European PCB Convention 2004

Citation

Ling, J. (2005), "European PCB Convention 2004", Circuit World, Vol. 31 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2005.21731bac.001

European PCB Convention 2004

European PCB Convention 2004

Keywords: Printed circuits, Trade fairs

In unseasonably warm weather the 2004 European Printed Circuit Board Convention opened in Cologne on 5 October 2004. As with all good exhibitions there was a lot going on. EIPC, the hosts, had rather neatly arranged for the conjoined convention to take place on the exhibition floor, thus avoiding the usual dichotomy of speakers vs sellers.

As is usual with an EIPC event, there was a buzz. It was the buzz of activity within the exhibition, and the buzz of some pretty detailed and comprehensive information being imparted in a learned atmosphere within the three conference rooms that took in ten conference sessions, five tutorials and a lead-free panel discussion. So no one could have said that no subject was left undiscussed, no topic not tackled.

On the exhibition floor there was a lot of news. Jake Kelly at Viking Test Services waxed lyrical about the Emma ELX 6146 flying probe tester, he has sold ten into the UK this year alone, and has now set-up a dedicated test service in Leicester, which opened in September. Jake decided that there was a demand in the north for such a service, and with an inventory including two fully automatic Pluritec single- station drilling machines, one Emma ELX flying probe tester, one Microtech Direct Legend Printer and two grid fixture testers, this facility is now running 12 h a day. Good decision.

The New System team still had their summer tans and maybe this was due in part to the glow of satisfaction from their unrivalled success in the inkjet sales arena. Sgr. Fumo, President of New System, was happy that their long- term strategy was now paying off. Sales of over 50 legend ink printers around the world in the last 3 years proves the point. Asked about their position in the matter of etch resist, he said that they were currently “fine tuning” their own print head on their machines such that 50 µm gaps and tracks would be routine. With solder mask New System had had to change their ideas somewhat to take account of new technologies, but with the relevant IPC and UL approvals now granted, that system too was set to accelerate away from the starting blocks. Some of the depth of commitment from New System may be measured by their employment of no less than 27 engineers in product development.

Anjo Kater looks after the sales and marketing for Pulse Power Current Source BV who are resident in Aarle- Rixtel in the Netherlands. PPCS is the progeny of Dutch Reverse Pulse Plating who started life some 6 years ago and changed the face of effective panel plating by the application of 20 years experience and a simple retrofitted piece of kit. They have moved on to ultrasonic vibration, vibration equipment, eductors, UV oxidising brightener breakdown sand electrolytic metal recovery units. Given that Mr Vermeulen, the founder of PPCS, used to run a PCB shop called Print Service, then you know that what they do now is based on what they did then to improve the performance, quality, speed and effectiveness of the electroplating process.

A first-time exhibitor at EPC 2004 was SKC, from Korea. Hardly a new firm, they were founded back in 1976 and have established themselves as a major global supplier of speciality films, but for them this was their first PCB- related exhibition in which to promote their dry film photoresists and polyester film for flexible circuits for the automotive industry. Polyimide film, that scarce commodity, is not too far down the line, they say. No agent in the UK yet, but they have an office in Frankfurt, so a presence in Europe has been for a decade, in the LCD and display markets only so far.

A conversation with Marco Vacchelli, Sales Manager at Pluritec Industries was informative. Two months ago Pluritec took over the activities of the ACD Group, which was formed a few years ago for all the right reasons at quite the wrong time, and are now continuing to sell the established Pluritec drilling machinery as well as the famous bright orange IS wet processing equipment. On the stand their Golden 8888 multi-spindle 8-spindle drilling machine sat alongside a Inspecta HP X-Ray Automatic Inspection, and with 80 per cent of production now going to the Far East they are content with developments so far. As if to emphasise their longevity, they displayed the first drilling machine they ever produced, 40 years old and in good shape. Hand operated with a pin-guided matrix, and 18,000rpm ball-bearing spindles, a good man could drill one panel per minute!

Marco cited Thailand as a country of great interest to Pluritec; they reckon it is the next potential on the international market as there is better political stability, with a good economy and low cost labour. Lorenzo Giglio now heads the after sales service, which ranges through the USA, Europe and the Far East, and their Taiwan operation under the name of Sogotec continues to prosper.

On the Multiline International Europa ((MIE) to those of us who have memories) stand Ferdi Hammerer, that itinerant Austrian, explained the workings of their new glass/glass alignment tool which contains two CCTV cameras with flexible positioning which generates precise alignment of the phototools to the circuit board. It may be used for inner layers, outer layers and soldermask. The system can be retrofitted to most contemporary two-drawer manual vacuum exposure systems, and is a much higher accuracy tool than has currently been available. Ferdi is offering a decent bottle of Austrian red wine (tautology or what) to anyone coming up with a suitable brand name. A suggestion of “Gimlet” was rejected out of hand.

