Global SMT & Packaging's coverage of SMTAI 2008

Global SMT & Packaging Show Central: APEX 2008

The 2008 SMTAI Conference and Show was held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center, Orlando, FL, from August 17-21, 2008. The show included a newly expanded exhibit floor featuring equipment, materials and services and is focused exclusively on the electronics assembly industry.

The 2008 Global Technology Awards were given out at a ceremony held during SMTAI. The awards this year comprised 28 categories, including Best Product Asia, Best Product Europe and Best Product North America. The pick-and-place category this year was divided into two: low-to-medium volume and high volume. A category for flux was also added.

Rebecca Galbraith interviewed the winners as they came off stage. Watch the interviews and see the winner's list.

Aqueous Technologies - Booth 207 Aqueous Technologies Corp. released Trident III, its automatic defluxing and cleanliness testing system. The Trident Series represents the next generation of lead-free compatible, fully automatic post-reflow defluxing systems.	Blue Thunder - Booth 302 Blue Thunder Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of high-quality wiping products and a supplier of consumable items used in cleanrooms, assembly lines, laboratories and manufacturing, featured its friendly green™ wipes, THE AQUAVATORTM stencil wiping fabric, the Green Monster stencil wiping roll and antistatic wipes.	BPM Microsystems - Booth 717 BPM Microsystems displayed its latest Flashstream (automated and manual) programming technology, as well as its enhanced generation device programmer family.
DEK - Booth 800 Long regarded as the premiere print platform for maximum value and exceptional manufacturing flexibility, DEK’s Horizon 03i system is newly equipped with a redesigned gull wing cover to enable easy accessibility and operator convenience.	ECD - booth 526 Recognized with industry awards for both product design and its M.A.P. software, the MEGAM.O.L.E.®20 thermal profiler from ECD was on display.	Essemtec - Booth 211 Essemtec exhibited the PANTERA-XV SMD placement system, which directly addresses prototyping and production runs in mid-sized quantities.
FCT Solder- Booth 125 FCT Solder, a division of FCT Assembly and an authorized Licensee of Nihon Superior Co. Ltd.’s SN100C product line, displayed SLIC™ paste.	Henkel - Booth 806 Henkel’s breakthrough epoxy flux material, Hysol® FF6000, combines flux functionality and underfill protection into a single material.	Indium Corporation - Booth 517 Indium8.9 Pb-Free No-Clean Solder Paste is an air reflow solder paste that performs like SnPb by delivering more performance features than any Pb-Free solder paste ever made.
Inovaxe - Booth 819 Inovaxe Corp. demonstrated INOKIT software. INOKIT increases inventory accuracy, manages RoHS transition, controls moisture-sensitive devices, offers component lot level traceability, handles vendor and customer consigned materials and eliminates all pre-kitting operations.	JUKI - Booth 317 Juki Corporation, a world-leading provider of automated assembly products and systems, featured its 350E selective soldering system.	KIC - Booth 815 KIC featured the KIC Explorer, a new generation of thermal profiler that, due to its impressively compact design, moves easily through the restrictive process dimensions encountered in today’s thermal applications.
Krayden - Booth 330 Products from FCT Assembly, Dow Corning Corp., HumiSeal Conformal Coatings and Techcon Systems were on display in Krayden’s booth.	MIRTEC Corp - Booth 424 MIRTEC Corp., the AOI market leader in North America, highlighted its MV-3L desktop AOI system.	Nihon Superior - Booth 125 Nihon Superior USA, a subsidiary of Nihon Superior Co. Ltd., an advanced soldering supplier to the worldwide market, featured a new, expanded range of SN100C products with FCT Assembly, one of its US SN100C Global Partners.
Pillarhouse - Booth 605 Pillarhouse introduced the new-to-the-industry Jade MKII hand-load selective solder system.	Precision Placement Machines - Booth 631 PPM's new ThinPRO electronic tape feeder improves Quad System tape feeder accuracy and performance for placing small parts. The ThinPRO was designed to run 0402, 0201 and 01/0005 components.	RMD Instruments- Booth 324 Devoted to the development of new radiation detector and systems technology, RMD Instruments LLC highlighted a new solder analysis and identification feature of its innovative LeadTracer-RoHS XRF system.
SEHO - Booth 635 SEHO's GoSelective light offers an uncompromisingly high soldering quality and maximum flexibility in selective miniwave soldering processes, particularly for small and medium production volumes.	Siemens Electronics Assembly Systems - Booth 201 Siemens Electronics Assembly Systems demonstrated its high-speed Siplace X3 placement machine.	SIPAD Systems - Booth 312 SIPAD Systems Inc. has brought stencil manufacturing in-house with the purchase of a Tannlin T-8 Fiber Laser.
Thermo Fisher Scientific - Booth 309 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. demonstrated its third-generation handheld Thermo Scientific Niton XL3 700 series x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers.	VJ Electronix - Booth 825 VJ Electronix showcased its Vertex Series-CT x-ray system, a high-resolution computed tomography system that is designed and dedicated to providing the accuracy and reliability required to analyze the inner structure of any specimen.	Zestron - Booth 725 FAST Technology-based cleaning agents are a proprietary mix of newly developed surfactants, which allows for a quicker removal of a wide variety of the latest lead-free and eutectic flux residues..
Zurvahn - Booth 706 As a contract manufacturer, Zurvahn will display printed circuit boards to highlight its design capabilities. The company also will showcase its through-hole and surface mount solutions as well as flexible circuit products.