Patent Application
20230297098
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of Surface Mount Technology (SMT). Particularly, the present disclosure relates to an intelligent system and a method for predicting errors, ahead of time, and performing preventing maintenance to avoid such errors, in the SMT Manufacturing Assembly line.
Surface Mount Technology (SMT) manufacturing is considered as the backbone for any large-scale production of electronic equipment for the domestic, industrial, and strategic applications. SMT manufacturing is predominantly an automated process implemented as an assembly line with several automatic machines. Thus, machine maintenance becomes a very critical part in the manufacturing process to avoid down-time, minimize repairs, and increase productivity.
In the past few decades, several optimal maintenance practices have been developed to increase the yield and minimize wastage of material and labor. Mainly, the maintenance practices can be categorized into two buckets (i). Reactive Maintenance and (ii). Preventive Maintenance. Reactive maintenance is a costly procedure that is done only after a breakdown or failure, thus such a process neither helps in minimizing the downtime or repairs nor increases productivity. Whereas Preventive Maintenance is a process that is done periodically. However, in Preventive Maintenance processes the period of maintenance is decided based on the individual experiences which need not be optimal.
With the advent of Industrial standard 4.0, Industries are moving towards preventive maintenance processes. However, existing preventive maintenance processes have their own challenges. For example, conventional statistical process control used in existing technologies is not effective in high yield setting. Further, conventional systems employ data science techniques to understand the pattern which is underlying in the data which is scattered at different places. Moreover, they do not take important KPI's such as count, reject ratio, rate. etc. into consideration for analyzing if a machine requires Preventive maintenance or not.
Thus, their exist a need in the technology for an Intelligent predictive and preventive system and method that can not only predict any error in the SMT manufacturing assembly line a head of time but can also perform preventive maintenance to avoid any failure/breakdown in the SMT manufacturing assembly line and is compatible with industrial standard 4.0.
The information disclosed in this background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.
One or more shortcomings discussed above are overcome, and additional advantages are provided by the present disclosure. Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present disclosure. Other embodiments and aspects of the disclosure are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the disclosure.
An object of the present disclosure is to predict errors in an SMT manufacturing assembly line, ahead of time.
Another objective of the present disclosure is to perform preventive maintenance of various machines in the assembly line in view of predicted errors and avoid the SMT manufacturing assembly line from possible failure/breakdown.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide an intelligent predictive and preventive system that is compatible with Industrial standard 4.0.
The above stated objects as well as other objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become clear to those skilled in the art upon review of the following description, the attached drawings, and the appended claims.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, methods, apparatus, and computer readable media are provided for predicting errors, ahead of time, and performing preventing maintenance to avoid such errors, in the SMT Manufacturing Assembly line.
In a non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, the present application discloses an analytical system for Surface Mount Technology (SMT). The analytical system comprising a Data Integration (DI) platform configured to collate data from one or more units in an assembly line. The DI platform is configured to receive and collate data from the one or more units in different formats and store said collated data. The analytical system further comprises an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform operatively coupled to the DI platform. Said AI platform is configured to fetch the collated data from the DI platform and process the collated data, using one or more machine learning techniques, to generate predictive and preventive analysis for the one or more units present in the assembly line. The analytical system additionally includes a Digital Twin Simulation (DTS) platform operatively coupled to the AI platform and the DI platform. Said DTS platform is configured to simulate an exact replica of all the units present in the assembly line, in the same order, provide visual representation of the predictive and preventive analysis, generated by the AI platform, in readable format to one or more operators in the assembly line, over the simulated replica. Further, the DTS platform is configured to allow the one or more operators in the assembly line to take at least one action, in response to the generated predictive and preventive analysis and provide the at least one action taken by the one or more operators in the assembly line as feedback signal to AI platform to improve prediction rate of said system. The analytical system may further include a notification platform operatively coupled to the AI platform and the DTS platform, wherein said notification platform allows the AI platform to share notification regarding predictive and preventive analysis of the one or more units in the assembly line with the one or more operators.
