East West Manufacturing goes with ASM’s SIPLACE SX
EMS provider East West Manufacturing (East West) has chosen ASM Assembly systems as the company's preferred equipment supplier for its Wisconsin facility.
Three high-flexibility SIPLACE SX machines preceded by a DEK NeoHorizon stencil printer form the foundation of East West’s inaugural ASM line. A second, two-station SIPLACE SX production line will be delivered this summer. Atlanta, Georgia-based East West is rapidly expanding its footprint domestically and internationally. The company’s Whitewater, Wisconsin operation, recently acquired from Universal Electronics, is a key site for the North American region, serving customers in the medical, industrial, communications and defense industries.
“We build just about everything here – from prototypes and NPI up to 5,000 piece orders – so, flexibility, efficiency and the highest quality are essential,” he says. “Several suppliers were evaluated and, ultimately, ASM emerged as the clear front-runner, as the equipment adaptability, open automation capability, software and programming, along with feeders, SPI technology and scalability simply delivered the most comprehensive solution,” says Nate Schwichtenberg, East West SMT Process Engineer, in a press release.
Initially securing a single SIPLACE SX platform, the company quickly had to scale up to accommodate increasing ventilator build volumes during the pandemic. East West’s single head SIPLACE SX was later upgraded, adding a second MultiStar placement head. Two additional SIPLACE SX2 machines and a ProcessLens SPI platform were installed shortly thereafter to form the current line. The ASM equipment’s speed, technology range and reliability allowed East West to eliminate four of its former nine SMT lines. Today, more than 70% of its SMT placements are managed on the SIPLACE SX platforms, with high-complexity assemblies verified on the ProcessLens.
