APPLICATIONS

Use

Checking the fitting of the brake pads of disc brakes

Challenges

Disc brakes serve to reduce or halt the motion of an automobile by means of the frictional force between the discs and brake pads. If the fit between the discs and the pads is not optimal, serious defects can occur. These include brake failure, uneven component wear, noise and vibration. Thus, the proper fitting of brake pads is important for automobile performance, safety, and part life. Yet, until now, there has been no easy way to check the fit between pads and discs.

Benefits

• Time Savings — Design efficiency is greatly improved compared to repeated trial and error
• Quality Improvement — Prescale enables easy measurement at any time, thereby ensuring a stable braking system. This also helps to improve the performance and stability of other related auto parts

Use

Adjustment of chip suction jig (die collet) for use in die bonding

Challenges

When semiconductor chips are bonded to a lead frame (LF) or substrate, the chips are removed from a wafer after dicing by use of a suction jig, known as a “die collet” and then transported. If the suction nozzle is not applied evenly to the semiconductor chips, problems may occur when the chips are removed, or the chips may become flawed. As wafers become thinner and more easily breakable, greater care is required.

Benefits

• Material Savings — Defects found before inspection saves the materials that would have been used in defective production and line changing
• Time Savings — Design efficiency is greatly improved compared to repeated trial and error
• Quality Improvement — Prescale is used to verify nozzle fitment when a suction nozzle is changed. Die bonding is only started after making adjustments. Thus, process/quality abnormalities due to suction-related transport can be prevented

Use

Checking cell lamination load distribution

Challenges

A fuel cell stack consists of multiple single cells laminated together. In its operating state, a clamp load is applied to the stack by tightening the end plates using the bottles. If the clamp load is too low, contact resistance will increase, resulting in lower power generation efficiency and even fuel leaks. On the other hand, if the clamp load is too high, the fuel cell seal will deteriorate quickly. Although there are many ways to measure the load on an entire cell stack, until now there has been no way to measure the load distribution on an individual cell.

Benefits

• Clamping conditions can be optimized
• Evenness of parts and materials can be checked

Use

Checking the seal of cylinder head gaskets

Challenges

Head gaskets are designed for each type of automobile engine (1 engine / 1 head gasket). There was no method for confirming that the combustion gases, cooling water and oil of an engine were properly sealed inside the cylinder of prototype and new production product of cylinder head gasket other than by confirmation by operating tests.

Benefits

• Time Savings — Design efficiency can be significantly streamlined and improved over usual empirical trial and error testing methodology
• Quality Improvement — The option of using Prescale for gasket performance confirmation, when required, can eliminate the uncertainty often experienced when waiting for results. This contributes to streamlining design and development, and can facilitate a reliable supply of cylinder head gaskets

Use

Maintaining high rendering quality by ensuring pressure uniformity during heat fixing

Challenges

In electrophotography, a toner image is first formed on the photoreceptor and then transferred to paper. Marking is then completed using heat to fix the toner on the paper. Heat fixing is typically applied by passing a piece of paper between a heating roll and a pressurizing roll, but if the pressure between the two rolls is not uniform, defective fixing or distortions in the paper may occur. In addition, the heating or pressurizing roll may become significantly worn after extensive use, thereby causing mechanical vibrations that alter the initial conditions of the device, resulting again in fixing defects or paper distortions.

Benefits

• Higher efficiency in designing fixing units
• Easier, more effective checking of heating roll, pressurizing roll, and other parts
• Faster, easier analysis if defects occur

Use

Understanding and adjusting of optimal conditions for heat sealing

Challenges

Poor seals include "imperfect seals that are not bonded" and "false seals that appear to be bonded." False seals are especially a problem because they cannot be identified visually, and inspection of all items is not possible. Currently, temperature, pressure, time and other parameters are adjusted. If the seal passes later evaluation using the peel strength test (JIS Z0238), it is accepted. Although instruments exist for measuring temperature and time, there is not yet an instrument for measuring pressure; therefore, trial-and-error is the only method.

Benefits

• Material Savings — Losses for equipment setting tests, etc., can be reduced
• Time Savings — Assuming one product change per unit per day, 30 minutes can be saved
• Quality Improvement — Equipment can be set without relying on the instincts of the workers

Use

Checking for PL (Parting Line) surface contact, checking for distortion of molds and molding machines

Challenges

1) Since molds are composed of multiple parts, dimensional errors of each part tend to accumulate in the thickness direction. This means that the precision of the height of each part of the PL surface can deviate significantly from its intended value, resulting in excessive contact pressure, the failure of parts to make necessary contact, or the generation of burrs.

