Solder Paste Monitoring
The Solder Paste Monitoring process is used to monitor the thawing and usage of solder paste material. The process starts when the material is put from the deep freeze cabinet to the thawing position. A connected printer prints a label indicating the time during which the material can be used in production. While the material is thawing, the use of this material in production is prevented by blocking the material with the BlockingReason MaterialNotReleasedForManufacturing. The existence of the block is checked every 2 minutes. If the block is missing, it is recreated automatically. Once the material has been thawed, it can be placed on a machine and used in production for a period of time controlled by parameters. After exceeding the timeframe, the material is blocked.
Solder Paste Monitoring modifies the expiration date of the material to the date when the material is expected to expire due to the stability time. |
Standard case timeline
The following image shows the standard flow over time of a Solder Paste Monitoring process when the stability time is lower than the time until the material would expire due to its normal expiration date.
States
State name | Description | Start state | End state |
---|---|---|---|
In Thawing Position |
The material has been moved to the thawing position. If the current expiration date is higher than the stability time of the material, the expiration date is set to the current date + stability time. A new MaterialNotReleasedForManufacturing block is created for the material. The material is set up to the location of the thawing position with the StationInfo set to the scanned position (SetupStatus: Setup). The material then changes to the Thawing state automatically. |
X |
|
Thawing |
The material is thawing and cannot be moved back to the freezer anymore. Every two minutes the system checks if the MaterialNotReleasedForManufacturing block still exists. If it is missing, the block is recreated automatically. The material remains in this state until the Thawing Time has passed. |
||
Ready For Manufacturing |
Thawing has finished and the material can be used in production. Any existing MaterialNotReleasedForManufacturing blocks on the material are removed. |
||
In Production |
The material has been set up to a machine. The location of the monitoring entry will be set to the current location of the material, and the position of the monitoring entry will be set to the Station Info of the material. This represents the location where the material has actually been set up for production. |
||
Expired |
The stability time has been exceeded, the material is considered expired and has been blocked with the BlockingReason Expired. |
X |
|
This state is only used to show the printing attempts in the history of the Monitoring Details Page. During the Solder Paste Monitoring process, the material never enters the state Print. |
Entering the state In Production
It is recommended to have the state transition to In Production be performed via DDL whenever the material is set up to a machine. If this is not possible, it can also be triggered manually by scanning a location. Therefore, a Monitoring Location Definition with target state In Production must be configured and the configured location must be scanned. The material then changes its state from Ready For Manufacturing to In Production.
If the user has MaterialManagement Expert
or MaterialManagement Administrator
role, the user can trigger this transition from the web user interface in the Monitoring Details Page using the Fire Event.
Printing the label
When the material starts thawing, a label is printed on the configured label printer (Zebra printer). If the printing fails, it will be retried automatically two times with a delay of one minute. Printing attempts will be displayed in the Monitoring Details Page of the material with the state Print. The state Print is only used for history entries.
If Printer Setting is not configured for this process in the Monitoring Process Definition, the label printing is skipped. To configure a printer, refer to the Printer Settings and Printer Templates.