Nicola Arena of Occleppo explained how their horizontal desmear line, handsomely displayed on their stand, operated. Capable of using various chemistries, and capable of handling various rigid board laminates down to 0.15 mm, the besmear line incorporates a special process which “pushes and pulls” solutions inside the holes, holes down to 0.1 mm and includes ultrasonic to improve wetting inside the hole. The line would be placed in production just before direct metallisation. Occleppo, he said, are planning to introduce a new horizontal electroplating line in time for the next Productronica. “Tailor Made” wet processing is what they do, he concluded, every customer is different that is why none of their equipment is really “standard”.

A quick chat with Fouad Hanoun of Seica France. Founded in 1986, Seica France sells (Seica Spa, Italy) testing equipment for rigid and flexible circuit boards throughout France and Benelux, and is busy with the new S22 flying probe bare board tester.

Glad to have stopped on the Screen Circuit stand, as many changes had taken place, with the company now being a part of the Holders Technology Group, which includes HT Cimatec, and Top-Grow Technology of Hong Kong. Now a part of a Euro 20 million t/o group, Screen Circuit, supply back- up and entry drilling materials as well as laminate, and now offer a unique thickness tolerance guarantee for materials. Also selling Lenz and Sheldahl polyimide for flexibles, as well as Zimaclean clean room and anti-static products. Theo Brokelman, MD, was in good heart, and happy to be part of a strong group which had been created by the retrenchment of the market.

Those people who did not come to Cologne, or could not, missed some rather interesting new products, of which many were in evidence. LPKF is a company that never fails to interest, to excite, to intrigue, and always has something new up its sleeve. One of the kind sponsors of EPC 2004 introduced the new LaserScalpel PCB Reworking Tool, a laser-based tool for removing copper bridges on PCBs with very fine structures. It is far more accurate than mechanical rework tools, and is easy to operate. Being a Class 1 laser system, it is safe to use in any environment, and by staff needing no technical knowledge or experience.

Their MicroLine 740C is also new, and laser tool high-speed for contour cutting of rigid and flexible PCBs. The CO₂ laser gives, they claim, a high throughput performance and can be used for structuring layers, component pockets and channels. If they had had their laser direct structuring (LDS) machine for moulded interconnects on the stand then the wow factor might have been enhanced. Never a dull moment at LPKF, nonetheless.

Serge Charbonnier, the elegantly moustachioed head of Automa-Tech, was showing off their new semi- automatic PC printer that uses pure collimated light, with a 1° collimation angle (Plate 1). The AFOSA-CA5 will take 24” x 30” panels, will image inner, outer layers and LPISM, uses closed- loop air-cooling, has two-drawers each with four alignment cameras, costs around 190,000 and will come in 5 and 8 kW variations. The collimated light gives 28 mW of energy per square centimeter, and an 18” x 24” panel can be processed in 28 s. The market in 3 months time doubtless will be popular.

Plate 1 The new semi-automatic PC printer from Automa-Tech

He also explained that the company had introduced the Arrow 250 reel-to- reel exposure machine back in March, which gives six exposures per minute on polyimides, polyesters, and they now have the Arrow 500 machine which takes reels of up to 500 mm width, operates on a double-sided basis and is perfect for dry film, etch resist and solder resist imaging. A pity, said Frederick Baradel, that there was no competition at the show so that buyers could make a comparison. Agreed.

Plate 2 The Teknek stand

Callum Campbell is now i/c marketing at Teknek (Plate 2) on whose stand much interest was being shown in their new ESD hand roller range, which eliminated the problems caused by static electricity build-up, the new material allows for sub-micron particle pick up. They have also produced pre-sheeted adhesives in roll format that allows the PC printer operator to use the cleaning material without downtime for handling. Also new is their Maximiser camera identification system, which gives complete panel traceability throughout production by recognising drilled alphanumeric identification, bar-codes, or ink-jet printed coding, even under photoresist, and such instant and accurate data has, in the words of one customer who has installed the system, led to a yield improvement of 50 per cent.

Ulrich Zeller is a familiar face on the Lauffer stands, EPC 2004 was no exception. Their SL80-2 horizontal conveyorised multilayer press is attracting a lot of interest, and can produce 10-12 layer count boards as an in-line process. Like all sophisticated engineering concepts, the SL80-2 is nearing the end of some pretty intensive trialling and will be available to the PCB industry very soon indeed.