In another non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, the present application discloses an analytical method for Surface Mount Technology (SMT). The method comprising the steps of collating data from one or more units in an assembly line in different formats and storing said collated data, fetching the collated data and processing said collated data, using one or more machine learning techniques. Said method further comprises generating predictive and preventive analysis for the one or more units present in the assembly line, in response to said processing and simulating an exact replica of all the units present in the assembly line, in the same order. The method may further include providing visual representation of the predictive and preventive analysis thus generated, in readable format to one or more operators in the assembly line, over the simulated replica and allowing the one or more operators in the assembly line to take at least one action, in response to the generated predictive and preventive analysis. The method further discloses providing the at least one action taken by the one or more operators in the assembly line as feedback signal to improve the prediction rate of said system and providing notification regarding predictive and preventive analysis of the one or more units in the assembly line with the one or more operators.
In another non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, the present application discloses a non-transitory computer readable media storing one or more instructions executable by at least one processor. The one or more instructions may comprise one or more instructions for collating data from one or more units in an assembly line in different formats and storing said collated data. The one or more instructions may further comprise one or more instruction for fetching the collated data and processing said collated data, using one or more machine learning techniques. The one or more instructions may further comprise one or more instructions for generating predictive and preventive analysis for the one or more units present in the assembly line, in response to said processing and for simulating an exact replica of all the units present in the assembly line, in the same order. The one or more instructions may further comprise one or more instructions for providing visual representation of the predictive and preventive analysis thus generated, in readable format to one or more operators in the assembly line, over the simulated replica and for allowing the one or more operators in the assembly line to take at least one action, in response to the generated predictive and preventive analysis. The one or more instructions may further comprise one or more instructions for providing the at least one action taken by the one or more operators in the assembly line as feedback signal to improve the prediction rate of said system and for providing notification regarding predictive and preventive analysis of the one or more units in the assembly line with the one or more operators.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
Further aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will be readily understood from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings. Reference numerals have been used to refer to identical or functionally similar elements. The figures together with a detailed description below, are incorporated in and form part of the specification, and serve to further illustrate the embodiments and explain various principles and advantages, in accordance with the present disclosure wherein:
It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of the illustrative systems embodying the principles of the present disclosure. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flowcharts, flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.
In the present document, the word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment or implementation of the present disclosure described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments.
While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail below. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and the scope of the disclosure.
The terms “comprise(s)”, “comprising”, “include(s)”, or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a setup, device, apparatus, system, or method that comprises a list of components or steps does not include only those components or steps but may include other components or steps not expressly listed or inherent to such setup or device or apparatus or system or method. In other words, one or more elements in a device or system or apparatus proceeded by “comprises . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other elements or additional elements in the system.
In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the disclosure, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration of specific embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the disclosure, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The following description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense. In the following description, well known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the description with unnecessary detail.
The terms like “at least one” and “one or more” may be used interchangeably throughout the description. The terms like “a plurality of” and “multiple” may be used interchangeably throughout the description. Further, the terms like “SMT manufacturing assembly line” and “SMT assembly line” and “assembly line” may be used interchangeably throughout the description. Further, the terms like “AI based analytical system” and “analytical system” may be used interchangeably throughout the description.
The present disclosure proposes an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based analytical system that adopts Industry 4.0 standard to avoid unscheduled downtime using Predictive Maintenance (PdM). The Predictive Maintenance (PdM) techniques disclosed in the present disclosure predicts when a failure might occur in an SMT manufacturing assembly line, in real-time. Further, the Predictive Maintenance (PdM) techniques disclosed in the present disclosure prevent the occurrence of the failure by performing maintenance before such failure may occur. Precisely, the predictive maintenance techniques disclosed in the present disclosure allows the maintenance frequency to be as low as possible to prevent unplanned reactive maintenance, without incurring costs associated with doing preventive maintenance. Further, said AI based Analytics system provides a vendor-agnostic platform with high interoperability across various data formats and provides horizontal data integration.
Referring now to
The network 106 may comprise a data network such as, but not restricted to, the Internet, Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), etc. In certain embodiments, the network 106 may include a wireless network, such as, but not restricted to, a cellular network and may employ various technologies including Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Internet protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) etc. In one embodiment, the network 106 may include or otherwise cover networks or subnetworks, each of which may include, for example, a wired or wireless data pathway.
