APEX whipped up a storm last week as it ripped into Sin City (Las Vegas). Any doubt that Las Vegas was the wrong destination for an electronics manufacturing show was quickly put to rest as the show proceeded to have one of its best years since it started.

The big news on the corporate front was Henkel’s acquisition of National Starch and Emerson & Cuming. Henkel paid a whopping €3.8 billion for the former ICI giants, and the new group will be headed by Alan Syzdek, the former CEO of National Starch.

On the show floor, exhibitors were selling equipment off the booth with many recording their best show ever. Some of the companies that reported multiple equipment sales included Aqueous Technologies, Assembléon, Essemtec and Juki.

Technically, there were a few new product innovations, but most had already been revealed at Productronica a few months earlier. R&D Technical Services launched a new vapour phase rework machine that can stabilize the rework temperature within a 9˚ window and has operating costs of less than one dollar per hour.

VJ Electronix released the Summit Versa, a high volume auto rework and assembly platform that can be configured for various applications including rework, dispensing, etc. VJ also launched a high resolution CT x-ray system that offers true 3D rendering by capturing multiple images at a variety of angles to reconstruct the target.

ERSA caused a stir with the US launch of their award-winning VERSAPRINT printer. The VERSAPRINT provides 100% board inspection at a speed more than seven times faster than any other printer on the market. This new, combined printer and AOI system uses patent pending line scanning technology to scan the entire length of a 260 mm board at speeds of 35 mm per second.

Indium made a BIG announcement with their Indium 8.9 PB-free, no-clean solder paste, which is designed for boards with long thermal excursions and those needing good print transfer, such as large backplanes with difficult profiles. Indium claim this paste reduces head-in-pillow defects.

With the price of solder at a 19-year high, the timing for the launch of the EVS7000 dross recovery unit by EVS International couldn’t have been better. This new machine has an improved filtration system that lasts 12 times longer than its predecessor and reduces costs. The EVS7000 has a 10kg capacity and produces pure solder from dross in five minutes.

The EZ-Flux from SonoTek made it’s US debut. The patented nozzle provides a 48μm droplet size to create an ultra fine spray coating, potentially reducing flux usage by as much as 85%.

BTU displayed six-, eight and 10-zone Pyramax ovens, although most of the news surrounded their new Solar Tech Center in Shanghai, where the company claims they have leveraged the convection control and cooling technologies used in SMT for their solar processing units. BTU produce ovens that handle temperatures from 200 – 1,800˚C and support systems up to 54" wide and 100 ft long.

ECT released new lead-free testing probes for in-circuit test. The new, cleaner probes use a new plating chemistry to resist abrasion and wear. The probe contacts have around 500-650 N hardness.

RMD revealed increased functionality in their award-winning LeadTracer XRF gun. The new Quick Mode enables the system to analyse for only one element, quickly. This complements the Solder Analysis Mode that was introduced last year.

Kester launched their Enviromark 923 halogen-free solder paste, which exhibits improved solderability, low voiding and low residues. The halogen-free paste complies with European REACH legislation.

Cetaq CmController5 Compact is a high calibration device that can accurately measure approximately 30 different production machines to confirm they are within the manufacturers’ specified tolerances. Cetaq claim it is also used for new machine evaluation.

MIRTEC exhibited the Intelliscan system on their MR-7 and MR-3 machines. Among other AOI functions, the Intelliscan system can inspect for lifted leads.

KIC celebrated 30 years in the thermal profiling business and announced that their focus in 2008 would be to boost their resources in North America by hiring additional staff to service their US customer base.

Blue Thunder revealed a new pre-saturated cleaning wipe called Friendly-Green”. The wipe is low-linting, non-flammable, contains no VOCs and is biodegradable.

Kyzen celebrated 18 years in the cleaning business by winning two awards at APEX, a Circuits Assembly Service Excellence award and an NPI award for their Aquanox A4625, a low-concentration, low-cost cleaning agent that is effective on a wide range of soils.

