Plymouth, WI — August 2018 — Kurtz Ersa Inc., a leading supplier of electronics production equipment, is pleased to announce that IPC-HERMES-9852 replaces the obsolete SMEMA standard for the transfer of board-related information. IPC-HERMES-9852 was developed and introduced to the market by The Hermes Standard Initiative, an independent and open group of leading vendors of SMT assembly equipment. Kurtz Ersa was one of the original companies to work toward this initiative.

Ersa‘s systems support the networking, automation and optimization of central workflows with hardware, software and services that enable electronics manufacturers to transition to the smart SMT factory. Together with other SMT manufacturers, Ersa has established the open HERMES standard as a successor to the SMEMA standard for M2M communication in SMT lines.

The Hermes Standard Initiative will maintain its setup as a fully vendor driven initiative and keep its approach to global cooperation based on a mix of remote online discussions and regular meetings. Both IPC and The Hermes Standard Initiative are convinced that further deployment of the standard will be strongly accelerated by maintaining the concept of a free and open standard. This will allow more and more equipment vendors to enter the movement in shorter time. With a broader penetration, the mutual benefit of a standard is exponentially enhanced further for all users. Kurtz Ersa plans to continue to participate in the ongoing initiative.

There was a very close cooperation between IPC and The Hermes Standard Initiative from the very beginning. This was set forth when it was found that the new IPC standard for vertical integration, IPC CFX, and The Hermes Standard are a perfect match when it comes to fully integrated communication in a mixed vendor SMT factory.

IPC-HERMES-9852 is a non-proprietary open protocol, based on TCP/IP- and XML. It takes exchange of PCB related data between the different machines in electronics assembly lines to the next level. The Hermes Standard has been initiated, developed and established and is further maintained by a group of leading equipment suppliers, bundling their expertise in order to achieve a great step towards advanced process integration.

For more information about Kurtz Ersa North America, visit www.ersa.com.

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