Show report: SMTAI survives Fay
Title
Show report:
SMTAI survives Fay
SMTAI was a modest success, despite every-
thing that Tropical Storm Fay tried to throw
at it. Indeed, the storm itself turned out to
be nothing more than a “wet and windy day
in England” and was greatly exaggerated in
the national press. The knock-on effect on
SMTAI was that virtually all the internation-
al delegates who planned to go to Florida
showed up and the locals stayed home.
Still, the event was judged a modest
success with the international delegates
attending the vibrant sessions in what was a
strong and extremely well organized techni-
cal program.
On day one, we staged the Global
Technology Awards, which provided some
surprising results from the biggest field of
contestants to date, confirming the GT
Awards as the leading international equip-
ment and materials contest. Full results will
be revealed in our special Awards Issue in
October.
ing, probe testability and high peak reflow tion and IPC training qualifications. The
Exhibitors at SMTAI were sanguine
temperature handling. Tim Jensen revealed company, called Performance Innovation,
about the effects of Fay and resolved to
in the video interview at the show that utilizes the full range of Celestica labora-
make the most of the lower foot traffic. That
this unique paste has also been found to tory equipment and test services to provide
said, there were some successes with at least
eliminate ‘head-in-pillow’ defects. The com- customized consulting to EMS companies
one company (Essemtec) selling a turnkey
mon defect associated with very small BGA from their Toronto headquarters.
line.
devices has become an increasing industry Aqueous Technologies exhibited the
nScrypt was one of the real ‘finds’
problem. multi-award winning Trident defluxing
at the show. Their patented dispensing
Zestron presented a technical paper system that was deliberately constructed for
technologies are dispensing materials down
and a video interview discussing some new use in even the most difficult manufacturing
to 20 picolitres in volume and a wide range
advances in low-standoff cleaning. These environments in Asia and around the world.
of viscosities from virtually water up to
included differences in chemistries and The user-friendly GUI interface comes in an
solder paste at speeds that genuinely rival
impingement using different nozzle designs. increasing number of languages.
screen printers. Watch the video on our
MIRTEC continued their successful Assembléon demonstrated the new
SMTAI Show Central page at http://smtai.
year by picking up the AOI award at the MG1 pick and place machine, which is rated
globalsmt.net.
Global Technology Awards and reported at 17,900 cph (IPC) and features the new
Another interesting company was IBE,
record sales of their five-camera MV-7L and self-calibrating multi-max head and an RFID
the German manufacturer of vapor phase
MV-3L systems. tracing system to allow lot traceability.
equipment. Vapor phase technology has
Virtual Industries have been around Balver Zinn highlighted their new FX3
enjoyed a huge revival due to the lack of
the SMT industry for 21 years, but this flux developed by their Cobar division. This
voiding and improved reliability when using
Colorado-based manufacturer of vacuum is the first of a range of new products due
lead-free solders. However, till now it has
hand tools continuously develops a wide from the company.
essentially been a batch process. IBE will
range of different hand tools to suit almost BPM Microsystems continued to lead
shortly be launching an inline version that
every application, including a pick-up tool the pack with the world’s fastest program-
they claim will keep up with assembly line
for 01005’s. mers using their FlashStream technology.
speeds and comes complete with automatic
Celestica had a spin-off division at the The increasing popularity of GPS and other
loaders and unloaders.
show providing training and consulting telecom-related equipment is driving up
Indium Corporation featured their 8.9
on a number of topics ranging from lean demand for these dedicated programmers.
solder paste that was developed for void-
manufacturing to WEE and RoHS certifica-
ECD displayed their new MegaM.O.L.E.
36 – Global SMT & Packaging – September 2008 www.globalsmt.net
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