Cyberoptics unveiled a new software platform that is easier to use and program for entry-level operators on their SE300 Ultra paste inspection machine. The SPC system on the Flex Ultra has also been updated and can be linked to other machines to create a common reporting system. The new software uses a central library and reduces programming time by up to 30 minutes.

Aqueous Technologies have been having great success with their Trident platform, launched at Productronica. The stainless steel plumbing system, multi-lingual GUI interface and front-entry access to filters and pumps have made this machine a runaway success. Aqueous claim the batch system uses only 30 gallons of cleaning chemistry per hour in a closed loop system, versus 300 gallons for an inline, plus the associated costs of disposing of the discharge.

Aqueous also displayed the CL400 and CL500 stencil misprint cleaner—a joint venture with German manufacturer Systronic. The manufacturers claim the conveyorized, closed-loop cleaning system is the fastest in the world, with an average wet cycle of seven minutes and a dry cycle of six minutes.

Juki introduced the FX3 pick and place machine with a capability of 63,000 cph. The company can offer four machines, providing 200,000 cph for under $1 million. The machine comes with Juki’s famous three-year parts and labour warranty.

Juki also introduced a twin mini wave selective soldering system that can solder two different types of solder joints in one pass.

Optimal launched the Optel Dynamic Production Scheduling software for factory optimisation.  The company also demonstrated Optel Lean NXT, an optimised version for Fuji NXT pick and place machines. The software uses Fuji’s open architecture interface to extract data from the machine and produce batch schedule reporting throughout the factory.

BPM Microsystems is riding high on its Flashstream platform, which is still the fastest programmer in the industry, capable of programming 2 GB in 21 seconds. BPM’s 3,000FS device programmer programs up to 11,000 devices per hour and was awarded a Service Excellence Award at the show.

Cobar BV introduced XF3, a lead-free solder paste developed to accommodate extended reflow profiles without the use of nitrogen. XF3 completes the family of Cobar products based on Nihon Superior’s patented SN100C-alloy.

The manufacturer claims SN100C demonstrates superior long-term fatigue strength over silver-containing SAC-alloys. With XF3, wetting on all common metal surfaces is excellent, yielding shiny joints reminiscent of leaded solders. It exhibits a robust printing window, printing at 150-200 mm per second. When compared to any SAC alloy, SN100C-XF3 performs better in eliminating voiding.

Innovaxe was another NPI Award winner for its Innocart MSD. The 33-cell unit can store up to 250 reels in a humidity-controlled environment. When the door is opened to remove a reel, it disconnects from the central hive and reconnects when the door is closed. Therefore, only the air within the single cell needs to be brought back up to optimum humidity. The system saves time and energy while extending component life.

Zurvahn is a Florida-based EMS company providing turnkey EMS facilities for high-mix, low volume customers. The company is expanding further into the south-east and has facilities in China and Mexico.

Practical Components provides a full range of dummy components, including the latest Fusion Quad from AMKOR with 400 I/Os on the outside and inside of the package. Practical also demonstrated the Aegis Traceability Kit.

Ovation demonstrated their HD GridLok system, which has 400 support pins for high-density component applications. GridLok’s new Stinger was also on display. The Stinger is a materials dispenser that can be fitted to most stencil printers to dispense materials after the stencil printing cycle is completed.

NBS is another medium-sized EMS company, with facilities in Santa Clara, CA, and Nashua, NH. The company prides itself on not allowing any bad boards to leave its factory. They achieve this by providing a complete service from PCB design through final assembly and test. NBS has plans to open two further locations in the US in the coming months.

Essemtec unveiled a new reflow oven that can be expanded to a maximum of 20 zones. The new FLX 2011 LV-B pick and place machine places 5,200 cph and can be fites with Cognex vision systems to handle 01005 components at an accuracy of +/- 20 μm . The FLX 2011 uses the same 8 mm feeders as its predecessors and is also fitted with linear encoders on the x and y gantries with an accuracy of +/- 2 μm.

The Vitronics-Soltec XPM3 is an upgrade of the popular XPM2 reflow oven and is know for virtually zero maintenance. The XPM3 has enhanced chillers for the cool down zone and improved nitrogen control/gas flow providing reduced ppm levels.

