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Ekra E5 question

Ekra E5 question

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Since our process engineer took off for allegedly greener pa... - Jul 26, 2019 by Steve Thomas

Hi Steve. Just came across your post. We are in the same boa... - Mar 22, 2020 by kumarb

Unfortunately I didn't do the work...I just requested it fro... - Mar 23, 2020 by Steve Thomas

Hello, You can also use SD 218 -40 from HEP This is the Pa... - Apr 09, 2020 by Thomas

Thank you for the replies. Neither the analog dimmable balla... - Apr 09, 2020 by kumarb

Hallo, Die Reinigung der E5 Drucker funktioniert wenn sie r... - Apr 09, 2020 by Thomas

Steve Thomas

#83085

Ekra E5 question | 26 July, 2019

Since our process engineer took off for allegedly greener pastures I've taken it upon myself to provide whatever assistance I can with the process side. In this case I'm trying to get the "2 1/2D" inspection up and running. They've never used it here in years of nursing these old beasts along and we need to.

My question is with respect to the side lighting inside the printer. The right side fixture doesn't light up during any phase of the process (or even when we open the door) including learning the stencil, learning paste, and the actual PCBA or stencil inspection steps. It's this way on all of our machines.

We've replaced the ballast on one machine along with both bulbs (and swapped the bulbs from left to right and back again to verify that they work) and still no dice.

Is this normal, or do we have issues? Didn't check, but maybe it's just the fixture contacts?

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kumarb

#84686

Ekra E5 question | 22 March, 2020

Hi Steve. Just came across your post. We are in the same boat with our Ekra X4 printer. Any resolution on your side? We have been attempting to track down a fresh ballast but the original (OSRAM HF 2x36 dimmable with 0-10V) is EOL and no where to be found.

May we ask:

a) which ballast did you replace yours with? b) which bulbs did you buy to replace the machine bulbs?

From our last review, we used Philips T8 with the 4 prong socket x 2 fresh units. After this surgery, the bulbs worked for about 30 minutes and now no longer. Our machine has less than 48 hours of ontime so very upset with the quality of this printer. Has sat around for years idle. We recently replaced the blue / black hose due to dry rot - that was fun and now the machine is very quiet and appears to be working well except for the lights. About to order a replacement generic ballast from Aliexpress and then will rewire the bulbs to test out this idea.

We paid extra for the stencil wiper - what a poor design - found some leaked stencil cleaner on our PC that was eating away at the paint on the Dell tower in the back. Every time we would attempt to clean the stencil, the stencil was a wet mess. How can solder paste even be printed onto the PCB when it is so wet. Not impressed at all. Next purchase will not be an Ekra.

BTW - Do back up your hard disk with a bit copier - ideally SSD as the s/w is keyed to your PC. Will be a pain to restore unless you know what secret registry keys are being hidden in Windows.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

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Steve Thomas

#84690

Ekra E5 question | 23 March, 2020

Unfortunately I didn't do the work...I just requested it from maintenance.

I think the E5's were really a completely different beast than an E4, but I've never used an E4 so really don't have any experience. I purchased 3 E5's when new for a previous employer and we love them for what they did for us at the time (~ 20 years ago they were awesome for the technology we were building at the time).

They're ancient by today's standards and E4's even more so from what I can recall. A machine that old probably has all kinds of stuck solenoids, rotten hoses, etc., that could cause your understencil wet-wipe to malfunction, regardless of how many hours it has.

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Thomas

#84758

Ekra E5 question | 9 April, 2020

Hello, You can also use SD 218 -40 from HEP This is the Part who EKRA Company used After EOL from the HF The EKRA-Part.Nr. Is 5340000133 Its to use for 2x T8 , 18 , 25 36 W Or if you find Dome Times EKRA has used Quicktronic del Luxe HF36 for 2x 36 W

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kumarb

#84759

Ekra E5 question | 9 April, 2020

Thank you for the replies. Neither the analog dimmable ballast (1-10V) nor the dimmable T5 2G11 socket bulbs have been fun to source. After countless hours of searching, believe that the Ebay listing here (Philips) is compatible:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Philips-T8-HF-R-236-TLD-2-x-36w-220-240V-Dimmable-electronic-Ballast-/173847824605

A very nice vendor in Germany (I believe) watt24.com replied with details of a Helvar ballast which also looks suitable. However the ship rate from Germany to Canada was extremely high so we decided with the Ebay purchase instead.

They suggested Helvar p/n EL2X36sc 220-240V 50-60 Hz 840

as a valid replacement for the analog dimmable ballast.

We have the Philips ballast now on order and the vendor is also supplying the 2 x OSRAM dimmable bulbs that are the same as supplied with the machine along with 2G11 sockets for out of system testing.

Really strange that the machine which has close no hours on it would stop working with respect to the lights. From our understanding, the lighting is only for our solder paste visual inspection and not required by the machine cameras.

Thanks again.

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Thomas

#84760

Ekra E5 question | 9 April, 2020

Hallo, Die Reinigung der E5 Drucker funktioniert wenn sie richtig eingestellt ist. Dazu gehören folgende Positionen: 1.Es sollte die richtige Dosiernadel verwendet werden. Farbe: Grün mit Metall oder pink komplett Plastik. 2. die Durchflussmenge muss am Rändelrad des Dosierventils eingestellt werden. 3. Die Rutschkupplung für die Reinigungsrolle muss richtig eingestellt werden. 4. die Rändelschrauben für die Reinigungsrollen müssen sehr fest angezogen sein. 5. Das Potentiometer mit dem Taster für die Dicke der Reinigungsrolle muss richtig eingestellt sein 6. im Programm müssen unter Reinigung die richtigen Geschwindigkeiten eingetragen sein 7. Die Vakuumerzeuger dürfen nicht verschmutzt sein damit das Erzeugen des Vakuums erfolgreich ist

Dieses hört sich bestimmt viel an, aber es ist wie bei einem Auto, man muss fachmännisch an die Wartung dieser Maschinen herangehen. Nur dann funktioniert die gut. Ich mache seit 20 Jahren an diesen Maschinen den Servizund überall treten die gleichen Probleme auf. Schuld ist aber nicht die Maschine.

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