2) When force is applied to clamp a mold, the platen tends to bend, which in turn causes the mold to bend. As a result, the thickness precision of the molded product deteriorates, leading to uneven wear and shortened mold life.

Benefits

• When fabricating new molds, it is possible to produce ideal molds with even contact over PL surfaces
• Thickness precision and prevention of burring is improved, resulting in finished products of higher quality
• Effective mold life is lengthened
• The degree of platen bending and contact with mold can be easily checked

Use

Checking mold contact evenness and pressure uniformity of laminating or stacking machines

Challenges

Multilayer ceramic devices are manufactured by overlaying numerous paste-covered green sheets on which electrodes are printed, and then contact bonding the sheets together using a stacking machine. This process requires extremely high precision, to avoid changes in electrical characteristics due to problems of poor adhesion or non-uniform thickness, and to avoid electrical connection failures due to displacement of the electrode pattern. In addition, when the sheets are thin, non-contact areas tend to occur during stacking, making it necessary to check the mold contact even more stringently. Furthermore, as multilayer products become larger and larger over time, ensuring a uniform pressure balance is increasingly difficult. For this reason, adjusting the displacement and inclination of the stacking machine molds to ensure a uniform pressure balance before sheet stacking, has become an issue of the highest priority.

Benefits

• Higher yield, higher quality, and higher precision
• Less time needed to analyze defects
• Less deviation between individual products

Use

Checking roller pressure uniformity when attaching the cover glass to touch panels or LCDs

Challenges

The diversification of products for touch panels (e.g., smart phones, tablet PCs, portable games, and car navigation systems) has increased the complexity of attaching materials such as hard cover glass onto panels. Since precision attachment is required between these hard materials, uneven pressure during the attachment process can cause air bubbles and other problems.

Benefits

• Quality loss prevention — Quality problems are easily detectable and output yield is improved
• Time loss prevention — Pressure uniformity can be quickly checked during design and maintenance

Use

Checking uniformity in a polisher

Challenges

In the manufacture of LCDs, cullets (glass shavings) may adhere to the panel surface during polishing of the panel edge. When a polarizing plate is mounted on a panel with cullets, air bubbles may form and the yield rate may deteriorate. To prevent this problem, a polisher and washer are used to form a smooth panel. However, since high pressure cannot be applied to the panel surface during polishing, it is very important to maintain sufficient, uniform pressure between the panel and the polishing sheet.

Benefits

• Quality loss prevention — Quality problems are easily detectable and output is improved
• Time loss prevention — Pressure uniformity can be quickly checked during design and maintenance

Use

Adjustment of calender roll pressure balance

Challenges

Calender rolls generally apply pressure using left and right cylinders. If the left-right pressure balance is poor, drift and quality problems occur. Also, nip rolls generally have crowns, change shape when nipping, and are designed to provide uniform nip pressure across the width. If the crown level and roll hardness are not appropriate for the pressure, defects and the rubber roll life can be reduced.

Benefits

• Material Savings — The occurrence of material loss (several hundred meters of paper loss, etc.) can be prevented when defects occur
• Time Savings — For roll exchange, etc., approximately half a day can be saved
• Quality Improvement — Defects can be prevented and yield can be increased

Use

Checking for wear on size press rubber rolls when changing paper sizes

Challenges

When switching from narrower to wider paper gauge: If there is even a slight amount of wear where the edges of the narrower size press rubber rolls touch, “striping” or other irregularities may occur when wider rolls are used. Up until now, such abnormalities could only be detected by checking the rolled paper after the papermaking process was started. In the worst situations, it has been necessary to perform repeated cycles of applicator roll polishing and test rolling to remedy such problems.

Benefits

• Material Savings — The occurrence of material loss (several hundred meters of paper loss, etc.) can be prevented when defects occur
• Time Savings — For roll exchange, etc., approximately half a day can be saved
• Quality Improvement — Defects can be prevented and yield can be increased

Use

Measurement of squeegee pressure distribution during cream solder printing

Challenges

When cream solder is screen printed onto print substrates, any nonuniformity in the squeegee pressure distribution will result in uneven application of the cream solder. This can result in inadequate conduction and insufficient adhesion during subsequent component mounting; and in abnormal conduction when there is excessive solder present.

