Ersa Best Practice: HUND
Fully automatic pollen monitor alleviates allergy symptoms
Helmut Hund GmbH relies on Ersa for electronics production
With a focus on electronics, optics, optical fiber technology, plastics technology and precision mechanics, Helmut Hund GmbH is at the centre of scientific and technical innovation. An interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers guarantees the safe implementation of complex and innovative solutions under the claim “We bring technologies together”. The Wetzlar-based EMS service provider HUND relies among other things on support from system supplier Ersa.
The BAA 500 pollen monitor from Helmut Hund GmbH provides relief for millions of allergy sufferers in Germany. The HUND Innovation was developed over many years with the support of the Fraunhofer Institutes FIT, Sankt Augustin and ITEM Hannover and brought to series maturity. This is how the BAA 500 works: The electronic measuring device extracts pollen fully automatically from the ambient air sucked in, deposits it on special sample carriers and carries out an analysis under an automatic light microscope. Result: high-precision determination of allergologically relevant pollen in real time, independent of temperature and season, without human intervention in the detection process, data retrieval 24/7 via Internet and app.
Thus, allergy sufferers receive information in real time in order to be able to plan their daily routine in flowering times of birch, oak, ash, alder, hazel & Co. In addition to the Wetzlar location, information on pollen flight can also be retrieved for Berlin, Munich, Wiesbaden or Leipzig; further pollen monitors are planned. Only recently, an electronic pollen information network (ePIN) based on HUND pollen monitors was put into operation in Bavaria. One of the eight pollen monitors installed in Bavaria is located very close to Ersa in Wertheim. The data can be called up online at www.epin.bayern.de. Both in the “pollen business” and in the core business of the company, OEM production, Ersa supports as a system supplier with efficient soldering technologies from selective to reflow and soldering tools.
The beginnings of Helmut Hund GmbH go back to the peak of the economic miracle in 1967 – Helmut Hund founded his company in Wetzlar at the age of 17 in this Golden Age. The first product was a patented start-up current limiter for electric motors. In 2015, almost 50 years after Helmut Hund founded the company, Verena Schön, daughter of the founder, and Dr. Stefan Schäfer took over the management. The product range has changed during this time and has become much more complex: In accordance with the company claim “We bring technologies together”, HUND combines technical components from the fields of optics, glass fibre optics, precision mechanics and plastics technology to form high-performance assemblies and devices according to customer requirements. However, the focus is on OEM business, the manufacture of assemblies for system solutions in the fields of medical technology, sensor technology, automation and environmental technology. Today, Helmut Hund GmbH employs 110 people and has a production area of 3,000 m2 (www.hund.de).
First contact to Ersa via the wave
The first contact between Helmut Hund and Ersa GmbH came about in the mid-1990s with the purchase of a wave soldering machine, which today still reliably produces small and very small series. The question arose in 2012: Wave soldering machine upgrade or purchase new selective machine? After a thorough examination, the decision was made to purchase an Ersa selective soldering machine. “Due to the throughput, we opted for the VERSAFLOW 3/45 with two crucibles. This allows us to process products at the fastest possible speed,” says Alexander Müller, Head of Production Electronics. Since different soldering tools can be placed on the crucibles of the mini-wave soldering machine, high flexibility with short cycle times is guaranteed. This allows filigree assemblies with double-sided assembly to be processed as well as surface soldering.
Last year, as part of investment planning, the existing and outdated reflow soldering system had to be replaced by a new one. Due to the positive experience with the Ersa machines already installed and the established relationship between the two companies, Ersa was included in the decision-making process. They met at the Wertheim Ersa Application Centre, just 150 km from the HUND site, for a test appointment. Traceability, which is particularly important in medical technology, was right at the top of the list of requirements. “To date, we have seen Ersa as a strong manufacturer, especially in the areas of selective and wave soldering. We were more than positively surprised when our requirements for a reflow soldering system were best met by Ersa HOTFLOW 4/14,” says HUND´s process technology.
Good partnership: Helmut Hund and Ersa
The special thing about the connection between the two business partners Helmut Hund GmbH and Ersa GmbH is that both companies are customers and suppliers at the same time. Hund GmbH manufactures the camera systems, which are installed in the Ersa stencil printer VERSAPRINT 2 Ultra3, in the only printer on the market with integrated 100% inspection in 2D or 3D. “This give and take characterizes our long-standing business relationship and creates a high degree of trust on both sides,” summarizes Alexander Müller, Head of Production Electronics at Helmut Hund GmbH, and adds: “In the meantime, we have converted our entire soldering technology to Ersa. Everything comes from one source, including the hand soldering irons.”