IKEUCHI × The D-Code
Ethan Shipp of IKEUCHI USA, "The Fog Engineers", sat down with Sean, Elias and Daniel to talk about the most overlooked variable on an SMT line: humidity. Dry air at the printer, parts jumping out of the tape, and how a fog can be dry.
The promo
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Dry fog, explained by the people who make it
Why dry shop air ruins paste release at the screen printer, why 0201 parts start jumping out of the feeder tape in winter, and how AKIMist droplets add humidity without wetting anything.
Elias put it simply: "What you guys are doing is so important, and it's too often overlooked."
AKIMist "E" droplets average 7.5 microns, about a tenth the width of a human hair. Droplets that small bounce off surfaces instead of bursting on them, so nothing gets wet.
The interview
Watch on YouTube ↗
Ethan Shipp on environment stability and reliability
The whole booth conversation: summer vs winter humidity swings (50% down to 14%), static at the pick and place, treating a whole facility or a single line as its own microclimate, and IKEUCHI trials before you commit.
Quotes
"Hold up my laptop at about three feet. Pull it down and there's absolutely no moisture on there whatsoever."Ethan Shipp · 02:30
"The performance at the screen printer would totally drop off without that environmental control."Daniel Stanphill · 04:35
"You either refer to it as a green egg or a grenade."Ethan Shipp on the nozzle · 11:10
Five Shorts, one a day
- Is dry fog actually DRY?The droplet-size answer in 41 seconds.
- "The stencil quit working"What dry air does at the printer.
- Green egg or grenade?The nozzle, and what it does.
- Dry air changes your dry timesSummer vs winter on the line.
- Try dry fog before you buy itHow IKEUCHI trials work.
IKEUCHI USA
- Known as"The Fog Engineers"
- MakesAKIMist dry fog humidification for electronics manufacturing, ESD control and paste printing
- GuestEthan Shipp