Over 1,400 exhibitors from 45 countries presented their products for the development, production and testing of electronics at 'productronica 2023'. The focus of the innovations was on power electronics, artificial intelligence and sensor technology. With 42,000 visitors, the trade fair recorded significantly more visitors than in 2021 and almost as many as in 2019 before the pandemic. Internationality reached new highs for exhibitors at 54% and for visitors at 58%. And the ratings from visitors and exhibitors were consistently positive.
Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, Managing Director of Messe München, summed it up as follows: "With these outstanding figures, 'productronica' once again proves that it is the most important event for electronics manufacturing worldwide. In addition, the strong and increased visitor numbers from China and the USA underline this leading position."
He received approval from the Chairman of the productronica Advisory Board, Rainer Kurtz: "productronica 2023 provided an excellent platform to prepare for further growth in the electronics industry. Munich was once again a globally unique marketplace for innovations and a win-win situation for exhibitors and visitors alike."
Thilo Brückner, Managing Director of the VDMA Electronics, Micro and New Energy Production Technologies (EMINT) Association, added: "productronica was another very successful trade fair for VDMA EMINT and its members. It is the 'place to be', the halls were full as if Corona had never existed and we only saw happy faces."
Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer (Messe München), Dr. Sandra Engle (VDMA Productronics Department) and Nicolas-Fabian Schweizer (ZVEI, Chairman of the PCB-ES Association) at the introductory press conference of 'productronica'
Consistently positive ratings from visitors and exhibitors
According to a survey by the market research institute Gelszus, 99% of visitors rated the event as excellent to good. In addition, 97% stated that their expectations of innovations at 'productronica' were met. On the exhibitor side, productronica also received top marks. For 92%, the trade fair was excellent to good. The high quality of the visitors was praised by 94% of exhibitors. Compared to 2019, the number of Chinese exhibitors increased by around 50% to around 80 companies. This puts China in third place behind Germany and the USA in terms of exhibitor countries.
Stefan Janssen, Managing Director Fuji Europe, said: "For us as a manufacturer of electronic placement machines, 'productronica' has always been an important trade fair. Our focus is on automation, digitalization and flexibilization of manufacturing processes for the benefit of the smart factory. These were also the topics that were in great demand at this year's trade fair. We literally saw a rush of visitors to our stand. Overall, we believe that productronica 2023 had above-average attendance and was able to consolidate its important position."
Günter Lauber, CEO SMT Solutions Segment & EVPc of ASMPT, expressed similar sentiments: "For us as a global company with headquarters in Munich, 'productronica' is a home game and the largest and most important trade fair in our calendar worldwide. We are very satisfied with how the trade fair went. We were able to make a large number of new and, above all, international contacts at our stand."
Ajit Manocha, CEO Semi, commented: "Semi is very pleased with the partnership with Messe München. Semicon Europa and productronica in Munich have proven to be very successful, so we want to focus even more on this cooperation in the future."
Matijas Meyer, CEO Komax, said: "productronica is very important to us due to its high profile and strong internationality. Here we have the opportunity to present our products and services to a global audience and to make contact with numerous existing and potential new customers."
Nicolas-Fabian Schweizer, Chairman of the PCB-ES trade association, concluded: "productronica has shown that the optimism in the industry is justified. In addition, the trade fair confirms the importance of PCB and electronics production as transformation technologies for the energy transition and digitalization."
Jennifer McKenna, EU Program Manager, Intel Corporation, explained how Intel approaches sustainability at the Semi Tech Arena
Silicon Saxony was represented with a joint stand in the semicon area
Michael Schmid, Volkswagen, explained the Volkswagen Group's strategy for semiconductors at the Executive Forum
Extensive supporting program
An extensive supporting program, consisting of several forums, live demonstrations (VDMA special show, Cleanroom, InnoTruck and IPC Hand Soldering Competition) as well as a Career Area and the presentation of the productronica innovation award, complemented the exhibition. There were also a number of presentations in the 'SEMICON' area, which attracted many visitors. We will discuss selected presentations and panel discussions in more detail in the January 2024 issue.
