Three standout products made royal debuts at the world’s largest electronics equipment fair.

Some things you can just count on. Elvis is the King. Howard Stern is the King of all Media. And Productronica is (still) the king of trade shows.

The Munich exhibition opened in November to strong crowds, massive booths and general optimism. There were myriad advancements in placement and stencil technology. And one company known for the former unveiled a new stencil-free printer that had the crowds buzzing.

One of the brightest lookers was Siemens Automation and Drives president Tilo Brandis, who told reporters that the company (siplace.com) projects sales of placement machines to reach 1,730 units in 2006, up from 1,579 in 2005. Siemens currently claims 33% market share in assembly placement equipment, up about six points from 2004.

ýhe company is committed to improving the modularity of its Siplace pick-and-place (changeover of heads, dual lane configuration, etc.). The dual-lane configuration works in asynchronous (placing the top-side only with no downtime) and synchronous (top and bottom simultaneously) modes.

Other placement equipment makers are following suit. Juki (juki.com) has expanded its factory in North Carolina, and now has a capacity of 250 machines/month. According to president Bob Black, the monthly output is more than 200/month, of which 100 or more are shipped to China. According to the trade group JARA (jara.jp), Juki is the second leading vendor of placement machines worldwide in terms of units sold. Black said “quite a few” new machines are in line to debut in 2006, with an emphasis on improving speed. Juki expects a first-half rush on its selective soldering line; the firm installed 11 in the last four months and expects around 30 installs by mid-February.

Right on target: Samsung Techwin’s SM310 places 30,000 cph at an accuracy of 50 µm at 3 Sigma.

Samsung Techwin (samsung-smt.com or dynatechsmt.com) introduced the next-generation SM310 placement machine, featuring a dual-lane conveyor and nonstop tape feeder, three-camera vision system and a reported placement accuracy of 50 µm at 3 Sigma. The placement speed is 30,000 cph per IPC-9850.

Assembléon (assembleon.com) added to its M series of pick-and-place machines, rolling out the MG-8. The three-head machine, adapted from Yamaha in Japan, has a new area CCD camera and handles from 01005 through 55 sq. mm and oddforms (height up to 25.5 mm). Accuracy is said to be 50 µm for chips and 30 µm for QFPs; throughput rate for ICs and QFPs is 8,400 cph.

Dispensing. Speedline Technologies (speedlinetech.com) debuted XyFlex+, said to have a 30% increase in throughput and twice the accuracy of previous dispensers. The company is forecasting a solid 2006, with growth coming from expansion and replacement orders.

Mimot (mimot.com) showed a six-head inline positive displacement dispenser said to be capable of 40,000 dph. The machine can put down paste, adhesive, epoxy or underfill.

Materials. Concoat (concoat.co.uk), fresh off its Nov. 14 merger with Chase Corp. (the parent company of Humiseal), unveiled a UV-curable conformal coating and a water-based cleaner for Pb-free. It’s “business as usual” for Concoat’s sales and distribution, company officials said. Concoat Systems, the equipment side of the business, remains a separate entity and will change its name sometime in the next several months. Now that it has finalized the purchase of Concoat, expect Humiseal (humiseal.com) to make a global push.

Kester (kester.com) rolled out a new bar solder, Kester K, a SnCu alloy for low-cost consumer applications. Vice president Dave Torp said 30% of the company’s global production is Pb-free alloys and it expects to reach 50 to 60% by Jan. 1.

Henkel’s customers have been slower to transition; the materials company says sales are currently 80% SnPb and it expects 30 to 40% to be Pb-free by April. Henkel (electronics.henkel.com) is constantly adding capacity, and more materials are being produced in the region in which they are consumed. The firm has closed on its JV with Huawei (huawei.com), giving it capacity and a foothold in the China market.

The IPC Solder Products Value Council previewed a soon-to-be-released report on voiding in Pb-free solder joints. In what is likely to stir some controversy, according to IPC’s Tony Hilvers, the Council (made up of most of the world’s leading solder vendors) found no correlation between voids and failures.

