BANNOCKBURN, Ill., USA, February 26, 2018 — IPC – Association Connecting Electronics Industries® announces the winners of the IPC APEX EXPO 2018 Innovation Awards, a celebration of the innovators and forward thinkers who are changing the technological landscape of the electronics industry.

Thirty-four products and services were submitted by 32 exhibiting companies and were reviewed, rated and scored by a panel of industry experts who provided a numerical value based on the following criteria: How is this product innovative? How is this product changing the manufacturing industry? What value will customers experience with this new product?

The IPC APEX EXPO Best of Innovation Awards will be presented on Wednesday, February 28 during the morning keynote to the following companies:

DfR Solutions takes a Best of Innovation Award for their Temperature-based FEA with Sherlock Automated Design Analysis™ Software, the first‐of‐its‐kind Automated Design Analysis software tool for analyzing, grading, and certifying the expected reliability of products at the circuit card assembly level.

A Best of Innovation Award goes to JBC Tools for JBC Net, a pioneering software system that manages and optimizes the hand soldering process, standardizes parameters and controls operator performance.

Metcal has earned a Best of Innovation Award for its Connection Validation Robotic Soldering System. Robotic soldering is becoming more commonplace as manufacturers look to reduce risk and increase productivity. Metcal’s new CV Robotic Soldering System addresses these needs by combining its patented CV technology and a new Smart Interface System.

Orbotech, Inc. has earned a Best in Innovation Award for its Ultra Dimension, an Automated Optical Inspection Series for advanced PCB manufacturing processes -- the first AOI solution to integrate four leading solutions into a single system: pattern inspection, laser via inspection, Remote Multi‐Image Verification and 2D metrology.

“The IPC APEX EXPO Innovation Awards allow us to celebrate the innovators and forward thinkers who are changing the technological landscape of the electronics industry,” said John Mitchell, IPC president and CEO. “The product and service submissions were certainly innovative and the companies did an exceptional job in identifying their product’s unique value in the industry. The innovative submissions directly indicate the strength of the electronics industry and its ability to respond to new challenges resulting from emerging technologies,” Mitchell added.

Members of the award review board include: Dale Lee, Plexus Corporation; Todd MacFadden, Bose Corporation; Dave Geiger, Flextronics International; Don Dupriest, Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control; Jeff Timms, ASM Assembly Systems; and Rick Lies, Chemcut Corporation.