Despite the importance of squeegee pressure distribution, there was previously no method available to measure it.

Benefits

• Material Savings — Without Prescale, there are substantial losses in components and substrates (since this is a final process)
• Time Savings — Without Prescale, applying cream solder uniformly is a time-consuming trial-and-error process
• Quality Improvement — Without Prescale, if problems are undetected poor quality products will be shipped

Use

Verifying backgrind tape lamination pressure uniformity in semiconductor production

Challenges

The process for laminating backgrind tape (protective film) precedes grinding. If the lamination roller pressure distribution is not uniform, the backgrind tape can become wrinkled. If the height of the wafer and the surrounding mounting table are not optimal, wafer cracking and poor backgrind tape lamination occurs. Previously, only trial and error adjustment methods had been available to prevent this.

Benefits

• Time Savings — Substantial improvements in equipment adjustment work efficiency
• Quality Improvement — The ability to verify pressure uniformity in advance reduces losses resulting from poor quality; Wafer cracking is eliminated

Use

Checking that press pressure of vacuum laminator is even during solar cell manufacturing

Challenges

In the manufacture of solar cells, modules are formed by cementing the cells to the glass substrate with a vacuum laminator. If the press pressure is not even when this is done, defects will occur, such as damage to cells or wrinkles in the protective film. Although it has been possible to measure vacuum pressure, until now there has not been a way to directly measure the pressure actually applied to the cell.

Benefits

• Material Savings — Without Prescale, large amounts of materials are wasted when abnormalities are found in final inspections
• Time Savings — Without Prescale, much time is wasted in making adjustments when abnormalities occur

Use

Checking pressure uniformity during heat fixing

Challenges

“Wafer bonding” is a process for creating devices by bonding together two (or more) wafers or substrates. In recent years the main method for doing this has been thermobonding. In this method, the precision of contact bonding is highly dependent on the applied pressure. Even with MEMS, if the pressure applied to bond the wafers or substrates is not constant, problems such as “defective sealing,” “uneven bonding strength,” and “pattern width unevenness” may occur.

Benefits

• Higher efficiency in designing thermobonding units
• Verification of thermobonding uniformity
• Faster, easier analysis if defects occur

Use

Verifying CMP head contact uniformity

Challenges

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) is a process for polishing the surface of silicon wafers. It involves mounting a silicon wafer parallel to an abrasive pad, rotating the wafer and pushing it against the abrasive pad along with a polishing slurry. High precision is necessary as the amount of polishing required is extremely small.

Previously, the contact uniformity of the silicon wafers and the abrasive pads had generally been controlled by examining the polishing results. Production would sometimes continue despite unresolved instances of poor polishing, and there were other issues including inadequate contact precision that frequently resulted in low quality.

Benefits

• Time Savings — Contact uniformity can be adjusted during the design stage, resulting in greatly improved design efficiency
• Quality Improvement — Contact uniformity can be periodically checked during maintenance, and at other times, thus facilitating stable production quality. Additionally, the variance between CMP units can be controlled

Use

Measurement of roll product winding pressure distribution

Challenges

If stress and/or stress distribution during winding is not appropriate, in addition to producing externally visible defects such as star defect and telescoping, quality breakdowns such as indentations and optical distortion defects can occur. Generally, the highest pressure occurs in the core area. Blocking and tapering readily occurs in this area and can result in the loss of several tens to several hundred meters of product. Here, although winding at a low tension level is desirable, winding drift and slack winding can occur if the tension is set too low. Rolls are normally wound while tension is increased gradually. However, until recently, no method was available that could determine whether tension conditions are optimal and it was difficult to comprehend and verify the reason behind a problem even if uneven winding, drifting and pressure concentration occurred.

Benefits

• Time Savings — Less time is required for adjusting tension when changing grades, and for the analysis of quality defects
• Quality Improvement — Reduction of material losses by reducing the winding loss length

NOTE: Fujifilm Prescale film is synonymous with pressure sensitive paper, tactile pressure indicating sensor film, pressure sensitive film, pressure paper, Fuji pressure film, Fuji paper, Fuji prescale film, prescale film, pressure sensitive tape, nip impression paper, nip paper.