“Dark Factory” and “Lights out electronics assembly”?

In one of my recent posts I reported on my visit at CIG (Cambridge Industries Group), an ICT equipment manufacturer in Shanghai. During this visit CEO Gerald (Gerry) G. Wong described his vision of a Dark Factory. Shortly after that Ranko Vujosevic from Texas-based Optimal Electronics Corporation approached me and provided a brief summary on the status of what he calls “lights out electronics assembly”. In his paper originally prepared for SMTA South China 2017 he gives some very good insights on a number of technologies which are aiming at a smart SMT factory with less manual assistance and operators – but at the same time Ranko describes obstacles and a number of issues still not adressed by the equipment manufacturers. Parts of his article have recently been published in Circuit Assembly.

A “must read” in my opinion: Ranko-Vujosevic-Lights out electronics assembly – paper for SMTA-South-China-2017