EMMS

MULTI VENDOR MACHINE PROGRAMMING SYSTEM (SMT and THROUGH-HOLE)

Without EMMS MVMP, the programs for the auto-mount machines would probably be made using the tools that are supplied with the machine. In some cases, this is enough for a manufacturing operation. These tools will however always be limited, since the machine vendors wish to limit their service to that of the machines, and do not normally wish to be involved in other issues relating to the overall manufacturing process. Typically, the design data interfaces are limited, and rely on manual intervention on the machines in order to make corrections.

There is normally no integration of useful information for quality of materials. For most software of this type, there is no provision to mix vendors in the same line. To make programs for a line of machines consisting of different vendors’ machines, it is necessary to manually divide the data up before inputting it into each machines’ software. This leads to difficulties in balancing the programs effectively. It also means that for each of the different vendors, a whole additional set of skills and training in how to use the tools has to be maintained. Data libraries for the machines have to be maintained in parallel. Typically this leads to many teams required for programming, a huge increase in the engineering manpower required, and a huge increase in the time

it takes to make all of the required programs.

The documentation from each set of tools is also non-standard, and therefore an additional documentation system is required. This all adds complexity and expense.

With EMMS, the (MVMP) module makes machine programs for a wide range of mounting and through-hole machines, providing built-in multi-vendor line-balancing and optimisation.

The user-interface, procedures and documentation that EMMS makes is completely the same no matter what machines are used. This results to the elimination of duplicate effort and skill requirements, resulting in hugely reduced costs and lead-time for the programming operation. There are other products on the market which claim to offer the same features. Some of these however do not properly implement this - they simply convert the outputs in to formats which other machine types can understands, which inevitably leads to reduced efficiency.

EMMS on the other hand has a precise and dedicated support features for each individual type of machines. This means that EMMS can make the highest possible programs, and take advantage of all of the possible features that the machine has. In many cases, the result of the use of the MVMP can increase the efficiency of the machine programs by up to 20%. EMMS also acts as a "library master" - the libraries of physical parts data is kept inside EMMS in a neutral format. The parts libraries for each machine are then generated directly from EMMS. This means that only one instance of the data needs to be maintained. EMMS has also been designed to run extremely fast. Programs typically can be created in seconds; whereas some of our competitors’ systems can take many hours to achieve a result.

One of the visually impressive features of EMMS MVMP is the display in the Programming session of the drawing of what the completed board will look like. EMMS is able to scan a background of the actual circuit board, and draw on top of this in a very realistic and precise manner. This drawing is done using the exact data that will be used in the program to the machine, and so effectively what you see on the screen is what the machine "sees" and what the machine makes. Using EMMS, it is easy to be able to visually check and correct for design data abnormalities such as position and rotational errors.