The printing process sends an asynchronous command to the printer. This means that if the printer encounters an error, the printing command will not fail. As a result, the application will not be able to provide information regarding any issues with the printer or with the result of the printing command. The label printing process using the example template file on this page, was verified with a 'Zebra ZT610' label printer. |
Printer template variables
The following template variables (placeholders) are available to insert values from the Solder Paste Monitoring process into a template file:
Template variable | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
{MatId} |
Material Id of the material that is monitored |
0000002262SFRCC003V1AA1 |
{StartYear} |
4 digit year when the material starts becoming usable for production |
2025 |
{StartMonth} |
Localized short name of the month when the material starts becoming usable for production |
Mar |
{StartMonth2Digit} |
2 digit month when the material starts becoming usable for production |
03 |
{StartDay} |
2 digit day when the material starts becoming usable for production |
08 |
{StartTime} |
Hours and minutes in 24h format when the material starts becoming usable for production |
13:18 |
{StartTimeShortPattern} |
Localized short time (hours and minutes) when the material starts becoming usable for production |
1:18 PM |
{EndYear} |
4 digit year when the material ends being usable for production |
2025 |
{EndMonth} |
Localized short name of the month when the material ends being usable for production |
Nov |
{EndMonth2Digit} |
2 digit month when the material ends being usable for production |
11 |
{EndDay} |
2 digit day when the material ends being usable for production |
13 |
{EndTime} |
Hours and Minutes in 24h format when the material ends being usable for production |
07:23 |
{EndTimeShortPattern} |
Localized short time (hours and minutes) when the material ends being usable for production |
7:23 AM |
Example Template File
Example printer template file for Solder Paste Monitoring
CT~~CD,~CC^~CT~
^XA~TA000~JSN^LT0^MNW^MTD^PON^PMN^LH0,0^JMA^PR6,6~SD15^JUS^LRN^CI0^XZ
^XA
^MMT
^PW600
^LL0300
^LS0
^FO512,96^GFA,01152,01152,00012,:Z64:
eJxjYBiagP//Bzhb/v8PONv+/x84u4bBDs6uYJCDshj/g0ADmM0MZh/Azz4AI4hkE2EmshsYbECAYRiyoXgosUGJpALKlgdGESxh8QPZsATHDI/GUUAxAABVDmOp:1949
^FO0,96^GFA,01152,01152,00012,:Z64:
eJztkj0KwzAMhRUyeItvUF8kONfqEBodzUfJEVK6eCi4fpH8k7lToQLDh7GeHs8i+tVajopjSpVtSqE9aY8SjW/FIRI9lM1O5FhbgxyUg+wu7Due0aOid/REYVy5ubEXHtC23oQhHSdxnHk4rDBD3oidzCYYLmxZ+bQ0VvbKUFhPNeGoPEFeJoKz+8omNLbc2FFjX9hCvunHwgby1Q/CUeYsT8W/5cIjO3UOBa9uMWWViWdWyFKyouehYed67Y23oMHnWljDJvmvM2y6/l3/p7hzgpcd6HeDlrjVnel3qd+xfvf+9VV9AKPxVAY=:BA64
^FO256,96^GFA,01152,01152,00012,:Z64:
eJxjYBgF9AMCSGwLJHYNEtsOiS2PxOZvQLDZDyDYzA8QbMYPSBp+gEn7/yDwB4n9Dwf7D4ZeDDOR7UJ2A7LbkN2M7BdkPyL7HTlMRsFIAwC6hyNj:8F58
^FO103,36^GB0,190,3^FS
^FO506,34^GB0,186,3^FS
^FO105,34^GB405,0,3^FS
^FT334,103^A0N,42,40^FH\^FD{EndYear}^FS
^FT334,155^A0N,42,40^FH\^FD{EndDay}.{EndMonth}^FS
^FT334,207^A0N,42,40^FH\^FD{EndTime}^FS
^FT113,105^A0N,42,40^FH\^FD{StartYear}^FS
^FT113,157^A0N,42,40^FH\^FD{StartDay}.{StartMonth}^FS
^FT113,209^A0N,42,40^FH\^FD{StartTime}^FS
^FO4,221^GB101,0,5^FS
^FO508,216^GB81,0,5^FS
^FT30,280^A0N,42,40^FH\^FD{MatId}^FS
^PQ1,0,1,Y^XZ
Reprinting the label manually
If the printed label has been lost or damaged or was not printed successfully, the label can be reprinted manually by clicking in the Monitoring Details Page. The label can only be reprinted, while the process is still running and has not entered an end state.
Used process definition parameters
Parameter | Possible values | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Thawing Time |
Any time span |
Mandatory |
Sets the time how long the material needs to thaw before it can be used in production. |
Stability Time |
> Thawing Time |
Mandatory |
Sets the time how long the material can be used in the production after moving it to the thawing position. |
Minimum Supply Time |
Any time span |
Mandatory |
A minimum time the material has to be available (not expired) during the process. The time counts after moving the material to the thawing position. When starting the Solder Paste Monitoring process, the material expiration is calculated. If it expires earlier than the Minimum Supply Time, the process will not start thawing the material, but instead abort with an error and end in the state Aborted. |
Printer Setting |
Any existing Printer Setting |
Optional |
Sets which printer should be used for printing the label. If no printer setting is set, no label will be printed. If a Printer Setting is set, a Printer Template must also be set. |
Printer Template |
Any existing Printer Template |
Optional |
Defines the content and format of the printed label and the timezone and language in which dates and times are printed on the label. If a Printer Template is set, a Printer Setting must also be set. |