The awards were presented during a special afternoon ceremony at the start of the IPC Apex trade show.

The winners are:

Automation Tools                ASYS (FIFO Buffer System FPS30B)

Cleaning Equipment                    Speedline (Electrovert’s Aquastorm 100)

Cleaning Materials                      Kyzen Corp. (Aquanox A4241)

Component Placement - High-Speed            Juki Corp. (FX3)

Component Placement - Multi-Function            Juki Corp. (JX100)

Device Programming                BPM Microsystems (Flashstream –C)

Dispensing Equipment            Asymtek (DispenseJet DJ-100)

Labeling                                   Polyonics (Product Sentry)

Materials-Flux             Nihon Superior (NS-F850)

Process Control Tools               KIC (RPI)

Rework/Repair Tools                VJ Electronix (400ST)

Screen/Stencil Printing Milara (TD2929 Automatic Inline Printer)

                                                Assembléon (Yamaha YGP)

Software-Production                    Juki Corp. (Intelligent Shopfloor Solutions)

Soldering-Materials                      Henkel (Multicore LF700)

Soldering-Reflow             Heller Industries (Mark 3.5 Series)

Soldering-Selective                       Juki Corp. (Flex Solder Series)

Soldering-Other               EVS International (EVS 7000 Solder Dross Recovery)

Soldering-Hand Tools                OK International (Metcal MX-5000 Series)

Test & Inspection-AXI            Dage Precision Industries (Dage XD7600NT₁₀₀)

Test & Inspection-ICT            Agilent Technologies (Cover Extend)

Test & Inspection-AOI            Mirtec Corp. (Mirtec MV-3L)

Underfills                                  Henkel (Hysol UF3800)

Now in its second year, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY's NPI Awards recognize the leading new products for electronics assembly during the past 12 months. Awards were selected by an independent panel of four practicing industry engineers. They evaluated the entries on the basis of the following:

• Creativity and innovation
• Compatibility with existing technology
• Cost-effectiveness
• Design
• Environmental friendliness
• Expected reliability
• Expected maintainability/reparability
• Flexibility
• Performance
• User-friendliness. 

In presenting the awards, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Editor in Chief Mike Buetow said, "I sat with some of the judges as they evaluated the entries, and can say they often expressed tremendous admiration at the ingenuity of the products. The plaudits ranged from ease-of-use and ease of implementation, to accessibility and repeatability."