For our commitment as one of the innovation drivers in the industry, SEHO received the BSFZ seal. This seal confirms that we are continuously researching and developing, and it is awarded by the certification body research center (Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszentrale – BSFZ).

We see this as a motivation to continue our path as an innovation leader and to continue to revolutionize the electronics world!

“Our companies complement each other perfectly. In this way, the partnership creates synergies that guarantee successful support for our customers,” emphasizes Gus Mavrou, Regional Sales Manager at SEHO North America and he adds “Lean Stream has superior understanding of both manufacturing processes and our customers’ requirements. With this new partnership, we are optimally adapting sales in Northern California and Northern Nevada to customer needs with increased flexibility and great agility.”
SEHO implements total solutions that are efficient and powerful. The modern soldering systems are ideally supplemented by innovative THT-AOI systems as well as automation technology.

Robert Jones, Lean Stream President states “in talking with industry leaders and customers that I respect, the feedback is that SEHO provides the most innovative designed selective and wave solder machines in the industry for decades. With the design of low maintenance, smaller solder pots, and solder transfer design, it is very effective for our customers with complex requirements.”

The common goal of both companies is the efficient support of the customers in the implementation of their production goals in order to make them even more successful.

For more information about Lean Stream, please visit www.lean-stream.com.

It has been debated for some time and in some European countries it is already being practiced – at least as a pilot project: the 4-day work week.
With around 230 employees, SEHO Systems GmbH develops and manufactures soldering systems and automation technology for the electronics industry worldwide and is one of the most technologically innovative companies in the industry. SEHO is now also taking an innovative approach to employee work-life balance: As one of the first medium-sized companies, SEHO now wants to implement the 4-day work week at the headquarters in Kreuzwertheim.

The 5-day week based on 40 working hours has been in effect in Germany since 1956 and has been seen as a constant in German industry ever since. “We’ve basically been discussing the topic of new working models since 2018,” explains Dipl.-Ing. Markus Walter, CEO of SEHO. „However, the time was not yet ripe and the idea was rejected again. There were too many hurdles to overcome.“

In the meantime, the company, which operates worldwide, has been almost completely restructured. Work processes have been improved, the company’s internal structures have been adjusted in order to be able to react flexibly to market requirements and there has also been a generational change at management level. Most of the team leaders are in their 30s, and not least because of social change, the perspective on “work-life balance”, i.e. the effort to bring work and private life into better harmony, has changed.

With the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, at least for the employees in the commercial departments, things quickly moved in the direction of new working models: Within a very short time, more than 60 employees at SEHO switched to the home office. Several scientific studies have shown that this mobile and therefore more flexible way of working works. The positive effects of mobile working can also be confirmed at SEHO. „Our employees tell us about their work routine, which we ultimately see in the results,” says Moritz Reichert, Head of Finance and member of the SEHO management team. “The tasks can be completed more effectively, there is more freedom for personal concerns and a typical work day is generally less stressful with mobile work.“ A prerequisite for a mobile working model is, of course, a large amount of trust at management level, which is placed in the employees working from home, and the motivation on the part of the employee to perform well, even if the working environment is more relaxed. „During the pandemic and the legal obligation to enable home office, we have seen that we have a great and reliable team. Therefore, in addition to the flexible working hours that we have had for many years, we will continue to offer the option of mobile working,” adds Moritz Reichert.

While the commercial departments can benefit from modern forms of work, this is much more difficult for production and production-related areas. A soldering machine or an automation concept cannot be built at home, but requires being present in the company. Employees in these areas are therefore not only less flexible when it comes to their personal needs, but also financially worse off than their colleagues in the commercial areas, especially given the current petrol prices.

„In order to create an advantage for employees from the production-related divisions, we have dealt in detail with the topic of the 4-day week“, explains Larissa Hepp, who is responsible for human resources at SEHO. In addition to labor law issues, it was also necessary to ensure that the personnel costs were not stretched beyond the means. A concept was developed in a team project, which will be launched at SEHO on May 1st for a test phase of initially 3 months. The new working time model provides for a 4-day week for the production area. These departments will then work from Monday to Thursday, Friday to Sunday are free. A rotation system will be introduced for customer-sensitive areas, such as the logistics center, so that deliveries can also be made on Fridays. The weekly working hours are reduced for the employees, with full wage compensation.

