“Due to the stringent requirements for handling liquids for semiconductor processes and end users' strict control over construction schedules, our top priorities are to ensure the stability and reliability of devices as well as the reliability and the on-time delivery of products. From our experiences importing and using the Pro-face HMI and software, we have been amazed by the reliability, durability, and functionality of Pro-face products! The Pro-face products have improved customer satisfaction and confidence in ALES Asia products and optimized the operators’ user experience and work efficiency. The collaboration of the two companies has created a synergistic effect! And the long-term support and services of the Pro-face team mean we also believe that Pro-face is a trustworthy partner.”
Air Liquide Electronics Systems Asia Ltd.
Goals
- Highly reliable and stable HMI and systems to respond to the needs of semiconductor factories for operations.
- Suppliers have high technical expertise, can pass the reviews of semiconductor factory clients, and can provide real-time technical support to solve problems.
- HMI is highly integrated, allowing easy connection and communication with master/slave controllers and systems of different brands.
Project Background
Air Liquide Electronics Systems Asia Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ALES Asia) is an independently funded company established by Air Liquide S.A in the Central Taiwan Science Park in 2006. With 40 years of expertise in electronics equipment and installations, Air Liquide Electronics Systems Asia (ALES Asia) has developed a complete range of innovative fluid distribution equipment designed to meet the needs of the electronics industry, laboratories, and other industrial markets.
Semiconductor factories' end users have very high demands for quality, reliability, and precision. Therefore, ALES Asia must continuously research and develop the best solutions with superior agility and competitiveness. Furthermore, flexible product delivery times and consistent quality have always been the proud advantages of ALES Asia. For this reason, ALES Asia upholds the highest standards when selecting key parts and collaborating with suppliers.
As the Asian semiconductor industry has prospered, ALES Asia's fortunes have also grown. Since 2016, the company has doubled its revenue and has been growing stably. With the rapid development and technology, customers are demanding and expecting more, so we have a greater responsibility to provide more effective solutions and better after-sale services. Therefore, to ALES Asia, the most important factor for maintaining its leadership in the industry is constantly optimizing the stability of fluid device solutions to prevent errors or malfunctions, thereby enhancing its efficiency and the user experience for its devices.
Challenges
HMI is a vital connection between personnel and devices for control and communication. ALES Asia has been actively looking for more stable, reliable, and innovative HMI suppliers to improve HMI stability and response speed to reduce control risk. A more reliable HMI supplier to improve the overall customer experience, "that is Pro-face."
Results
- The Pro-face HMI supports various communication formats and can be integrated with multiple brands of controllers. This highly convenient connectivity greatly reduces the required investment in development time and human resources.
- The GP-Pro EX editing software provides a user-friendly interface that reacts smoothly with zero delays when switching between screens; the hardware panel features a high-precision touchscreen and a high-definition image contrast screen.
- Certified by the EU's ATEX for safety in potentially explosive atmospheres, the Pro-face guarantees stable quality and reliability, thus significantly optimizing the operation experience of customers. Furthermore, the supplier also provides quality technical support and a stable supply of products.
The Highly Convenient Connectivity Allows Easy Integration with Multiple Brands of Controllers, Greatly Shortening the Development Time and Reducing Costs
ALES Asia has been actively seeking new HMI suppliers. However, semiconductor customers have stringent demands for changing components, with the brands, technologies, specifications, and performance of products all having to go through multiple levels of reviews and evaluations. In the testing phase, the team at Schneider Electric for its Pro-face brand offered full support for the conversion. It provided testing samples and assisted with connection settings and software conversion in real time.
Since the Pro-face HMI supports a comprehensive variety of communication formats and can quickly integrate and connect with a majority of brand controllers in the market, no technical difficulties were encountered during the process of conversion when resetting and connecting with the Pro-face HMI, even though the controllers and other master/slave systems and parts used by ALES Asia include a variety of brand products. The time spent in the testing phase was also shorter than expected. Furthermore, since creating projects in the GP-Pro EX editing software could generate tags based on imported files, further edits to files in the software could also be done by importing tags to update the files, thus reducing the time spent and potential human errors in manually creating tags. Moreover, since the Pro-face HMI supports uploading and downloading program data without restrictions, engineers may directly backup or modify programs on-site through the human-computer access policy when they need to correct the programming during testing and tuning for a customer or the factory, but they don’t have the original program file. Data compiled during development show that the functional advantages of the Pro-face HMI and editing software reduced a project's establishment and modification time by at least 5 days of total working hours, a significant reduction.
User-Friendly Operational Interface, Precise Touch Positioning, and Smooth Screen Switching Greatly Improve Customer’s User Experience
After ALES Asia gradually converted to Pro-face products, three advantages could be clearly perceived during actual operations.
- The hardware features high touch precision, and the touchscreen has an extremely low malfunction rate. There have been no instances of the entire touch panel malfunctioning. There were incidents where small areas of panels malfunctioned, but the modular design of the Pro-face SP5000 series means it can support the direct replacement of panels, so users may quickly address the situation without affecting their control of operating devices.
- The operation screen of the Pro-face HMI is very intuitive and user-friendly, and its image contrast and definition are both good. Even if the screen is switched multiple times, the response speed is still very smooth. Compared with the human-machine interface used in the past, There is a delay of about 0.5 seconds when switching, and the user experience is also greatly improved
- Certified by the EU's ATEX for safety in potentially explosive atmospheres, the Pro-face guarantees stable quality and reliability, thus significantly optimizing the operation experience of customers. Furthermore, the supplier also provides quality technical support and a stable supply of products.
With the stable quality and reliability of the Pro-face HMI, ALES Asia, we genuinely believe Pro-face is a trustworthy partner. Together with Pro-face, ALES Asia will continue to provide the best fluid distribution equipment to our customers!
Certified by ATEX for Safety in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres, Guarantees Stable Quality and Reliability; Supplier Provides Quality Technical Support and a Stable Supply of Products
ALES Asia's solutions involve designing, manufacturing, and selling large amounts of special gases and liquid delivery systems to Air Liquide affiliates in different countries. In addition to complying with the import/export regulations of different countries, user operations and safety must also be guaranteed; therefore, ALES Asia uses the highest standards for both product certifications and the control of quality stability. The Pro-face HMI SP5000 and GP4000 series are certified by ATEX and relevant international certifications for safety in potentially explosive atmospheres, meeting the demands of ALES Asia in terms of product performance, quality, explosion resistance specifications, and price. To date, no serious problems he occurred for end users operating ALES Asia products using the Pro-face HMI. Although there were one or two incidents where customers reported connection failures with controllers, the sources of the problems were quickly found and eliminated with the support of the Pro-face OEM and its agents. In the early days of the development and conversion process at ALES Asia, even though ALES Asia had only made a small number of orders, the Pro-face team still took into account the needs of ALES Asia and provided a lot of support and services. After the products went into mass production, Pro-face also worked with distributors and endeavored to satisfy the requirements of ALES Asia by preparing stock in advance to ensure a stable delivery time. ALES Asia considers the Pro-face team to be a trustworthy partner due to their considerate attitude towards customers. In the future, ALES Asia will also be very willing to select Pro-face solutions as their number one choice of supplier.
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