In a non-limiting embodiment, the data generated by one or more machines/units of the plurality of assembly line 104(a)-104(n) is very critical for understanding the machine/unit behavior over time. Typically, data is generated from relevant sensors for capturing physical parameters such as temperature, humidity, vibration, magnetic field, and optical sensors. However, many modern inspection machines/units of the plurality of assembly line 104(a)-104(n) generate image, audio and video data from the inspection view port which carries tones of information about the processes and products within the assembly line.
As shown in
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the one or more units in the plurality of assembly lines 104(a)-104(n) may include but are not limited to Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) machine/unit, placement machine/unit, Pre-reflow AQI unit and Post-reflow AQI unit and IC testing unit and Functional testing unit, as shown in
Although, from the above embodiment, it is clear that the analytical system 102 may be configured to work in conjunction with one or more assembly lines at a time. However, for the sake of clarity and understanding, the forthcoming paragraphs of the present disclosure are explained using an embodiment where analytical system 102 only works in conjunction with one assembly line 104(a). However, the same is not to be considered limiting in any sense.
Looking at
Further, as shown in
To understand how AI platform 114 works to achieve the above objective, reference is now made to
Precisely, the descriptive analytics module 306 may be configured to provide an overview of various aspects of the different machines/units of the assembly line 104(a) for a pre-determined time interval by presenting a plurality of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to the one or operators of the operator's system 108(a)-108(n) through graphs and tables. Specifically, said KPI may include at least one of key count of the product coming out of the assembly line, reject ratio of the product, rate of production, Takt time, Overall unit Effectiveness (OEE), downtime and similar other performance indicators.
In an exemplary aspect, the one or more processing unit 304 may include, but not restricted to, a general-purpose processor, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), microprocessors, microcomputers, micro-controllers, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
Further, as shown in
The one or more analytical modules (as shown in
Moving ahead the one or more analytical modules of the AI platform 114 (as shown in
In an essential embodiment, the AI platform 114 may also include an Anomaly Detection module 316. The Anomaly detection module 316 is an important module in SMT assembly line as an unexpected error can propagate due to external factors such as Part Number change, Process changes and Stencil change. To counter the error due one the external factors the Anomaly detection module is configured to record and learn all the events and the pattern based on the statistical inference technique.
To achieve the above objectives, the AI platform 114 of the system 102 may include one or more statistical, machine learning, and deep learning methods specifically tuned for data analytics tasks for SMT manufacturing. Further, said AI platform 114 may represent an end-to-end workflow system that manages at least one of data acquisition, automatic selection of machine learning models, deployment of those models and continuous monitoring of the model performance to carry out the processes performed by one or more above discussed analytical modules 306-316.
In one embodiment, to carry out the predictive and preventive analysis for the assembly line 104(a), the AI platform 114 may be pre-trained using batch loading technique during offline mode. The batch loading technique includes retrieving old data archived in the data lake 114 and training AI platform 114 over said data. In another embodiment, to carry out the predictive and preventive analysis for the assembly line 104(a) the AI platform 114 may be trained using the real-time data stored in the NOSQL data store during online mode.
Further, as shown in
Further, in a specific embodiment, it is the DTS platform 116 which makes the operations of one or more analytical modules 306-316 of the AI platform 114 (as discussed in foregoing paragraphs) possible. For example, the descriptive analytics module 306 of the AI platform 114 that is configured to process the collated data and enables the one or more operators of the operator's system 108(a)-108(n) to get an overview of various aspects of the different units of the assembly line 104(a) is performed over the simulated replica's generated by the DTS platform 116, as shown in
Further, the DTS platform 116 is configured to provide visual representation of the predictive and preventive analysis, generated by the AI platform 114, in readable format to one or more operators in the assembly line, 104(a) over the simulated replica. Thus, in a way DTS platform 116 also assists the diagnostic analytics module 308, the condition monitoring module 310, the predictive analytics module 312, and the Anomaly detection module 316 to perform their functions as discussed in forgoing paragraphs, repetition of same is avoided for the sake of brevity.
