Zollner: Learning soldering technology from scratch

Here, Zollner benefits from its great commitment as a training company, having regularly been able to secure some of the specialists required for the future from its pool of trainees and apprentices for many years – around 80 apprentices complete their training at Zollner every year and are generally given a regular employment contract after they have successfully completed their courses. Over the years, more than 1,600 young people have done an apprenticeship at the company, which in almost all cases then became the first step on their career ladder.

But simply training young people is not enough. Zollner knows this – and provides training for its other employees as well. A first Zollner training centre was set up at the main site in 2005, where specialists were trained in manual soldering. The idea behind this was to ensure all the soldering specialists had undergone identical groundwork training. Now, training in this area covers AVLE module 1 (basics and THT training) and 2 (SMT basic training). AVLE is the abbreviation for “Ausbildungsverbund Löttechnik Elektronik”, a vocational training association for soldering and electronic engineering, in which companies from electronics production, machine and device manufacturers as well as research & development have got together  with the aim of improving quality, reliability and reproducibility of manual soldering results. The AVLE was founded by the companies RAFI, Hannusch, Zollner and Ersa, the training is open to all those interested. Wherever AVLE modules are used, high-quality training documents, professionally equipped facilities and qualified trainers from the industry provide all participants with important background information combined with practical skills.

Despite the high degree of professionalism, the manual soldering training at Zollner is not a commercial enterprise, the target group is the company’s own employees. The qualification as a soldering technology expert is designed to take four weeks – one week for the AVLE part, followed by three compact weeks with IPC-certified training, process instructions, SAP, how to deal with faults and other practical work.

“Three years ago we moved our training centre to Altenmarkt, where we now have more than 600 square metres of floor space available. In addition to the infrastructure for the manual soldering training courses, we had space for a technology centre there too. Step by step we have built up a machine park on the premises that maps the Zollner business and will carry the company into  the future to a certain extent.

To deal with all contingencies and types of soldering, we have SMD placement lines located here, a reflow oven, coating line, laser panels, AOI system, a VERSAPRINT stencil printer with completely integrated 3D inspection, SPI and, added just a few months ago, a VERSAFLOW 4/55 – the latest generation of the Ersa high-end selective soldering line of which we have numerous models in use,” says Christian Groitl, process expert at the training centre and a member of the company for 16 years. It was no coincidence that Ersa was chosen for selective soldering in the training centre – Zollner wants no less than the best technology and puts its faith in continuity in business relationships as well.

The successful cooperation between Zollner and Ersa started more than 30 years ago – during this period more than 60 soldering machines were delivered to Zollner for a wide range of different requirements. “Like the real systems for the production line, the VERSAFLOW 4/55 at the Zollner training centre is equipped with all the important features: spray droplet measurement, automatic width adjustment of the spray heads, pots, a decent pre-heating section combined with radiation and convection – partly due to the aspect that the system has to be able to prove itself in day-today business on a real production line.

To avoid retrofitting, for instance, and for maximum flexibility, such as in the simulation of every aspect of complex products or the connection to MES. To make the processes visible, the training centre machine has Perspex panels,” explains Ersa Sales Area Manager Radek Lauer, who has been responsible for business with Zollner for many years.

The standard doors have been delivered as well, just in case. Because it wouldn’t be the first time that a line that had actually been ordered for the training centre was required more urgently for series production – in the case on hand, the machine had been set up in Germany for just a week when it was shipped at short notice to Costa Rica, where Zollner opened a new site at the beginning of 2015.

“Since the move to Altenmarkt, all kinds of training can be carried out on larger soldering machines and systems, from IPC, RFID, evaluation, special training or tests – with a major advantage that is worth hard cash: this all takes place independently of series production, which always had to be stopped for such tests or similar projects in the past – even if it was only for a very short time.

But a machine in series production that is not producing will always be classified as critical from the production management’s point of view. Whether it’s installing software updates, linking up for traceability, or dealing with difficult boards in the format 620 x 502 mm, for example – what interferes with series production is welcomed here and is put through its paces down to the last detail in a real test environment, prototypes and samples are produced, evaluated, with feedback used for series production.

Parallel to the manual soldering training events, internal SMT trainers have been trained at Zollner since 2014 according to the train-the-trainer principle. “We choose employees from different manufacturing areas who are particularly good at instructing others – we are talking about a group of eight or nine people. With these, we put together training documents that are used for familiarising new colleagues with their work,” Christian Groitl explains. A new employee in SMD production is thus taught the work and workflows in a structured way within three months – within which milestones and tests  monitor whether the necessary know-how has been acquired. The objective is to enable new colleagues to work at Zollner level as quickly as possible with as little effort and expenditure as possible. The new colleagues have a mentor at the production line to help them at the production line at first. Then they work alone for one or two days to consolidate what they have learnt. After that, they move on to tasks on the next higher level.