Techmezine met with Sandeep Vaidya ,Country Manager,Hitachi High-Tech India Pvt Ltd, in which he discusses Hitachi’s Electronics solution, XRF products that were showcased at Productronica India 2021 .Excerpts from the interview.
Techmezine: Can you please share an overview of Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science?
Hitachi: Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science is a global company within the Hitachi High-Tech Group. The company is headquartered in Oxford, UK, with R&D and assembly operations in Finland,Germany, China, USA and sales and support operations in a number of countries around the world through direct and distributor channels. Since many years we’re helping thousands of businesses streamline their costs, minimize risk, and increase production efficiency. Our range of laboratory-based and robust high-performance in-field testing instruments deliver materials composition and coatings analysis results that adds value throughout the production lifecycle from raw material exploration to incoming inspection, production, and quality control to recycling in a wide range of markets from high-end electronics’ manufacturers, automotive supply chains to scrap metal recyclers. Our instrumentation includes X-ray fluorescence XRF analyzers, laser induced spectrometers (LIBS), optical emission spectrometers (OES) and Thermal Analyzers (TA).
Hitachi High-Tech India has presence in major cities across India either directly or through our distributor network with headquarters at Gurgaon New Delhi and sales/service and a demonstration centre in Mumbai. Our team in India has extensive experience in sales, applications, and service to support our customers across India and nearby south Asian countries. We also have a small customer demonstration lab equipped with our latest technology. Our local logistics warehousing facility is stocked with instruments, spare parts and consumables to ensure we render support in a timely manner. We have dedicated team of sales, service and application teams supporting our end customers and our various channel partners.
Techmezine: Please describe the technical development you have recently completed for the Electronics market?
Hitachi: Hitachi High-Technologies offers a wide range of analysers and tools to cater to the critical measurement demands in markets like automotive, aerospace, communications and consumer devices where reliability and accuracy in production and quality control are paramount for safety and reliability. The new FT160 coatings analyser has been custom designed to meet the challenges of measuring micro spot and ultra-thin coatings on small features typically used in smart phones or tablets manufacturing to high end electronics applications. The FT160 is a benchtop EDXRF (energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence) analysers with powerful software and hardware created to deliver high sample throughput with quality results achieved by any operator. Designed to play a key role in production quality control, the FT160 series measures a wide range of applications in the semiconductor, circuit board, micro connectors, and electronics components markets.
After successful experience of offering our EA1000 series ROHS analysers now we are happy to introduce the EA1400 benchtop XRF analysers for RoHS screening which is designed to play a key role in manufacturing facilities and has been developed to meet the latest directives. The EA1400 uses superior detection technology coupled with innovative X-ray optics designed for rapid screening of RoHS substances helping customers to carry out the screening required to speed up and simplify RoHS testing in production environments and comply to the regulations.
Techmezine: What are the XRF products that were showcased at Productronica 2021?
Hitachi: We showcased our range of electronics coatings and RoHS XRF analysers – FT160 for microspot analysis in miniaturized electronics, X-Strata920 for samples of any shape, FT110A for larger samples, EA1400 for high throughput RoHS analysis and handheld X-MET8000 for on-site coatings analysis and regulatory screening.
Techmezine: Please introduce Benchtop microspot, XRF analyzers and its application focus?
Hitachi: Given the critical role of electronics in demanding markets – automotive, aerospace,communications, and consumer devices – reliability and accuracy in production and quality control are paramount for safety. Our benchtop micro spot XRF analysers are widely used these industries.
They help in controlling the finishing processes, determine the pitch, reliability, and shelf life of electronic circuit boards, micro connector coatings and help in regulatory compliance by measuring the elements of RoHS compliance measurements which is key for criteria in export and local markets. Measure electroless nickel (EN, NiP) plating thickness and composition according to IPC- 4556 and IPC-4552B. Hitachi High-Tech Micro XRF products enable you to maintain your operations in tight tolerance to ensure high quality and avoid costly re-work. Working with a complex, global supply chain it is critical to trust and verify materials received from suppliers. Use our XRF technology to validate incoming shipments comply with regulations such as RoHS and ELV following IEC 62321 methodology and ensure high reliability coatings and compliance measurements.
Techmezine: Please introduce Handheld XRF analyzer and its application focus?
Hitachi: In addition to our benchtop analyzers, the handheld X-MET Series XRF analyzer provides rapid and non-destructive screening for many regulatory directives, including RoHS, CPSIA, ELV and EN71-3. This is an ideal tool for screening since it is fully portable, delivers quick results and simple to use. Handheld XRF analysers extend the flexibility of point and shoot of samples including samples with larger physical dimensions which cannot be measured on benchtop XRF systems. Our X-MET Series requires minimal user training without requiring typical laboratory environments and can be used for alloy composition and coating thickness measurements.
Techmezine: What was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic On Hitachi High-Tech’s business?
Hitachi: We leveraged Hitachi’s strong IT and systems infrastructure to the maximum to minimize the pandemic impact on our and our customers’ operations. This was especially important given the role many of our customers play in critical industries. Demand for our quality control support increased as supply chain challenges meant manufacturers needed to assure material quality from new and alternative sources. We ensured business continuity by serving our customers using all possible digital tools and now, almost two years since the pandemic struck, we have emerged as a much stronger organisation in terms of customer focus but at the same time ensuring the safety and wellness of internal and external stakeholders of our business.
COVID-19 changed the perspective of supporting the customer, adding value to their operations through latest and modern digital methods and platforms. Covid-19 only accelerated the digitalization trend and has highlighted the importance to businesses of all sizes being able to access critical information in real time from anywhere. As we work with our customers to integrate smart analytical tools fully into their operations, we see developing digitalised processes a key area of advantage we can offer Indian manufacturing.
During this period there were also initiatives from Government of India like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for various business segments and industries. One of these schemes pertaining to electronics goods manufacturing, has boosted manufacturing in India and has helped us achieve a significant growth in this segment year on year. Hitachi High-Tech India Pvt Ltd is committed to serving the electronics manufacturing market with advanced technologies that will support this industry in manufacturing high-end and compliant products for domestic consumption as well as exports, putting India in a strong position to become a global telecom manufacturing hub. At the same time we are also expanding our support into other segments of increasing importance,such as special steels, solar, EV and battery manufacturing, supporting society’s move into sustainable future.
