Insights from Evertiq Expo Berlin 2024
Evertiq Expo Berlin 2024 recently concluded its third successful event, drawing industry leaders and experts to the Science and Technology Park Berlin Adlershof. With a focus on key challenges and innovations in the electronics sector, the expo featured insightful presentations and discussions.
On June 20, 2024, Evertiq opened the doors to Evertiq Expo Berlin for the third time. During the day, a total of 324 people partook in the Expo at the Science and Technology Park Berlin Adlershof. 65 exhibiting companies welcomed 178 visitors from 119 different companies and organisations – a new record for Evertiq Expo Berlin.
Olaf Ciepły from IBL-Löttechnik opened the program during the expo to discuss sources of bad soldering in the reflow process and how to avoid them.
Errors in production can cause delays, customer dissatisfaction, and various other problems, along with substantial costs. So, where are these errors hidden, and what tools can be used to find them? What oven technology is best for different applications, and is vacuum technology truly effective? Well, if you took part in the presentation you would know.
A major highlight from the conference program was Alun Morgan, President of the EIPC, who hosted a keynote presentation, providing a business outlook on the global electronics supply chain. Mr Morgan delved into present and future market dynamics – while all along keeping a focus on Europe. The presentation provided insight into macroeconomics, highlighting current and upcoming global risk factors as well as European PCB market and trends. As previously reported, the European PCB industry is in jeopardy, and if nothing is done the EU’s share of the global PCB industry will drop from its current 2.8% share to a measly 1.7% by 2035 – assuming nothing is done to slow current development.
The German audience found the topic of end-of-life (EOL) and obsolescence intriguing, as Ken Greenwood, Regional Sales Manager at Rochester Electronics took to the stage. During the presentation, Ken explained that the lifecycle of electronic components, from launch to obsolescence, is getting shorter, particularly in the consumer electronics market where products have increasingly brief lifespans. As a result, obsolescence is becoming a more frequent issue for many companies and adding to this, 30% of discontinuations are unpredicted or unexpected. The best course of action to avoid the issues surrounding obsolescence is to be aware that it will happen, whether you like it or not – so plan for it.
The topic of AI was also of interest to the German audience, something that became evident when Stilianos Pelagidis from Delvitech hosted his presentation. Pelagidis demonstrated how AI can enhance optical inspection, simplify the work of line operators, boost First Pass Yield (FPY), and reduce false calls, all while maintaining exceptional ease of programming.
Another highlight was the panel discussion which delved deeper into the challenges raised during Mr Morgan’s presentation.
Our panellists; Thomas Michels, CEO of PCB manufacturer ILFA GmbH; Manfred Amberger, Senior VP of Marketing and Sales at EMS provider Zollner Elektronik AG; Uwe Kriegshäuser, CEO of manufacturing process specialist Schnaidt GmbH, joined in a conversation to discuss these challenges from an inside perspective, but also highlighting opportunities that exist. One of the key points made during the discussion was that the European industry needs to work tighter together, to fortify the ecosystem that exists to keep and expand production within Europe.
The panellists discussed strategies for enhancing collaboration across the supply chain, investing in advanced manufacturing technologies, and developing a skilled workforce – while also discussing how to get policymakers aware of the importance of the electronics industry.
Discussions on the floor centred around the developments of the last six months, economically, geopolitically and the general feel about where we are heading. What became clear was that different segments had very different experiences in the first half of the year. Some were surprised about how good the first half had been while others had struggled quite a bit. However, all did share the opinion that as we move forward, we are looking up.
Evertiq would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all participants and welcome you all back next year.