NPI in a High-Tech environment: SpaceLab and Essemtec

Founded in 2014, SpaceLab has gained significant experience in special works in electronics. SpaceLab and its team are specialized in electronic assembly in multiple industries, especially in Aerospace.

SpaceLab offers design, development, and implementation of highly reliable electronic systems (hardware and software) in the aerospace, aeronautics, medical, technical and scientific fields, as well as in inspection of electronic assemblies. To secure the technical advantage also in the SMT production, SpaceLab invested in a Essemtec All-in-One PUMA solution.

SpaceLab strives to provide the best solutions to its customers and is continuously looking for the best manufacturing processes and equipment. Part of this philosophy is to qualify state-of-the-art technology to meet the current and future market challenges.

To fulfill customer projects requirements, SpaceLab has also invested into a clean-room facility to comply with the high standards of cleanliness. In addition to the clean-room infrastructure investment, Spacelab’s strategy is to invest into best-in-class equipment to ensure high standards of quality when it comes to electronic board production.

Recently, SpaceLab embarked on a project to look for alternative technologies for dispensing and component placement. SpaceLab requirements have been all about the capability to address New Product Introduction (NPI) with the ideal time-to-market response as well as the capability to change job within the shortest period of time. Several technology providers were engaged, and this included a thorough evaluation of the available Essemtec solutions.

Following this evaluation, the PUMA system by Essemtec AG was selected as the best “All-in-One” solution to address SpaceLab challenges, as well as provide the best components placement capability. Not only did the platform provide the accuracy/repeatability that SpaceLab required, but also the integrated dispensing, powerful software, and process expertise at Essemtec were instrumental in meeting the Aerospace and Defense specifications of the SpaceLab offerings. SpaceLab realizes that Essemtec solutions are best suited to deal with the NPI and high-mix, low-volume requirements that SpaceLab faces every day.

Following several months of utilization of PUMA utilization, SpaceLab is fully satisfied with the system capabilities, especially the solder paste jet printing as well as the service and support provided by the Essemtec team.

The PUMA All-in-One solution has resulted in higher yields, lower cycle times, and smaller footprint over previous solutions which SpaceLab had before.

Picture: (From left to right) SpaceLab Team Paulo, David, Luís, Bruno and Carina in front of the Puma (clean room)

SpaceLab is now equipped with best-in-class solutions from Essemtec to support the growth enabling strong commitments in the Defense and Space Manufacturing market.

Testimonial:
“We are very satisfied with PUMA. It is fast, accurate and flexible, everything we need to complete our projects. We are also very happy with Essemtec and the support they provided. They listen to our challenges and recommendations. In just a few months they implemented small software changes to make the PUMA fit our way of working."

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About SpaceLab:
Founded in 2014, SpaceLab was started by Bruno Couto. Over the years, SpaceLab has grown and become more efficient. We work with customers in Europe, Asia and USA. Our mission is to help our customers complete their projects on time with respect to the required quality.

Our certifications are ECSS-Q-ST-70-08, ECSS-Q-ST-70-26, ECSS-Q-ST-70-28, ECSS-Q-ST-70-38 and IPC-A-610, IPC/WHA-A-620.