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.
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
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.
In contrast to
Productronica, there were quite a few more distributors (versus OEM
suppliers) representing products. It was difficult to find a company
you were looking for because they were buried within large, crowded
booths. Companies like WKK PCB Trading presented their diverse product
line that included equipment for drilling, imaging, etching, plating,
coating and test and even chemistry. Here I found the Electrochemicals
company graphic, but no one to talk to about Electrochemicals’
products. When I approached one of the WKK booth staff to ask about
what changes might be expected from the recent purchase of
Electrochemicals by OMG, the representative had no knowledge of the
sale.
In another booth, Yan Tin Chemical
demonstrated similar diversity with the process consumables they
represented. Again, I was not able to get any specific product
information about one of the materials they represented, and though
they happily took my business card, they did so without noting the
product I was inquiring about.
Perhaps the most
disappointing was the positioning of Printar in the TKKE booth. This
multiple company booth included four additional distribution companies
with too many products and too little focus. The Printar equipment
wasn’t even there, and the video that was used to introduce their
product was located overhead in an area that did not draw the attention
of attendees as they passed by. Again, no one in the booth had much
information about the equipment, and were unable to answer a simple
question when asked. I’m fairly sure that the majority of visitors
didn’t hear the message about this exciting new piece of equipment.
In
direct contrast, the Orbotech booth was well staffed with knowledgeable
and multilingual people. For the first two days of the show, you could
not get near their inkjet legend printer that was located at the front
of the booth. The Newprint Series, a result of the purchase of New
Systems last year, is their newly released inkjet legend system that
uses UV curable ink with integrated UV curing. The company claims
reduced handling defects and elimination of the traditional double-bake
legend curing cycle. The new machine had a very small footprint. After
spending some time listening to the engineers talk about the system, it
was apparent that it could be set up quickly, and easily interfaced
with exiting digital data files for additional applications, including
serialization, bar-coding and scaling.
It was
interesting to note that the companies selling pollution control
equipment seemed to be very busy at the show. C&G Environmental
Technology was co-located in the Schmid/Protech booth. The message of
waste water treatment and water recycling is getting a lot of play in
China this year as municipalities crack down on pollution and water
usage. Other environmental engineering companies exhibiting included;
Guangdong Xindayu Environmental Engineering, Ultrapure Environment
Engineering and Dongyuan Environmental Protection Science and
Technology. Additional products from the show can be found at
pcdandf.com/cms/hkpca07products.
So as the trade
shows draw to a close for 2007, I am happy the next show I attend I
will be able to view from the comfort of my office. I hope that
everyone will join us as we launch the industry’s first Web-based
interactive trade show. Check it out at virtual-pcb.com. PCD&F
Kathy Nargi-Toth is editor of Printed Circuit Design & Fab.
