Ultra-high precision manufacture is second nature to the
Apic Yamada Corporation of Japan as it is a major supplier to the
electronics and optical industries worldwide. Located in the Nagano
prefecture - known as the 'Switzerland' of Japan because of the
area's focus on precision industry - the company, established in
1950, produces mould dies and leadframes for a wide range of
semiconductor devices.
Since first starting making mould dies in Japan in 1969, they
began leadframe production in 1971 and further expanded their
specialist capability into the production of moulding equipment in
1972 which became fully-automated in 1981.
Mr. Tadashi Kondo, Vice-President - "We are proud of our
craftsmanship."
Throughout its 50+ year history, this important Japanese
Corporation has pursued ever greater technological sophistication
and expansion - from the manufacture of leadframes, vital
semiconductor component parts, and the development of semiconductor
assembly and processing equipment, through to the creation of
automated systems for semiconductor production.
This vertical integration includes their leading semiconductor
resin-sealing equipment which now accounts for a third of their
sales and the dies they produce for use on this equipment are
required to be of the very highest precision. The increasing
complexity of semiconductor design and its miniaturisation has
fuelled Apic Yamada's requirement for the highest degree of
repeatable accuracy from their production processes.
"This has become increasingly important for us as the challenges
from our customers - from prototyping to full production - have
become even greater," explained Vice-President, Mr. Tadashi Kondo.
"We are proud of our craftsmanship and the skill of our workforce
and, with the help of System 3R tooling, we are able to produce
high-quality dies that cannot be made by other firms in Japan."
VDP - tool life has doubled, surface roughness has been
improved and machining time has been halved
Macro tooling was first installed when they moved from manual
die-sink EDM operation to more automated equipment. "We are
grateful for the recommendation of System 3R that we received from
the machine supplier, which gave us the repeatable accuracy that we
were looking for," said Supervisor, Mr. Takashi Katayama. "It
proved so successful that we also use Macro on our
ultra-precision and surface grinders."
As with all global suppliers there is a constant need to look at
costs and competitiveness and the next stage of palletisation was a
logical move for the Company. This programme was led by Mr. Yoshio
Watanabe, Production Engineering Manager, who had the confidence in
System 3R when shown initial prototypes of the Vibration-Damped
pallets to put them to the test.
They proved so successful that Apic Yamada were one of the first
customers worldwide for MacroMagnum VDP pallets. "As a result of
using VDP, tool life has doubled compared with conventional vices,
surface roughness has been improved and machining time has been
halved," said Mr. Katayama.
Once again, System 3R has shown the effectiveness of the 'One
System Partner' approach to enhanced productivity and, like Apic
Yamada, is contributing to more efficient manufacturing
environments around the world.
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Related links:
VDP-Vibration Damped
Palletisation