Printing. A new stencil-free model had the crowds buzzing. Known for its placement machines, Mydata Automation (mydata.com) made its highly anticipated debut in the printer business with MY500, a jet printer whose nozzle is reportedly capable of 1.8 million droplets per hour. A test board containing 159 parts including 65 0201s, one BGA and one QFP was printed in 17 sec. A laser measures the height profile of the PCB before printing, and unlike an inkjet that moves back and forth, the linear-motor driven head scans the PCB at 3 to 4G acceleration and looks for the best strip on which to shoot paste. The cassette includes a holder and syringe (with a standard 100 g tube). Solder is fed to an inlet via a screw pump, and a piezo hits the piston, which ejects the solder. (Mydata declined to disclose what drives the head.) Another plus: The opening reportedly does not need to be cleaned. Things to watch are the flux content (15%) and the powder size (type 5); only a few vendors supply Type 5 in any volume today. The machine is not ready for high-volume operations yet, Mydata said. It is tentatively priced at about 295,000 euros (or $347K).

Sales of Speedline’s Accuflex printer should overtake its MPM Ultraprint 2000 by December, and the company expects to add up to two more manufacturing lines (for a total of four) for its Accela printer, which debuted this time last year.

DEK (dek.com) president Richard Heimsch said 2005 was expected to end on a high note, the second straight solid year for the printer company. Its Galaxy and Europa platforms rose 10 and six points, respectively, as a percentage of the company’s sales. The third quarter was particularly strong, Heimsch said.

EKRA (ekra.com) showed the X6, a high-end, dual lane printer capable of increased speeds and full inspection. ASYS (asys-llc.com), the other half of EKRA, showed a pair of modular automatic depanelers, the ADS 01F and ADS 01FR. The former features changeover time of 6 sec. and is designed for cellphones and similar-sized boards, while the latter operates 70% faster.

Essemtec (essemtec.com), best known for its placement machines, offered up a full-line configuration including printer, dispenser, reflow and wave machines. Managing director/CEO Martin Ziehbrunner said most orders are for the full line.

Speedprint (speedprint-tech.co.uk) premiered the SP880avi large area printer, capable of handling panels up to about 21 sq. in.

Eye-catching: Transition Automation’s Permalex squeegee has caught the attention of Siemens.

Also, Transition Automation’s (transitionautomation.com) Permalex metal squeegee is infused with a polymer lubricant that reduces friction and stencil wear. The novel wiping system is retrofitable and has already been proven for Pb-free pastes – no flux adjustment is necessary. It has reportedly caught the attention of Siemens, which is trying it out on its DEK printers in Germany. “It’s a mechanical solution that doesn’t require chemistry change,” said president Mark Curtin.

Programming. BP Micro (bpmicro.com) showed a component programmer with a single length feeder option for handling small parts (4 x 4 mm). Its new “10 series” of concurrent programmers uses USB instead of parallel ports and supports up to 4 GB.

Soldering. Vitronics (vitronics.com) debuted “My Selective 6745,” a selective soldering machine for high mix, low volume operations that can be integrated with other Vitronics selective soldering gear. It also showed a slick concealed tunnel system on its wave machine, said to use less oxygen during preheat, soldering and cooldown. The first machine is in place in Germany. The company is opening a tech center in Germany and adding a new demo center in Southeast Asia. New president Eric Tobiason was on hand to meet customers.

All in one: ERSA’s Ecoselect AOI+R combines automatic inspection and selective soldering in a single unit.

Pb-free will likely lead to extra touchup, asserts ERSA (ersa.de) president and COO Mark Cannon. That has led the equipment maker to develop a combination AOI and automatic rework system. Ecoselect AOI+R performs pass/fail inspection on assemblies, then repairs bridges and other PTH defects by means of selective soldering nozzle contained in the same 4.4 x 6.9' unit.