„We think – and experience from various European pilot projects suggests this – that we can even improve productivity in our company by taking this step,” says Moritz Reichert. „In some sectors, such as energy costs, the 4-day week also ultimately leads to a reduction in costs. Larissa Hepp adds: “Studies have shown that more days off increase employee motivation, improve health and bind employees more closely to the company. Last but not least, of course, we also hope that we can increase our attractiveness as an employer in the region with modern working models.”

The 4-day week also fits into SEHO’s corporate concept with a view to climate policy goals. The company already obtains 100% of its electricity from hydropower and its own photovoltaic system. Not only with the machines, but also in the operational processes, attention is paid to reducing resources and using sustainable materials, and projects such as “Job-Bicycle” are being implemented, actively promoted by SEHO as an employer. If the employees only have to drive to work on four days instead of five, this also has a positive ecological effect.

„After the 3-month test phase, we will discuss all aspects and experiences together and draw a conclusion. But we approach the 4-day week positively and we are sure that this will give our employees more freedom,” says Markus Walter.

Founded in 1995 as a pioneer in battery technology, BYD has developed from a small start-up company with only 20 employees to a global company with more than 230,000 employees today. Throughout its 26 years of high-speed growth, BYD has established over 30 industrial parks across six continents and has played a significant role in industries related to electronics, automobiles, new energy and rail transit.
BYD’s mission is to create a complete, clean-energy ecosystem that reduces the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. An ambitious goal that BYD is pursuing very successfully. As early as 2015, the company was a global leader in the sale of electric vehicles. The current figures also speak for themselves: The figures for the automotive sector published by BYD in May, showed a proportion of 71 % in electrified vehicles. BYD’s portfolio ranges from electric passenger vehicles to electric commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks, as well as a monorail system, created to provide a solution for urban traffic congestion

The production plant in Changsha, Hunan province in China employs around 8,000 people. To expand the manufacturing capacity, two new production lines were purchased and, after a comprehensive evaluation phase, BYD decided on the PowerSelective from SEHO. The two new high-end selective soldering systems are designed for high production numbers and will be put into operation in the Changsha plant in autumn.
The systems are equipped with a separate fluxing module, two preheat stations, two soldering units for multi-wave soldering processes as well as an integrated cooling station. A further preheating module is followed by a module from the SelectLine product family that is equipped with a soldering unit for mini-wave soldering processes and a selective brushing system for the automatic removal of solder balls and residues.
The overall concept of the two new lines therefore offers everything in one, space-saving on only approx. 12.5 square meters: high production volumes, high flexibility and the highest quality of the manufactured products due to unique machine features and automatic process control.

“We are proud that with Yiling Precision Electronics we have a partner in China who knows exactly the requirements of Chinese electronics manufacturers and who, together with us, pursues the goal of offering our customers solutions that make them even more successful”, comments Markus Walter, CEO of SEHO Systems GmbH, the successful business transaction. He is pleased that BYD Changsha will produce controller OBC products (chargers) for electric vehicles on two SEHO PowerSelective selective soldering systems from November.

Since its foundation in 1976, SEHO has become a worldwide contact partner for the electronics industry. As an innovative, international company, SEHO develops and manufactures soldering systems and automation technology that are trend setting. Whether in the automotive industry, medical technology, aerospace, power electronics or industrial technology: Leading electronics manufacturers rely on soldering technology and automation concepts from SEHO.

SEHO CEO Markus Walter commented: “It always has been our aim to constantly improve existing processes, optimize production equipment for future applications and implement innovative ideas into our machines to create added value for our customers. Due to continuous investment in research that is far above the industry’s average and a highly motivated team, SEHO is able to quickly react to new trends in electronics manufacturing and convert them into processes and products for serial production. I would like to give special thanks to our employees, customers and partners for their loyalty because they are the reason we are here today.”

Established more than 45 years ago, SEHO Systems GmbH and its subsidiaries in the USA, Korea and China, is a family owned and operated company. Today, the SEHO brand stands for innovative systems for all fields of automated soldering processes, AOI solutions especially for THT applications, customized automation technology and know-how. Customers profit from complete solutions that perfectly match and convince with flexibility, performance and efficiency.

Flux manufacturers have already reported a remarkable shortage of stocks for alcohol-based fluxes used in electronics manufacturing. Interrupted supply chains and an increasing demand for alcohol as a basis for disinfectants has resulted in massive price increases.

SEHO offers an alternative for a solvent-free alternative – the SEHO PlasmaFluxer. In a plasma process, flux powder is deposited at the solder joints with an outstanding adherence and long-term stability. Simultaneously, product quality can be improved remarkably.