Vitronics’ new Delta 3 wave soldering machine is an entry-level machine fitted with the same dross management and nitrogen controls as the Delta 5, which is a closed loop alternative.

Vitronics also introduced the Selectra 6745+ selective soldering system. It moves the board assembly while the nozzles remain static, providing greater process manoeuvrability. The system has a two-stage operation offering a 30% increase in cycle time. The fluxing unit operate independently to flux the board, while the board in front is going through the soldering cycle.

The Koh Young Aspire is the next generation KY3030. It is 2.5 times faster than its predecessor with an inspection speed of 41 cm2/second. The Aspire has greater accuracy and has upgraded the camera from a 2 megapixel to a 4 megapixel unit and increased the FOV. The mechanical structure has also been improved—the gantry now moves to inspect the board, rather then the conveyor. This allows the Aspire to accept up to 20" x 20" boards, or a dual-lane alternative. The cycle time is 4,000 pads/4 seconds, and the system offers improved SPC.

LPKF introduced the StencilLaser G6060 to complement the G6080, which is the industry standard in stencil laser cutting systems. The G6060 handles a 600 x 600 mm frame size and has a working area of 23" x 23". It is 30% slower than the G6080, but this still makes it the second fastest stencil laser in the market. Both machines use the same GUI interface.

Erik Bergum has just been installed as the new president of Heraeus in the Americas. He announced plans to work on a new range of SnPb synthetic flux components. Heraeus also introduced a new ball dip paste, replacing flux, lowering residues and and offering greater accuracy for placing small balls.

Excerra launched a new, easier to use and faster setup software for their EP35 printer. The cycle time o the EP35 is an impressive 6.9 seconds.

Asymtek introduced the Spectrum S822 semi-automatic batch dispenser. The two-bay shuttle with preheat reduces the load/unload and preheat cycle.

There was a lot of attention paid to Dispensemate 583/585. This solder dispenser can dispense 15,000 dots per minute without clogging using a patented piezo pump system.

Another new launch from the Nordson stable was the X-3 AXI from YesTech. This inline inspections system has the ability to switch between 2D and 3D inspection, capturing eight images x 200 slices using computer tomography.

YesTech also displayed the B-UV conformal coating inspector. The inline system inspects for the presence/absence of coatings and provides a thickness measurement readout.

MYDATA officially unveiled the MY500 printer in the US for the first time. The 3D paste deposition system eliminates the need for stencils and can be programmed in minutes. Primarily designed as an NPI prototyping tool, the MY500 can do pin-in-paste and calibrates and verifies in one step. Both SnPb and Pb-free pastes can be interchanged easily and with no residues using a simple, interchangeable cartridge system. The MY500 uses type 5 pastes and can deposit a range of adhesives for advanced packaging applications.

ECD’s MEGAM.O.L.E. boasts the highest number of thermcouples in the industry, with 20 channels connected to the profiler through a series of nanoconnectors. This is ideal for precisely mapping the ∆T across large BGAs and large boards. The versatile software interface has been greatly enhanced and provides up to 186 data extractions. Oven recipes are automatically generated, then parsed to the profiler, which operates a Go/No Go system.

Lewis and Clark are providers of pre-owned equipment. They have recently opened additional offices in Mexico and Scotland and are offering their extensive market knowledge to provide a unique new service where they act as principal contractor for asset disposal, leveraging different partnerships with local auction houses and other vendors. This offers customers a one-stop shop for asset liquidation.

Speedline presented two new machines. The Aquastorm stencil cleaner uses a unique new S-type nozzle and a spinning and pulsating action to remove the stencil residues. The main wash program uses V jets and a Hurricane sheet of water to clean the stencil. The Electrovert Omni Excel7 is a 10-zone reflow oven fitted with four flux control boxes that can be removed and maintained on the fly.

Well, that’s it for APEX 2008. Altogether, a great first show in Las Vegas, and unlike many of the millions of gamblers that go home empty-handed, many APEX exhibitors went home with healthy order books.

—Trevor Galbraith.

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