Global SMT & Packaging's coverage of NEPCON China 2008

Global SMT & Packaging Show Central: APEX 2008

As the show enters its final day there are mixed reports from exhibitors on the show floor regarding the general health of electronics manufacturing in the UK. Some suppliers have reported fairly difficult trading conditions in the UK market for the first half of 2008. Contrastingly, a significant number of other exhibitors were far more bullish, reporting robust sales and are confident in their outlook as we move into the second half of the year.

Andover-based CIL Ltd, for example, reported a staggering 40% growth in their year to date. The vast majority of this surge in business has come from new product introductions which have matured into full production products. The CEM’s customers are almost exclusively UK-based which suggests that there is plenty left in the tank as far as the UK PLC is concerned.

Other deals were cemented during the show. Mydata concluded the sale of it’s new MY100 DX placement system to Kent based OEM EMS Radio Fire & Security Systems Ltd. Another exhibitor that will walk away very satisfied is ZEN Production Equipment. ZEN announced the sale of the new Sun East Peak 400 wave solder machine to Cambridge CEM Axis Electronics during the show. And just before stumps on Day 2 Southport’s KLH Electronics confirmed the purchase of an I-Pulse M2 from Blundell.

As for the Global SMT team, we have enjoyed the format of NEW and are looking forward to Earl’s Court in 2009. We published three issues of the Show Floor Daily during the show, all of which are now available as free PDF downloads. Click on the issue at right to go to the download page -->

Event director Claire Jeffreys thanks both exhibitors and visitors alike for their support for the first NEW show. “Although some volume production has left the UK we still have a healthy indigenous market which needs the platform of a NATIONAL electronics event.”

—Andy Kellard
Vice President, Sales, Global SMT & Packaging

Adaptsys Adaptsys, international distributor for some of the world’s leading productivity solutions, exhibited at National Electronics Week (NEW) 2008.	ABI Electronics ABI Electronics’ BoardMaster 8000 PLUS Universal Diagnostic System delivers significantly improved productivity in testing and diagnosis of any type of analogue, digital or mixed signal PCB.	Anders Electronics Anders introduced new LCD displays and connector boards that will speed delivery of next-generation high-tech products.
Aqueous Technologies Trident is equipped with an automatic chemical management system that automatically measures and doses concentrated defluxing chemicals into the wash-solution recirculation system.	BPM Microsystems BPM Microsystems displayed its latest Flashstream automated programming technology.	BTU International Pyramax 100 is offered as an 8 zone air (100A) or low consumption nitrogen (100N) solution, both providing repeatable process control to ease the transition to lead-free.
Contax Contax launched three new products and showed one product range for the first time in the UK.	Cupio Over the last year Cupio has introduced much new specialised equipment for populated board inspection, testing and handling in production, development, and repair environments.	CyberOptics Their new generation, in-line, 100-percent inspection system takes the SE 300 to the next level. SE 300 Ultra provides accurate, repeatable results at speeds that keep up with increasing line cycle times.
DKL Metals Being completely free of silver, SN100C shines as the only true remedy against Cu-migration into the Sn regions of the solder joint.	Essemtec The Essemtec FAST TRACK batch production line has been developed for those companies who wish to carry out prototype and small to midsize production runs.	Europlacer Europlacer demonstrated the large range of devices (01005 to 102 mm) and the quick changeover capability of its iineo machines. An iineo II ran on one of the live production lines during the show.
EVS International The EVS 1000 is a smaller, lighter version of the popular EVS 3000/6000, with all of the recovery performance of the standard and lead-free solder units.	Goepel The new SCANFLEX® I/O Module (SFX-Module) features eight independent analogue I/O channels with additional digital resources and supports application specific in-system reconfiguration by means of the integrated VarioCORE® technology.	JTAG New hardware to simplify JTAG boundary-scan integration into a number of proprietary test systems was debuted on the JTAG Technologies stand at NEW.
KIC The KIC Explorer provides you with the highest sampling rate available, greater memory capacity and superior data precision.	Lambda New to the UK market is Lambda’s 100W power range addition to its highly successful NV-Power family of 1U high configurable power supplies.	Link Hamson At the heart of the Martin Expert 09.6 rework system is the completely new Easy-Solder software, which manages to reduce the already class-leading cycle times by up to 30%.
MIRTEC Europe The MV-3L desktop AOI system is the “World’s First” Five Camera Desktop AOI system. Fully configured, the MV-3L provides one top-down camera and four side-view cameras.	Pickering Interfaces Pickering Interfaces is expanding its range of LXI compliant products with the introduction of two new matrix solutions.	SEHO The GoSelective light is designed for stand-alone operation or - with the inline version - may flexibly be integrated into any automated production line.
SMART Group The association promoted its wide range of technology events and provided advice about SMART Group membership and its forums.	SMT Technologies FlashRunner is a high-performance, stand-alone in-system programmer specific for Flash-based microcontrollers and serial memories.	Speedprint With a fresh new look, the SP210avi printer is still the smallest printer in the market with the highest level of capability and quality.
Tecan Tecan's Highway Code of Stencils explores the variety of challenges presented to the surface mount assembler in easy to understand sections offering suggestions and guidelines for optimum stencil printing performance.	V-TEK V-TEK’s component handling equipment has earned a strong reputation for ease of use, high reliability and exceptional value.	XJTAG XJTAG unveiled a 3U PXI (PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation) XJTAG module that provides a high-speed interface to the boundary scan chain.
YESTech NEW marked the European launch of YESTech's innovative new YTX X3 automated 3-D x-ray inspection system (AXI) for fast and complete inspection of PCBs with BGAs and other hidden solder joints.