Printed Circuit Design & Fab - January 2008 - (Page 30)

SHOW REVIEW The 2007 INTERNATIONAL TRADE SHOW Wrap Up In nearly back-to-back events, Productronica and the HKPCA/IPC Show contrasted and complemented the best and the worst of PCB trade shows this year. by KATHY NARGI-TOTH For me, attending Productronica was like going back in time. The last time I attended was in 1999. At that time the show was still back in the old exhibition center in Munich. And the European PCB Convention was held in conjunction with Productronica, making the event one of the best ever. The new Messe location, being immediately off a subway exit, was easy to get to. The show’s attendance, down from 2005, was damped a bit by daily snow showers and a strike by the regional train engineers. The strike did not effect local subway transportation, so if you made it into Munich on by Tuesday, and were staying in town, the strike was a non-issue. As for the snow – what’s Productronica without some? There were nearly 1,500 exhibitors, heralding from 35 countries. The bulk of the exhibitors were companies in the assembly business. These giants spanned four of the 10 total halls in use. Two halls were occupied by test and measurement companies, one by companies involved in cable processing, two were occupied by PCB fabrication companies and related PCB Fab suppliers and one highlighted micro-manufacturing and nanotech. There were 275 exhibitors that were classified as having products or services in PCB fabrication technologies, just under 20% of the show’s number of exhibitors. Walking the floor, you got the feeling that less than 20% of the 40,000 visitors attending the four-day event ever made it into the B3 and B4 Halls. Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday saw strong attendance, but by early Thursday, the PCB Fab areas were already winding down. There are many reasons to attend a trade show – from basic networking to seeing what’s new. In the past few years there have been fewer new product introductions timed with trade shows and more focus put on networking and customer relationship building, but there were a few surprises this year at Productronica. One of the best roll outs this year was orchestrated by Printar for their new GreenJet, a digital solder mask printing system for PCBs. GreenJet addresses both the technical challenges of smaller pad spacing and tighter registration tolerances and the environmental driver of waste minimization. Using a selective process, the digital ink jet printer can deposit solder mask only where needed, on the surface of the board and eliminate the BOD/COD laden waste stream associated with solder mask development or stripping. The manufacturer claims benefits including cost reduction, the elimination of process steps and reduced cycle time. Printar will also sell a consumable solder mask material designed to work with the equipment. The SMI100 is partially cured by 30 UV during the printing process and receives a final thermal cure after processing. OEM qualifications are underway. Other interesting equipment was seen at the combined booths of AG-Tronik, CEMCO FSL, R&D Depeltronik S.A., InduBond Chemplate Materials S.L., and Olec Corp. CEMCO FSL showcased its new Streamline compact horizontal processors, ideal for smaller PCB fabricators. These compact horizontal processors are ideal for smaller PCB fabricators. Named after the laminar (streamlined) solution flow, this new line – according to CEMCO FSL – is capable of faster and more uniform reactions, thus reducing process time and shortening the equipment footprint. The show floor display unit had been configured for an Immersion Silver process. Additional products can be found at pcdandf.com/cms/productronica07products. From the chill of Germany to the heat in China, the HKPCA/IPC and Productronica shows were half a world away in focus as well as geography. This show attracted over 30,000 people. It was primarily a PCB fab show, in stark contrast to Productronica and even IPC Expo / APEX where assembly dominates the show floor. HKPCA organizers claim that about 8% of the exhibitors are in the PCB assembly space, but many of the companies categorized as EMS were actually just diverse PCB materials suppliers, including Dupont who was exhibiting Riston dry film, Kapton and their latest embedded passives laminate materials, and certainly not targeting the assembly audience. The show featured 435 exhibitors, located in a 26,000 square meter hall. The company breakdown was 56% equipment suppliers, 31% materials suppliers, 5% PCB fabricators and as before mentioned 8% “assembly” suppliers. the exhibitors were: China, 56%; Hong Kong, 26%; Taiwan, 6%; USA, 5%; Japan, 2%; and 5% from other locations, including the EU. Many of the international companies exhibiting at the HKPCA/IPC show had also attended Productronica, but with a different staff mix in the booth. In general, there was less new product positioning seen at this show. The bulk of the visitors collected literature and tote bags, mainly walking the show without spending much time with specific suppliers. A few companies conducted business – ala Productronica style complete with full catering – but the majority of the companies were more about the business, and less about the hospitality on the show floor. Business representatives could be seen in the booths collecting business cards and spending time discussing their specific product features and benefits. JANUARY 2008 PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB http://pcdandf.com/cms/productronica07products

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Printed Circuit Design & Fab - January 2008

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - January 2008 Contents Our Line Market Watch Around the World Happenings ROI PTH Reliability: Designing to Improve PTH Reliability EMC for the Real World PTH Reliability: The Survival and Long-Term Reliability of Lead-Free PCBs iNEMI's Emerging Technologies: Research Priorities for the Electronics Industry Printed Circuit Design & Fab Annual Buyers Guide Special Suppliers Section Guide to Products and Services Off the Shelf: Designcon Preview Marketplace Ad Index BGA Bulletin

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - January 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.