I am delighted to report that our “Technology Week and mini exhibition” has been a great success. Almost 200 visitors came through the doors during the week and they were able to see our wide range of PCB assembly, soldering and inspection products working. Now that there is no effective showcase exhibition for large production equipment, we will definitely be repeating the experience in the future.
With everything set up here for our Technology Week next week, the next issue we have to address is whether or not to exhibit at “National Electronics Week” in June. Following the demise of Nepcon, which was always our main show. NEW has tried to establish itself as a Nepcon replacement, but last year it was a big disappointment for us. Vistor numbers were very low and for the first time, a major UK show failed to return its investment. In my view Earls Court wasn’t a good venue, and June isn’t a good month, it’s too near the summer holidays.
The organisers are doggedly staying with Earls Court for 2009, and have responded by trying to broaden the appeal of the exhibition by involving companies from all sectors of the electronics industry. But the industry is very fragmented, and production engineers who specify production equipment are rarely interested in nuts and bolts items like components and box build hardware. We are very undecided as to whether it’s worth exhibiting this year, and looking at the floor plan, many of our competitors seem to share this opinion.
Exhibitions are expensive and time consuming, and there is nothing more frustrating than twiddling your thumbs on a deserted show stand that is costing you in the region of £45 per minute. That’s roughly what we spent on last year’s show. Even in the good times you have to sell an awful lot of equipment to justify that kind of expenditure.
If our in-house show next week is as succesful as we hope, we won’t need National Electronics Week anyway. Fingers crossed!
Rework stations for removal and replacement of surface mounted components from printed circuit boards. Manufactured by Ersa, supplied and supported in the UK by Blundell. Rework & repair for surface mounted assemblies and BGA’s, removal and replacement of BGA’s on PC boards.
Ersa has continuously developed their range of rework and repair stations, and the latest versions, the IR550 and IR650 have established themselves as the clear worldwide market leaders in PCB rework technology. Ersa’s safe infra red heating technology combined with precision component replacement system makes it easy to remove and replace the most delicate and expensive components without damage to the device or the substrate.
For more details or a demonstration of Ersa’s PCB repair and rework systems contact Paul Cooper on 07880 546380 or Keith Gummer on 07770 615405, or visit our website www.blundell.co.uk.
We have available a second hand fully reconditioned Blundell CMS 400 wave soldering machine. Manufactured in 2005, it has a pallet type 400mm wide conveyor, spray fluxer, a combined hot air and IR preheater, lead free solder pot and single solder wave. It can be fitted with a second solder wave if required. It is filled with 270 kilos of SAC-X Lead Free solder. 2 adjustable carrier frames are included. It is factory recbuilt and looks “as new”. Please call us for a price. We can deliver UK mainland. We will install and commission it for small additional cost if required.
It can be viewed at our Coventry facility. Call Paul or Neil Blundell or Paul Cooper on 02476 210270 to arrange to see it working.