I don't agree with nobody...hmm...syntax error? Anyway, as an old dog, I think we live in a marvellous age. When I joined the electronics industry, we had aluminum profiles, on which we mounted components. Drilling machines made holes for various component supports and the operator's tools were simply sets of wrenches, screwdrivers, cutters and soldering irons. You had lots of sets of screws and bolts and brackets and washers and porcelains supports and lots and lots of wires and cables and you mounted hundreds of small relays, medium relays, power relays and inductors and coils and lots and lots of various capacitors and potentiometers and so on. The soldering smoke that filled the assembly rooms was like the LA smoke in the 60s. We had AVO multimeters, simple Tektronix oscilloscopes and frequency counters big as houses. All signal generators were fitted with electron tubes and the few robotic testers were monsters with clicking relays and blinking glowlamps. We had no X-ray, no computers, no pick'n place, no SEMs, no analytical instruments at all. Plasma cleaners were unknown, ultrasonic cleaners didn't exist. We had not even hand calculators. No laser coplanarity measurement apparatus, no hot air repair stations, no UV adhesive cure lamps, no automatic components testers, no high speed NC drilling machines, no automatic placement inspection systems, no FTIR, no ergonomic tables and chairs and ergonomic tools were unknown, telephones were just few (we had loudspeakers that told you to go to a special telephone room), the list of what we did not have is endless! So, when I compare the working conditions from my younger days with nowaday's, I must say we live in a wonderland, technically spoken! When I did my first inspection of a mechanical thing (a clumsy magnetron), I used my eyes, a glowlamp and a vernier calliper, just now I'm checking a datasheet on a Phoenix tomography Xray equipment, by means of which you can slice'n section any complicated mechanical structure same way as CATSCAN slices human bodies. And my mate nextdoor just depressed 'send' and his CAD starts a highspeed computerized milling machine, that creates a complicated chassies protoype out of a bulk aluminum piece in a fraction of an hour. And on my desk is my endoscope waiting to be used. I enter the flexible fiber into a microwave waveguide. I can defocus, change magnification and rotate a little prism 180 degrees and take photos on the inside of the windling tube. Isn't all this just amaaaazzzzing!! Just a few words to encourage bored engineers Inge -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bev Christian Sent: den 26 februari 2007 19:11 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] APEX TechNetters, I am not a process engineer, in fact I am not an engineer of any kind, but a scientist, so I had a different perspective. I found that the exhibition had some nifty pieces of equipment that were either new or I did not know about. These included, but are not limited to: Struers (make x-sectioning chemicals and equipment) - They showed me a system where you can put a sample in a special holder, put it in an x-ray machine, zero in on the exact spot that you want to cross-section via the x-ray image, and then take it out and put it in an automatic grinder/polisher and it will prepare a sample to that exact spot. Akrometrix (make the Thermoire) - They now make a microfringe projector which allows warpage measurement of components down to a 1 mm x 1 mm. They also make another Thermoire add-on, a digital image correlation (DIC) module that allows simultaneous warpage measurements of a part on a board and the board AND measure x and y expansion. Soltec (strain gage data acquisition) - They showed me their latest 16 and 32 channel data acquisition equipment. ECI Technology (make SERA testers) - Have said they will send their latest recipes. Assure me that I should be able to measure OSP thickness using a different solution. So for me the show was very fruitful. And of course there were the committee meetings and papers. But the main reason I go is to see my friends, but you can never tell a boss that! Bev RIM -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Buetow Sent: February 26, 2007 11:33 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] APEX At the risk of disagreeing with my good friend Phil, I can't remember a show where more new machines were introduced. Yes, many were based on previous platforms, and yes, Cogiscan's RFID feeder was highly interesting, but there were some other breakthroughs, too. One was Viscom's combination AOI/AXI. Vitronics added a software program to its 6745 selective machine that is superb both in design and use. I also saw a couple of really slick dispensers. The problem is, some of the existing machines are already so good we do get a bit jaded and forget how impressive the engineering really is. Mike Mike Buetow Editor in Chief Circuits Assembly 30 Glenburnie Road Boston, MA 02131 USA W/mobile: 617-327-4702 Watch our latest on-demand video Webinar! www.pcbshows.com/webinars/ondemand/siemens RoHS in China Webinar: Thursday, Jan. 18, 2 pm EST Register at www.pcbshows.com/webinars --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- This transmission (including any attachments) may contain confidential information, privileged material (including material protected by the solicitor-client or other applicable privileges), or constitute non-public information. 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