Cedal, once a part of the Italian ACD Group, were back in evidence, Mauro Colombo the MD telling us that they were re-formed last March and have managed to keep all the original products, and ten of the most experienced people as well, so they are now turning their attention to sales in to the Far East markets as well as looking after their established customer base in Europe. The new InduBond 130 induction bonding press was on display alongside a monolamination press that has proved particularly popular with quickturn and prototype houses. Cedal are finding their dry film laminators popular in China as well as in more mature markets.

Stuart Hayton is the VP global sales and marketing of Mania Technologie, and is a man with a truly global perspective who, unlike some, still regards Europe as a part of the global market and treats it with the respect he thinks it deserves. As a consequence of such broadmindedness the stand was chock full of equipment and people. Their new Micronic 81 offers 2G on X-and Y-axis, and 4G Z-axis acceleration from linear motor drive and will offer high productivity for the company operating at low to medium volume production. Equipped with the Euro drill bit cassette, and offering a choice of spindles according to function required, from 160,000 to 250,000rpm spindle, the Micronic 81 will drill down to 0.01 mm and has tool measuring by laser, contact bit detection and drill depth, as well as a camera alignment system. Great value for money, it would appear.

Russell Crockett on the Du Pont PCM Europe said that they were seeing a reasonable turnout of customers, given the climate of the industry. The move of their electronic technologies customer service centre division to Luxembourg will allow Du Pont to consolidate on the message “what the future is about” and they should know. They were using the show to promote their FX900 LDI Resist a high resolution resists for HDI technology that was perfect for sub 30 mm lines and spaces with high yields. The resist has good flow characteristics, good adhesion and is robust. Alongside was their LDI1500 Laser Series film from the Riston stable for precision direct imaging, as well as a new ImageMastere diazo film for fine feature imaging.

Erling Olsen is the MD of Böhler Bleche whose tooling plates for multilayers account for only 25 per cent of his company's turnover. However, their European market is quite static, with a lot of repeat business, and strong customer loyalty. The Far East is drawing their attention, he added, and their IEC630 (almost) stainless steel plates were on offer at the show at half-price. They refurbish separator plates, which is useful, and are a company that obviously offers good quality and good service. So it was a shame that no one was there to talk to Herr Olsen about that.

Klaus Fahnenstich of Posalux was a difficult man to pin down; he was almost always in animated conversation with a steady stream of visitors, probably coming to talk about their Ultraspeed 3 x 3 for prototypes and for production. This machine is aimed at the BGA HDI market where microvias and blind vias are part of the design rules. As an alternative to laser drilling, the 3 x 3 offers 0.10-0.15 mm drilling, up to 1.6 mm, for through holes, blind vias, but with 720 hits per minute using a 250,000rpm spindle and a tolerance of ±10 µm. For the next generation of drilling machines the 3 x 3 uses three axes on three stations to give nine spindles, with each unit able to work independently of the other. If you want one, you may have to wait a few weeks, but to it might be worth it.

Tony Searle's business card says that he is the international product manager at Coates Circuit Products, which effectively means that he is running the show. With his extensive background in technical sales, a better man would be hard to find to take over from the irrepressible Chris Whitmarsh who was, as usual, active in his own hospitable manner on the rather well- stocked stand. Coates have introduced ImageSMART that is their latest LPISM designed for enhanced final end performance in the field in the realms of surface finishing. It can be used for LDI, screen, contact and curtain coat applications, it is halogen free, aqueous developing and is being taken up very quickly by many of the leading PCB manufacturers in Europe, traditionally their strongest market. However, Stuart Down, now resident in the USA is growing sales over there nicely, and that Coates is now part of the Sun Chemical/Dainippon Ink companies has proved beneficial in penetrating the Far East markets. When he is not globe-trotting, Tony is restoring an AC-Shelby Cobra. Now that is interesting!

Summary

EPC 2004 in Cologne was a good show, albeit small. The conference programme was superb with 32 technical papers, four tutorials and a lead-free workshop was excellent value for money. As for the exhibition, some might argue that it is now all too small, there are too few visitors, and they might be right. But some of the exhibitors were having a good show, and some had said that whilst the numbers were not there, they had done enough to have made the participation worthwhile. But the numbers are not around in Europe any more, and even the less-focused but monolithic Productronica this year will prove the point. What is needed for the future is a different format, in a different style, at a different location, and which will appeal to a much wider base that just bare board PCB.

All good things come to an end, happily, or there would be no more good things to look forward to.

Floreat EIPC!

John LingAssociate Editor