OK International (okinternational.com) rolled out an array of soldering and rework irons and fume extractors. The firm noted that the approach by many operators to crank up the heat when hand-soldering with Pb-free alloys results in shorter tip and equipment life, but does not have much impact for soldering. The power generated through the tip is the key factor, the company said.

VJ Electronix (vjelectronix.com) showed Summit 1800, a new rework system that sported a 65-mm alignment field of view with digital and optical zoom and split imaging for large packages, sockets and connectors; automatic profile generation; and independent and programmable motions for both parts pickup and top heater height.

Among FineTech’s (finetechusa.com) line of benchtop rework stations was the Fineplacer Pico line for 01005 rework at 10 µm accuracy, and Fineplacer Jumbo, for large parts and with 156 µm accuracy.

Speedline showed OmniFlex, a 10-zone reflow oven that reduces power and nitrogen consumption by 30 to 40%.

Software. Polar Instruments (polarinstruments.com) showed off its new field solver. The slick new tool, Si9000, models loss and attenuation, performs extractions of S parameters and can graph impedance and frequency. Polar is also opening an office in Japan.

Fresh off its wildly successful TraceExpert manufacturing execution system, Valor (valor.com) is looking to expand into manual assembly and box-build. “We want to create meaningful data for customers, and help them turn SPC databases into knowledge,” Europe president David Bengal told Circuits Assembly. “We want to create a ‘dashboard’ for the manufacturing manager who sits outside the floor and helps with decision-making based on real-time and historical data.” Stay tuned for that.

Adeon (adeon.nl), the Dutch software vendor, introduced CXInsight, a project and content management system for electronics designers, fabricators and assemblers. The e-collaboration tool is product oriented and comes with a server and seat license. It has one installation already at a major automotive supplier. (Adeon is also a longtime distributor for Valor.)

Test/inspection. Sales at AOI and x-ray equipment maker Viscom (viscom.com) are up 15% this year following a 40% spike in 2004. Viscom showed its S6056, a high-end inspection machine capable of 10 µm resolution. The AOI has a dual-track, dual-shuttle transport system, and is designed to prohibit gases from coming up to the sensor, so the lens does not need cleaning. The machine can inspect two PCBs simultaneously.

RVSI (rvsi.com) is moving to Lean manufacturing, shorter lead times (by 80%) and outsourcing some machine build to Asia. New president Kevin Maddy brings 10 years of turnaround experience to the company. He said the company doubled its third-quarter sales sequentially and is looking for 65% growth next year.

PCBA test gear maker Dage (dage.com) is working with Jedec to standardize on its bond tester for Pb-free. A standard could be released within a year. Jedec is coordinating with EIAJ on the specification, managing director Paul Walter said.

Machine Vision Products (machinevisionproducts.com) rolled out a packaging inspection machine, the 850G, capable of die placement inspection within 10 µm at 3 Sigma.

The accuracy of the fully automatic 3-D solder paste inspection from Koh Young Technology (kohyoung.com) has been much improved over the past two years, and is poised to make serious inroads in 2006. The speed of inline systems remains a concern, although Matt Holzmann of Christopher Associates (christopherweb.com), Koh’s North American distributor, says the machine meets the best rates of several top tier EMS lines.

pot seen – yet: Equipment brands made by Chinese OEMs. However, one president of a major equipment company told Circuits Assembly he thinks knockoffs of Western SMT equipment brands would surface soon in North America.

One observation we made during the week is how much more aesthetically pleasing the equipment has become. Rounded corners, splashy colors and sleek shapes are all adding up to machines that look as cool as they are functional.

This was Productronica’s 30^th year, as illustrated by a large memorial with pictures of past events. Walking the dimly lit and eerily quiet exhibit proved a brief but welcome breather from the bustle of the rest of the show. With Apex on tap next month, the respite will be all too short.

 

Mike Buetow is editor-in-chief of Circuits Assembly.