Megger has been a leader in electrical test and measurement globally for 130 years. From power generation to the power outlets in your home, Megger products cover almost every application within the Electrical Supply Industry.
Their products are used for testing electrical equipment such as motors and generators and testing electrical installations, from buildings to high voltage substations. With manufacturing sites in various locations in Germany, USA, UK, and Sweden, and a headquarters (Megger Instruments Ltd.), based in Dover, UK; they are a global organization.
Keeping Up with Technology
Until 2017, Megger had been using a traditional Wave Solder system, and hand-soldering for their through-hole components. The wave solder system was proving expensive to run and maintain and proving to not be cost effective for a modern manufacturing operation. Whilst they had a small, low volume, selective system it was not suitable for a full production environment.
To ensure their production was able to keep up with demand, improving quality and reducing running costs Megger Instruments looked to add Selective Soldering capability to their production lines. In 2017 they started to look at their requirements and what the market had to offer. “We looked at the sectors manufacturers and their equipment ranges.” said Ronny Titeca, Megger’s Manufacturing Director, “We had approximately 20 objectives we set for our selective requirements. From the original list we had a clear front runner in Pillarhouse and conducted a series of test runs at their manufacturing site in Chelmsford. The results were excellent and confirmed their status as front runner in our research.” Megger Instruments decided that Pillarhouse, as a world leader, offered the best overall package of speed, quality, and cost-of-ownership. After this research Megger Instruments settled on the Pillarhouse Synchrodex platform. This platform is based on a modular approach to allow a customer to install an initial series of machines and to easily add additional modules as and when production requirements increase. Pillarhouse installed a three-machine line consisting of a fluxer, complete with top and bottom preheaters; and two soldering modules. The line was completed with a barcode reader at the start of the line. This not only ensured product traceability but also that the correct process programs were used in each module.
Keeping Up with Growth
The Pillarhouse Synchrodex line proved so successful that in 2019 Megger invested in a second Pillarhouse line, this time they selected the latest generation Orissa Fusion system. Incorporating high speed PCB transfer, the Orissa Fusion has a four-cell configuration providing them with a flux/preheat cell, a preheat cell and two soldering cells. This configuration ensures that with multiple preheat modules there is good flux penetration on heavy copper multi-layer PCB’s. Whilst two solder cells allow for the use of two different nozzle sizes to ensure the soldering of all pins, regardless of board design complexity.
Benefits of Selective Soldering
As a result of this investment in Selective Soldering technology Megger Instruments have seen an increase in quality and throughput with a greatly reduced need for hand soldering. Megger’s Production Manager, Marios Nicholaou, commented “The PillarCOMM control software makes the Pillarhouse systems very easy to programme, and the extensive range of parameters make the process extremely effective. The inclusion of a solder nozzle conditioning system reduces our production downtime and improves our operator safety.”
The combination of Pillarhouse and Megger has proved to be a successful partnership and it is hoped to continue for a long time to come.