The activation of components and the PCB surface is the key factor to obtain a connection between the solder and the terminations. This task is taken over by the flux, which in wave soldering processes is often alcohol-based and containing only a small amount around three percent of active components, that indeed are necessary for the process. Alcohol is only needed for application of the flux and needs to be dried off before entering the solder wave. Flux residues are still an issue, particularly due to the increasingly extreme operating conditions electronic assemblies are exposed to. Non-activated flux residues that remain on the assembly may cause severe quality issues or even the complete breakdown of the assembly.

The PlasmaFluxer from SEHO uses cold-active plasma to melt micrometer sized powder of pure adipic acid and deposit it on the PCB surface. A liquid carrier material is not needed, and the gas that is used to create the plasma flame is Nitrogen, which is widely spread in wave soldering technology. When processing assemblies, an aerosol formed out of melt-able flux particles and Nitrogen is led into the plasma flame and directed to the PCB surface. Once the aerosols touch the surface, the particles solidify and form a long-term stable coating.

The plasma process substitutes the conventional wet-chemical flux activation with a dry process. Soldering results that are achieved with this process are extremely good and they are directly comparable to standard liquid fluxes, even with complicated structures.

An additional advantage is the cleanliness of the PCB surface after the soldering process. Therefore, an additional cleaning process can be avoided. Additionally, the degree of contamination of the fluxer work area and the soldering system is smaller, as there is no evaporation of solvents from the flux. Consequently, maintenance requirements are remarkably reduced while availability of the process equipment is increased.

Solvent-based fluxes are declared as hazardous material (class 3) and special measures are necessary in terms of storage, handling and waste management. In comparison, the handling and storage of powder is much easier, resulting in an overall reduction in manufacturing costs, and additional benefits emerge from the environment friendly concept of the plasma fluxing process.

The precise, selective flux application method leads to a reduction of the flux amount needed, and with the additional elimination of liquid, remarkable savings are achieved in the total flux material costs. As a result, the initial costs for the plasma fluxing system can be made up within a short time.

A particular benefit of the plasma fluxing method is its ability to “revive” overaged PCBs that show perfect wetting results. “The outstanding long-term stability of the flux that has been applied in a plasma process is remarkable,” explains Dr. Andreas Reinhardt, Director R&D at SEHO. “This allows us to apply a flux coating at our Technology Center in Germany and return the boards to customers. The soldering process then can be performed at customer site on their own soldering machine, with the standard fluxer being deactivated.”

SEHO Systems GmbH established a subsidiary in China. With this new subsidiary in Shanghai, SEHO intends to expand its presence in the Asian market and focus on the requirements of its Chinese customers.

SEHO can look back on an exceptionally long and successful business relationship with its local partner company, Toratec, and its customers in China. When Toratec owners Judy Yao and Thomas Raisch went into retirement, SEHO quickly decided to establish its own subsidiary in China. “Over the last few decades, we have had a very close partnership with Toratec and everybody who works there,” says Markus Walter, Managing Director and shareholder of SEHO Systems GmbH. “The Toratec team has a lot of know-how about processes and machines, and of course detailed market knowledge and many customer contacts. These are valuable assets for us, and so we are delighted that the entire team will become an important part of SEHO Systems China.” Chinese customers will benefit from the technical expertise of a committed team of specialists who know the market and its challenges.

SEHO Systems China, Ltd., the new subsidiary, will provide a number of advantages. In addition to providing qualified local support, the most important consumables and parts will be kept on hand locally so they can be delivered to the customers quickly when needed.
Another important milestone will be the launch of an application centre in Shanghai, equipped with SEHO’s innovative soldering systems as well as highlights from the THT-AOI product ranges and automation technology. In addition, the new premises will provide ample opportunity for sharing experience and know-how during seminars and technology forums that will be held there.

“Our Shanghai subsidiary does not only represent the continuation of our involvement in the Chinese market—we will also provide additional resources for our local experts, which will enable them to support customers efficiently in reaching their manufacturing goals, and provide customers with solution-oriented consultation to make them even more successful,” adds Markus Walter, who will head the new subsidiary in Shanghai as CEO. Sandy Liu, who has been with Toratec for many years, will be in charge of technology; Michael Straub will lead the sales team. Both are extremely familiar with SEHO processes and systems and are looking forward to their new roles.