Additionally, the DTS platform 116 may be configured to allow, through the simulated replica, the one or more operators of the operating systems 108(a)-1o8(n) in the assembly line 104(a) to take at least one action, in response to the generated predictive and preventive analysis and provide the at least one action taken by the one or more operators, of the operating systems 108(a)-108(n), in the assembly line 104(a) as feedback signal to AI platform 114 to improve prediction rate of said system 102 in future. The feedback provided to the AI platform 114 is essential in reducing the false calls/false positive rate of the analytical system 102.
The DTS platform 116 may include a memory and a processor to perform the above operations. In an aspect, the memory may be communicatively coupled to the processor and may comprise various instructions, which when executed cause the processor to perform the operations discussed in above paragraphs. The memory may include a Random-Access Memory (RAM) unit and/or a non-volatile memory unit such as a Read Only Memory (ROM), optical disc drive, magnetic disc drive, flash memory, Electrically Erasable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), a memory space on a server or cloud and so forth.
Further, as shown in
Thus, from the above embodiments it is clear that the said system 102 is configured to collate data from one or more machines/units in the assembly lines 104(a)-104(n) (including Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) unit, Placement unit, Pre-Reflow AOI unit, Post Reflow AOI unit) and predict functional error at next stage, thereby improving efficiency so that the one or more operators can analyze the cause of the error and prevent downtime as errors that occurs due to various factors.
For better understanding, the embodiments discussed in forgoing paragraphs may be understood by means of an example. In an exemplary embodiment, as shown in
Such preventive maintenance of SPI machines/unit stimulates the probability of botches and plans repairs or servicing of the machines to reduce the probability of malfunctions or degradation of services provided. Further, such preventive maintenance of the SPI machine/unit may offer various technical advantages, listed below.
The SPI Machine/unit Preventive Maintenance helps to avoid the problem of over maintenance that is performed in the factory floor which cost several thousand of dollar and also leads to loss of productivity. Further, it also provides SPI stencil change notification alert in the assembly line 104(a) during machine maintenance, or if there is a product change. Thus, operators may be advised to change stencils if a certain number of boards are crossed in the SMT line. In an exemplary aspect, the stencil needs to be changed if the spatial grouping detects a pattern change on the boards. For example, it can be detected if the problem is due to the stencil sheet, when an error occurs vertically or horizontally in the PCB board.
Additionally, such preventive maintenance allows SPI tolerance limits to be analyzed based on solder paste volume distribution obtained from mass data collected. Furthermore, an unskilled worker can be may made productive in a shorter interval by identifying machine error escape, such that when a SPI machine/unit passes a particular board, but the same board fails due to a printing problem, corrective action can be taken to avoid the error progressing to the next stage.
In another exemplary embodiment, the analytical system 102 may be configured to predict a solder pad failure in the SPI machine/unit in the assembly line 104(a). In said embodiment, as shown in
In another exemplary embodiment, the analytical system 102 is configured to predicting the Placement, Pre-Reflow, Post Reflow and Functional Errors error at SPI stage using the data available in SPI, as shown in
Specifically, to achieve said objectives (as shown in
In a non-limiting embodiment, using the techniques discussed in
In a non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, to identify one of the above errors the analytical system 102 uses anomaly detection technique to discern rare patterns that do not conform to expected behavior, called outliers. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that when any machine works in an unreliable manner anomaly detection comes into place and the mishaps generated are arrested before it escalates into a major issue in the production line. Sudden increase in false calls and the reason for the sudden increase in offset problems are considered as Anomalies by the domain expert happened due to external factors.
Referring now to
The method 800 may include, at block 802, collating data from one or more units in an assembly line 104(a)-104(n) in different formats and storing said collated data in data lake 112. The operations of block 802 may be performed by the one or more processor 206 of the DI platform 110 in combination with adaptor 202 of
The method 800 may further include, at block 804, fetching the collated data and processing said collated data, using one or more machine learning techniques. Further, at block 806, the method 800 may include generating predictive and preventive analysis for the one or more units present in the assembly line 104(a)-104(n), in response to said processing. The operations of blocks 804 and 806 are performed by the AI platform 114 of system 102 of
In one non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, although not exclusively disclose but the method 800 may include processing the collated data to enable the one or more operators to get an overview of various aspects of the different units of the assembly line 104(a) for a pre-determined time interval by presenting a plurality of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to the one or operators through graphs and tables. Said step may be performed by the descriptive analytics module 306 of the AI platform 114.
