SAN DIEGO – FEB. 27, 2018 – CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY and PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN AND FAB announced the winners of the 2018 New Product Introduction Awards for electronics assembly equipment, materials, software, and PCB fabrication.

The 11th annual NPI Awards recognizes leading new products during the past 12 months. An independent panel of practicing industry engineers selected the recipients.

The winners are:

Automation Tools            
Fuji America (Fuji Smart Nozzle Cleaner)

Coatings/Encapsulants    
Henkel Electronic Materials (Package-Level EMI Shielding Materials)

Component Placement – High Speed    
Europlacer Americas (Atom 4 Pick and Place Machine)

Component Placement – Multi-function    
Europlacer Americas (Atom 3 Pick and Place Machine)

Component Storage            
Inovaxe (InoAuto Smart MSD Cart)

Cored Wire                
Indium (Core 230-RC “No-Spatter” Robotic Cored Wire)

Device Programming            
Data I/O (UFS Upgrade Kit for Lumen X)

Dispensing Equipment             
Essemtec (Tarantula – Relentless All Terrain Jet Dispenser)

First Article Inspection             
Yxlon (Cheetah EVO Plus Scalable X-Ray Inspection System)

Process Control Tools            
Kyzen (Kyzen Analyst)

Process Innovation    
Panasonic Factory Solutions Co. of America (Panasonic SPV, Paperless Cleaning Technology)

Rework and Repair Tools        
Metcal (Connection Validation Robotic Soldering System)

Screen/Stencil Printing Equipment    
Juki (G-Titan Automatic Screen Printer)

Screen/Stencil Printing Peripheral/Consumables
Inovaxe (InoAuto Smart Stencil Rack)

Software – Process Control    
Cogiscan (Factory Intelligence – Analytics)    

Software – Production             
BPM Microsystems (WhisperTeach)    

Soldering Materials
AIM (REL22 M8 High Reliability Solder Paste)

Soldering – Reflow    
R&D VaporTech (Smartphase Inline Vapor Phase Reflow System)

Soldering – Selective            
Nordson Select (Integra 508.5 Selective Soldering System)    

Soldering – Other            
Promation (Quick 9440IR-U Soldering Robot)

Test & Inspection – AOI            
Test Research Inc. (TR7700Q 3D AOI System)

Test & Inspection – AXI            
Viscom (Inspection System X7056-II)

Test & Inspection – SPI
CyberOptics (SE3000 SPI)

Underfill/Thermal Interface Materials    
Henkel Electronic Materials (Bergquist Gap Filler TGF 1500RW Liquid, Peelable TIM for Easy Rework)

Laminates    
Ventec USA (VT-5A2)

Wet Process     
Dow Electronic Materials (Microfill SFP Acid Copper)

AOI / Test    
Orbotech (Ultra Dimension)

Ink Jet    
Nano Dimension (DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D Printer)

Specialty Substrate Materials     
MacDermid Enthone (Systek THF)

Plating    
MacDermid Enthone (MacuSpec VF-TH 200)

Surface Treatment    
Nordson March (RollVIA Plasma System)

Factory Automation Software     
Mentor, a Siemens Business (Valor NPI, Intelligent DFM)    

The awards were presented during a ceremony at IPC Apex Expo in San Diego.

“As the entries to this year’s NPI Awards demonstrate, there is a real move toward faster throughput right now,” said Mike Buetow, editor-in-chief of CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY and PCD&F. “This was noted by the judges, who were impressed with the trend to increase speed in the same machine footprint.”