Production facility
A look behind the scenes at the Vitus Audio production facility in Denmark
PCB production
Key to our ability to keep production of our components in-house is our PCB production facilities. When we say our components are handmade in Denmark, we really mean it. Our investment of over €700k in machinery means we not only design but also mount every device ourselves at our facility. This means we keep tight control over every aspect of the build ensuring the components delivered meet our strict quality control requirements and ensure a lifetime of audio experience to the end user.
Below we take you through a short tour of our PCB production facility and some of the machines that help us deliver the Vitus Audio products you love.
Essemtec Cubus – Component Storage
Component storage is handled by the Essemtec Cubus. This is an essential pice of the production line that keeps moisture out of our components while in storage – crucial for solder quality and component lifespan. The unit holds a low-humidity and pressure level. It also communicates directly with both the Essemtec ParaQuada (see below) for inventory on-the-fly and our ERP system creating purchases directly without any manual intervention.
Essemtec Fino – Screen Printer
The Essemtec Fino adds solder paste to our PCBs. This is an important part of the process as if solder is not placed in exactly the right position and with a precise amount, everything that follows will suffer in quality. The machine includes two inbuilt electronic microscopes plus a laser marker to ensure precision.
Essemtec Paraquda – Pick and Place Machine
The Paraquda is our pick and place machine taking components from their wheels or trays and playing them with micro precision on our PCBs. It has a precision that allows it to place component sizes down to 01005, a leg pitch sub-0.4 and large components with a maximum size of 80mm x 70mm with a height of 25mm. It works both as a fine pitch and an odd-shape placer.
Although not the fastest machine with an average of 6500 components per hour, we are focused much more on precision than speed and this machine fits that brief perfectly.
The machine can hold up to 240 different 8mm component wheels at a time which drastically reduces set up time between different boards.
Asscon VP-1000-64 – Soldering machine
A key aspect of the construction of our boards is the soldering process. Many manufacturers use reflow soldering to solder SMD components due to its speed. However, we use vapour soldering, more commonly used in the aerospace, medical and automotive industries. This process is slower, but the result is a much higher quality solder. We also use many large and small components on high density boards and this method of soldering removes the problem of the shadow effect and vastly lowers the amount of “tombstones” – different heat transfer to one side of a component causing it to get lifted on one side.
Ersa Versaflow 3 – Selective Soldering Machine
Used to solder all through-hole (leaded) components in our boards. This is a soldering machine that is slow but deliberate. Soldering each component leg gives a much higher quality finish.
Our machine comes with a top-loaded heater to increase solder flow towards the top of the PCB along with two separate solder vessels which allows us to solder with both a fine pitch nozzle and a large nozzle for increased heat transfer, wherever needed.
Omron AOI – Optical QC machine
The Omron AOI is a best in class Optical Quality Control machine used to analyse our PCBs after production and before installation. It takes a massive number of images and analyses each component for;
- Quality of soldering
- Component orientation
- Correct Placement
- Correct value
- Correct component
- Short circuits
The machine stores a full data report for each board on a server and these can be used in the rare case of a board failure. Integrated with our ERP system, we have full traceability.
Units in production
Here are a few shots from our factory showing units at varying stages of completion. As you can see, there’s plenty in production.
All work and no play…
Finally, a sneak peek at our breakout room containing a full band rig including mixer rack, guitar amp (tubes – blackstar) digital bass rig (TC Electronics) and more, a pool table and a golf simulator. Even designers of the finest audio equipment need some down time!