The method 800 may further include the steps of analyzing the processed data to provide one or more causes for breakdown of the one or more units in the assembly line 104(a) and continuously monitoring trend of the generated predictive and preventive analysis and providing visual intuition to the one or more operators of same. In an exemplary embodiment, the above steps are performed by the diagnostic analytics module 308 and the condition monitoring module 310 of the AI platform.
In an embodiment, the method 800 may further be configured for predicting failure of the one or more unit in the assembly line 104(a), in advance, by mapping the generated predictive and preventive analysis with the data present in the data lake, using machine learning. Subsequently, the method 800 may be configured for advising one or more possible solutions, to the one or more operators of the operating systems 108(a)-108(n) to mitigate the failure, using machine learning. The above steps are performed by the predictive analytics module 312 and the prescriptive analytics module 314 respectively.
In an embodiment, in order for predicting failure of the one or more unit in the assembly line 104(a), in advance and performing preventive analysis, the method 800 may disclose collating data from one or more units across different assembly lines 104(a)-104(n) over a period of time and archiving old-processed data into the data lake to train the AI platform 114. The method 800 may further include storing real-time data in a scalable NOSQL data store in the data lake 112 for providing predictive and preventive analysis for the one or more units in real time.
Moving ahead, the method 800, at block 808, may include simulating an exact replica of all the units present in the assembly line 104(a), in the same order, i.e., as present in the original assembly line 104(a). At block 810, the method 800 includes providing visual representation of the predictive and preventive analysis thus generated, in readable format to one or more operators in the assembly line 104(a), over the simulated replica using the one or more operator systems 108(a)-108(n).
Further, the method 800, at step 812 discloses allowing the one or more operators in the assembly line 104(a) to take at least one action, in response to the generated predictive and preventive analysis and providing the at least one action taken by the one or more operators in the assembly line 104(a) as feedback signal to improve the prediction rate of said system 102, at step 814. The operations of blocks 808-814 may be performed by the DTS platform 116 of
Finally, at block 816, the method 800 may include providing notification regarding predictive and preventive analysis of the one or more units in the assembly line 104(a) to the one or more operators. The operations of block 816 may be performed by the notification platform 118 of
In an embodiment, the method 800 may include collating data from at least one of Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) unit, Placement unit, Pre-Reflow AOI unit, Post Reflow Unit to predict Functional error at next stage, thereby improving efficiency so that the one or more operators can analyze the cause of the error and prevent downtime as errors that occurs due to various factors.
The above method 800 may be described in the general context of computer executable instructions. Generally, computer executable instructions can include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, and functions, which perform specific functions or implement specific abstract data types.
The order in which the various operations of the methods are described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described method blocks can be combined in any order to implement the method. Additionally, individual blocks may be deleted from the methods without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. Furthermore, the methods can be implemented in any suitable hardware, software, firmware, or combination thereof.
The various operations of methods described above may be performed by any suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions. The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s) and/or module(s), including, but not limited to the various platforms and modules of
It may be noted here that the subject matter of some or all embodiments described with reference to
In a non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, one or more non-transitory computer-readable media may be utilized for implementing the embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. Certain aspects may comprise a computer program product for performing the operations presented herein. For example, such a computer program product may comprise a computer readable media having instructions stored (and/or encoded) thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein. For certain aspects, the computer program product may include packaging material.
Various components, modules, or units are described in this disclosure to emphasize functional aspects of devices configured to perform the disclosed techniques, but do not necessarily require realization by different hardware units. Rather, as described above, various units may be combined in a hardware unit or provided by a collection of interoperative hardware units, including one or more processors as described above, in conjunction with suitable software and/or firmware.
The terms “including”, “comprising”, “having” and variations thereof mean “including but not limited to”, unless expressly specified otherwise.
Finally, the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on an application based here on. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present invention are intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth in the appended claims.
