200mm Pad Conditioner Arm Refurbishment
Alpha started providing 200mm pad conditioner arm rebuild services for key customers in Southeast Asia in 2017.
While a pad conditioner arm may be worth more than US$10,000, it is rather unrealistic to charge a premium for a rebuild service. On the other hand, the race to the bottom in offering cheap rebuild services may invite quality issues where non-standard components are used in the rebuild service that may leave an undesirable long term damage to non-consumables in the arm assembly.
How does an end user easily detect non conformances in the rebuild process when he will receive back an assembled pad conditioner arm that seems to be operating fine in the first few months when installed on the system?
I believe that the only way is to audit the service provider, or work with a trusted partner that is very familiar with the design considerations of AMAT design engineers when the product is developed.
What are the common problems observed as part of our failure analysis / rebuild of a pad conditioner arm that was previously handled by our competitors?
1. The use of the wrong bearings.
Most people will think that as long as the inner diameter, outer diameter and width of the bearing fits into the pad conditioner hub, the bearing is suitable for use. Very few people know that AMAT chooses a pair of custom made bearings to be used in the pad conditioner hub. These special bearings have glass reinforced PTFE shields and are built with extended inner bearings.
There are many occasions in our disassembly of a pad conditioner arm where we notice the bearings have completely fallen apart, where the bearing casings are open and ball bearings have fallen out. Needless to say, such a situation may have catastrophic problems to non-consumables including the gears with the pad conditioner hub. Sometimes the inner and outer bearing cases are still stuck to the shaft and bearing housing and make removal of such debris really difficult.
End users who have such experiences working on such pad conditioner hubs in a cleanroom environment can probably empathise with such situations. That is the reason we continue to insist using the original bearing that has been selected by AMAT in the design of the pad conditioner arm despite the bearing's higher cost and scarcity of availability.
2. Mechanical rebuild without electrical test.
The 3 main electrical components in the pad conditioner arm are
1. Rotation motor
2. Sweep motor
3. Home sensor
When any of these 3 items are not functional, the pad conditioner arm will not function properly. Rebuilding a pad conditioner arm without performing an electrical performance test is akin to taking a test with no interest in knowing how well you score in the test. How do you characterise that a good job is done in the mechanical rebuild of the pad conditioner arm?
Simple problems such as incorrect pin wiring to the connector of a replacement motor or sensor will go unnoticed. A motor that has issues with encoder count accuracies or performance in its rotation will also be impossible to detect without an electrical test.
Today, the pad conditioner arm rebuild is a monthly affair for our staff. This gives us the opportunity to ensure that we are always practising the correct methods of a pad conditioner arm rebuild. More importantly it is an encouraging endorsement by our customers in their belief of our no nonsense approach to a quality 200mm pad conditioner arm rebuild.
While a pad conditioner arm may be worth more than US$10,000, it is rather unrealistic to charge a premium for a rebuild service. On the other hand, the race to the bottom in offering cheap rebuild services may invite quality issues where non-standard components are used in the rebuild service that may leave an undesirable long term damage to non-consumables in the arm assembly.
How does an end user easily detect non conformances in the rebuild process when he will receive back an assembled pad conditioner arm that seems to be operating fine in the first few months when installed on the system?
I believe that the only way is to audit the service provider, or work with a trusted partner that is very familiar with the design considerations of AMAT design engineers when the product is developed.
What are the common problems observed as part of our failure analysis / rebuild of a pad conditioner arm that was previously handled by our competitors?
1. The use of the wrong bearings.
Most people will think that as long as the inner diameter, outer diameter and width of the bearing fits into the pad conditioner hub, the bearing is suitable for use. Very few people know that AMAT chooses a pair of custom made bearings to be used in the pad conditioner hub. These special bearings have glass reinforced PTFE shields and are built with extended inner bearings.
There are many occasions in our disassembly of a pad conditioner arm where we notice the bearings have completely fallen apart, where the bearing casings are open and ball bearings have fallen out. Needless to say, such a situation may have catastrophic problems to non-consumables including the gears with the pad conditioner hub. Sometimes the inner and outer bearing cases are still stuck to the shaft and bearing housing and make removal of such debris really difficult.
End users who have such experiences working on such pad conditioner hubs in a cleanroom environment can probably empathise with such situations. That is the reason we continue to insist using the original bearing that has been selected by AMAT in the design of the pad conditioner arm despite the bearing's higher cost and scarcity of availability.
2. Mechanical rebuild without electrical test.
The 3 main electrical components in the pad conditioner arm are
1. Rotation motor
2. Sweep motor
3. Home sensor
When any of these 3 items are not functional, the pad conditioner arm will not function properly. Rebuilding a pad conditioner arm without performing an electrical performance test is akin to taking a test with no interest in knowing how well you score in the test. How do you characterise that a good job is done in the mechanical rebuild of the pad conditioner arm?
Simple problems such as incorrect pin wiring to the connector of a replacement motor or sensor will go unnoticed. A motor that has issues with encoder count accuracies or performance in its rotation will also be impossible to detect without an electrical test.
Today, the pad conditioner arm rebuild is a monthly affair for our staff. This gives us the opportunity to ensure that we are always practising the correct methods of a pad conditioner arm rebuild. More importantly it is an encouraging endorsement by our customers in their belief of our no nonsense approach to a quality 200mm pad conditioner arm rebuild.