Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Productronica Remains King of Shows

News

Productronica is still the king of trade shows. The Munich exhibition opened Nov. 15 to strong crowds, massive booths and general optimism.

One of the brightest lookers was Siemens Automation and Drives president Tilo Brandis, who told reporters that the company projects sales of placement machines to reach 1,730 units in 2006, up from 1,579 in 2005. Siemens currently claims 33% market share in assembly placement equipment, up about 6 points from 2004.

The company is committed to improving the modularity of its Siplace pick-and-place (changeover of heads, dual lane configuration, etc.). The dual lane configuration works in asynchronous (placing the top side only with no downtime) and synchronous (top and bottom simultaneously) modes.

Samsung Techwin introduced the next-generation SM310 placement machine, featuring a dual-lane conveyor and nonstop tape feeder, three-camera vision system, and a reported placement accuracy of 50 microns at 3 Sigma. The placement speed is 30,000 cph per the IPC-9850 standard.

Speedline Technologies debuted XyFlex+, said to have a 30% increase in throughput and twice the accuracy of previous dispensers, and OmniFlex, a 10-zone reflow oven that reduces power and nitrogen consumption by 30-40%. The company is forecasting a solid 2006, with growth coming from expansion and replacement orders. Sales of its Accuflex printer should overtake its MPM Ultraprint 2000 by December 2006, and the company expects to add up to two more manufacturing lines (for a total of four) for its Accela printer, which debuted just this year.

Lead-free will likely lead to extra touchup, asserts ERSA president and COO Mark Cannon. That has led the equipment maker to develop a combination AOI and automatic rework system. Ecoselect AOI+R performs pass/fail inspection on assemblies, then repairs bridges and other PTH defects by means of selective soldering nozzle contained in the same 4.4 x 6.9' unit.

Assembléon added to its M series of pick-and-place machines, rolling out the MG-8. The three-head machine, adapted from Yamaha in Japan, has a new area CCD camera and handles from 01005 through 55 sq. mm and oddforms (height up to 25.5 mm). Accuracy is 50 microns for chips and 30 microns for QFPs; throughput rate for ICs and QFPs is 8,400 cph. New president Dr. Leon Hussen was on hand.

DEK president Richard Heimsch said 2005 is expected to end on a high note, the second straight solid year for the printer company. Its Galaxy and Europa platforms rose 10 and 6 points, respectively, as a percentage of the company’s sales. The third quarter was particularly strong, Heimsch said.

OK International rolled out an array of soldering and rework irons and fume extractors. The firm noted that the approach by many operators to crank up the heat when hand-soldering with Pb-free alloys results in shorter tip and equipment life, but doesn’t have much impact for soldering. Instead, it’s the power generated through the tip that is the key factor.

Polar Instruments showed off its new field solver. The slick new tool, Si9000, models loss and attenuation, performs extractions of S parameters and can graph impedance and frequency. Polar is also opening an office in Japan.

Sales at AOI and x-ray equipment maker Viscom are up 15% this year following a 40% spike in 2004. Viscom showed its S6056, a high-end inspection machine capable of 10 micron resolution. The AOI has a dual track, dual shuttle transport system, and is designed to prohibit gases from coming up to the sensor, so the lens doesn’t need cleaning. The machine can inspect two PCBs simultaneously.

Concoat, fresh off the Nov. 14 merger with Chase Corp. (the parent company of Humiseal), debuted a UV curable conformal coating and a water-based cleaner for Pb-free. It’s “business as usual” for Concoat’s sales and distribution, company officials said. Concoat Systems, the equipment side of the business, remains a separate entity and will change its name sometime in the next several months.

Adeon, the Dutch software vendor, introduced CXInsight, a project and content management system for electronics designers, fabricators and assemblers. The e-collaboration tool is product oriented and comes with a server and seat license. They have one installation already at a major automotive supplier. (Adeon is a longtime distributor for Valor.)

Managing director Paul Walter said PCBA test gear maker Dage is working with Jedec to standardize on its bond tester for Pb-free. A standard could be released within a year. Jedec is coordinating with EIAJ on the specification.

The IPC Solder Products Value Council will preview a soon-to-be-released report on voiding in Pb-free solder joints. In what is likely to stir some controversy, according to IPC’s Tony Hilvers, the Council (made up of most of the world’s leading solder vendors) found no correlation between voids and failures.

Overheard: One equipment president said he thinks knockoffs of Western SMT equipment brands made by Chinese firms would surface in North America.

The number of screen printers sold in 2005 is slightly behind 2004.

Now that it has finalized the purchase of Concoat, expect Humiseal to make a global push.

And finally …This is Productronica’s 30^th year, as illustrated by a large memorial with pictures of past events. Walking the dimly lit and eerily quiet exhibit proved a brief but welcome respite from the bustle of the rest of the show.