Introduction

inForce is a hardware device that serves several purposes on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing line. The device acts as a gatekeeper between two pieces of equipment on an assembly line—conveyors or assembly equipment. inForce interacts with SMEMA-compliant manufacturing equipment to prevent or allow a PCB from proceeding to the next machine on the line based on validation received from FactoryLogix. The inForce device ensures that the following actions are completed:

• A valid barcode was read from a PCB
• The board belongs at that location
• The board won't exceed the batch quantity
• The downstream equipment is set up correctly
• All entry conditions have been satisfied
• No line stop is currently active
• There are no workstation restrictions