Bags may be the solution. MBBs (sometimes called Vapor Barrier Bags or vacuum bags)  are increasingly used to pack moisture sensitive devices and materials for long term storage and transport.

They are made from multiple layers of plastic and aluminium that control moisture vapor leakage and will store filament spools in an air-free environment so that they cannot absorb additional moisture from the ambient air. Filaments need to be dry before vacuum bagging- MBB storage will otherwise serve little purpose. Standardized packets of desiccant drying agents are used to absorb any residual moisture from the air left inside moisture barrier bag after it has been sealed. A Humidity Indicator Card (HIC) should also be placed inside the bag in order to confirm that that the spool has remained in a safe state during storage.

Guidelines for the proper storage, handling and moisture protection of electronic components can be found in the standards IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033. Though these date back to 1999, there were no published standards for storage and moisture protection for printed boards until 2010, and their proper handling is still often overlooked, even though with the correct storage control and the use of suitable drying methods, considerable manufacturing advantages can be gained: PCBs will remain solderable for much longer and damage during reflow due to moisture can be eliminated.

Historically, the printed board industry relied on military specifications and guidelines to define the packaging methods used to preserve the quality and reliability of PCBs during shipment and storage. Over time, of course, many of these documents became obsolete, were found to be incomplete, didn’t address leadfree assembly, or did not provide guidance for newer laminates or final finishes. Additionally, the proliferation of alternative final finishes has produced concerns and requirements for printed board packaging and handling to preserve the finish and assure good solderability.

Over the decades that passed since the J-STD-033 standard was created, new technologies were developed and proven to safely reset component floor life using low temperatures and ultra-low humidity without requiring extensive time. These 40-60°C and <1% methods were first adopted in Europe, and their recognition and use has now spread to North America.   The same methods applied to components are now applied to PCBs and the industry standard IPC-1601A (2016 revision) offers Printed Board Handling and Storage Guidelines.

Read the full article published in PCB007