The InnoTruck showed where technologies are heading
Winners of the productronica innovation award
Dirk Buße and Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Albrecht in front of the HFTS320 heat flow test system, which won the productronica innovation awardFor thefifth time, Messe München, in cooperation with the trade magazine 'productronic', presented awards for innovative solutions and products in the field of electronics manufacturing. An independent jury selected the winners in the six categories from around 70 submissions. This year's winners of the 'productronica innovation award' are
- AP&S in the Semiconductor cluster with the fully automated high-throughput platform NexAStep
- ASYS Group in the Future Productions cluster with the Performance Monitor, an analysis tool for determining and displaying the parameters of SMD lines
- budatec in the Inspection & Quality cluster with the HFTS320 heat flow test system
- Frisimos Technologies in the Cables, Coils & Hybrids cluster with the 'fully automated modular line for cable to connector assembly'
- smartTec in the SMT cluster with the fully automated storage solution smartProLog
- SUSS MicroTec in the PCB & EMS cluster with the SUSS JETxSM24 inkjet printer
Interesting facts from the exhibition - once again a number of innovations
budatec presented the 'HFTS320' heat flow test system, a new approach to inspecting die-sintered and soldered joints: Using contact thermography (heat flow measurement), defective connections can be detected quickly and reliably due to deviating heat dissipation. This enables non-destructive testing of sintered joints suitable for series production. The automated test stand on display was developed as part of the project 'System integration of contact thermography as a fast in-line quality tool for power electronic modules - AnkoTherm'. In addition to budatec, the Center for Microtechnical Production at TU Dresden and Kraus Hardware were also involved.
Andreas Karch (Indium) proudly reported on the low-temperature alloy system Durafuse LTIndiumpresented Durafuse LT, a patented low-temperature alloy system developed for applications with higher reliability requirements that require a reflow soldering temperature below 210 °C. It consists of a low-melting pointalloywith a low melting point. It consists of a low-melting in-containing alloy and a higher-melting SAC alloy. The SnInAg alloy initiates the melting of the solder powder during soldering, while the SAC alloy ensures the increased strength and durability of the solder joint. Durafuse LT is ideal for applications with high reliability requirements where thermally sensitive components are used. This is because Durafuse LT offers significantly higher shock resistance than bismuth-tin or bismuth-tin-silver alloys as well as SAC305 at optimum process settings (soldering profile with plateau at peak temperature). And the shear strength is maintained up to temperatures of over 150 °C.
With the 'VisionXP+', Rehm Thermal Systems presented its new generation of systems for energy-optimized brazing. Thanks to the EC fan motors, the system is not only noticeably quieter but also more sustainable and offers more stable and simplified temperature profiling. Each zone can be both heated and cooled. This also ensures that the system is always in the optimum energy state and provides optimum zone separation. 'ProMetrics' is a tool that not only ensures process stability but also enables efficient profiling with a focus on reducing resource consumption. Another highlight is the new 3-stage Eco-Mode, which can be used to save energy and nitrogen depending on the idle time of the system. But it is not only software-based solutions that ensure energy-efficient soldering processes. Optimized system technology also contributes to this: Improved residue management, new cooling section design, optimized gas routing and not forgetting the new mechatronic curtain at the inlet and outlet of the system, which virtually eliminates the escape of nitrogen into the environment, are groundbreaking for the possibilities of sustainable electronics production. The nitrogen savings alone when using the mechatronic curtain are up to 20%. The new cooling section design with a 30 % larger separation area extends the service life of the filters and agglomerators by a factor of 3. The core of the new system generation, the optimized and energy-efficient gas flow in the cooling section, could be experienced live. In addition to other soldering systems, Rehm also presented innovative line concepts for conformal coating and dispensing with the 'ProtectoX' series.
PacTech exhibited the new LaPlace CPT laser bonding machine
Viscom presented its latest high-end AOI system 'iS6059 Double-Sided Inspection' for the first time. It is equipped with two state-of-the-art sensor heads that record images and 3D height information on separate traversing units in order to reliably detect defects on the top and bottom sides. This is because with through-hole assembly, in addition to the component inspection on the top side, the bottom side must also be able to detect whether a pin is completely missing, whether it is present but not soldered, whether the soldering is incomplete in terms of overall volume or whether the pin is too short. Solderless pressed-in components (press-fit) can also be inspected. The pin lengths can be precisely measured and output in profiles. Another area of application for this AOI system is PCBs with double-sided SMD assembly. Like other systems from the manufacturer, the 'iS6059 Double-Sided Inspection' can be comprehensively networked. The topics of test program creation and verification with the help of artificial intelligence were also demonstrated.
The highlight at Rehm was the VisionXP+ for energy-optimized soldering
Koh Young presented its entire product portfolio for production automation and process virtualization. Company founder Dr. Kwangill Koh was present himself and, together with Harald Eppinger, Koh Young Europe, showed us around the stand, where the 'stars' of the Meister series, the award-winning Neptune C+ and the A.I.-supported KSMART solution, were effectively demonstrated
Autumnal atmosphere in Munich - but the visitors were not deterred by this
In the following issue, we report on further innovations that we discovered at the trade fair and on interesting presentations.
The next 'productronica' will take place in Munich from November 18 to 21, 2025.
www.productronica.com
www.semiconeuropa.org
