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From the Editor:
APEX in a Nutshell
December 31, 1969 |
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
For those of you who didn't make the trip to Last Vegas this year to attend APEX (March 29 through April 3), you really missed out on an important event. Here's what happened during APEX, in a nutshell:
Henkel Corporation announced that they have acquired Abelstik and Emerson & Cuming for $6 billion from National Starch. The companies will now be part of Henkel's adhesives group, expanding more into die attach, board-level interconnect, and related materials and expanding their global reach.
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) acquired all of the outstanding shares of VS Acquisition Holding Inc., parent company of Vitronics Soltec Corporation, global manufacturer of equipment, software, and related services in soldering.
Many companies expanded their focus and had new offerings at APEX. Samsung not only had pick-and-place, but also a full line of PCB assembly equipment, from the front to the end of the line. Sony expanded beyond pick-and-place to display a solder paste printer and a PWB visual inspection machine. MYDATA moved beyond their flexible pick-and-place unit to introduce the MY100 Series, a placement platform with 70% more throughput and a higher feeder capacity. Juki had a full complement of pick-and-place on the floor and gained VISION Award recognition for their OPASS system software.
CheckSum's equipment now can program flash memory while on the board. BPM Microsystems won a VISION Award for their Flashstream flash vector programming system that programs before board assembly.
Speaking of VISION Awards, our submissions, finalists, and winners lists are the largest they've ever been. Our rowdy crowd even liked my introductory speech. Of course, some of the credit for that goes to Bjorn Dahle at KIC, who said and I quoted "That's what I like about this industry: there's so much creative energy. It's just dynamic." I also borrowed my approach from Craig R. Arcuri, president of NBS Design Inc., a PCB design and assembly company, whose approach of taking pride in hard work and building relationships really inspired me during his press conference at the show.
IPC announced that it will return to Las Vegas for APEX next year, which met with general and universal approval.
Need more travel? IPC and SMTA will co-present the "High-performance Electronics Assembly Cleaning Symposium" October 2829, 2008 in Rosemont Ill.
APEX was such an exciting show this year. Did I mention that I actually rode the roller coaster at the New York, New York casino? Talk about expanding your horizons!
Gail Flower, editor-in-chief