National Electronics Week UK 2010

- our Editor, Ian Poole, reports from National Electronics Week exhibition, held in Birmingham on 18 / 19 May 2010.

The UK National Electronics Week was held at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre on the 18th and 19th of May 2010. It provided a forum for UK suppliers and manufacturers to showcase their products.

National Electronics Week says that it provides the only opportunity for the entire UK Electronics industry to gather at one time to see the latest technologies, share ideas, be educated and network. As a result of surveys, they decided to revise the format to a two day event and locate it from Olympia to a more central location for the UK at the Birmingham exhibition centre.

This year the number of exhibitors was up by about 10% as was the number of pre-conference registrations - a good achievement under the current financial climate.

Said the Event Director, Claire Saunders: "We are delighted to be able to be able to support the electronics marketplace in this way and we are very pleased with the response."

Focus

While the exhibition catered for all aspects of electronics, the majority of exhibitors were aligned to manufacturing area of electronics - there were many PCB, assembly and test companies represented. With the UK being the sixth largest manufacturing country, it is hardly surprising that manufacture was high on the list.

Apart from the exhibition itself, a number of free seminars were organised from a variety of organisations on a variety of topics related to the exihibitors.

One highlight this year was that Microsoft supported National Electronics Week bringing a series of their seminars for those wanting to learn more about Microsoft Windows Embedded technologies, the Microsoft Windows Embedded Hands-On Lab as well as a technical presentation which took place during the show.

Exhibitors

With the number of exhibitors up, the show provided a wide variety different companies from all areas of the electronics industry, although much of the focus was on manufacturing - the UK is still the world's firth largest manufacturing country.

The event allowed companies both large and small to exhibit. At the top end of the market, Agilent were showcasing their Infineon 9000X series scopes which have a true bandwidth up to 32 GHz. They were also showing their 30 GHz probe as well. Although it is not anticipated that all the scopes sold will have this bandwidth, it shows the level at which oscilloscope technology has now reached.

MYDATA were showing their stencil-less solder paste system. Virtually all other systems for applying solder paste to printed circuit boards use a stencil approach. This system is well proven and has been in use for many years. However its drawback is that it takes time to modify. With electronics manufacturing lines needing to be more flexible and offering a fast change cycle, methods are needed to provide an effective way of applying solder paste, while needing to have the ability to change the solder paste pattern quickly to implement changes needed to improve the manufacturability. The MYDATA system provides just this. Using what could be broadly described as a solder paste version of an inkjet printer, it provides complete software definition of the pattern required for the solder paste. Although it takes longer than solder screens it provides a much greater level of flexibility.

As an example of the smaller companies represented at National Electronics Week, a company called STEM was there. This company name comes from: Standards Training in Electronics Manufacture, and this explains what they provide. Offering courses, in soldering and manufacture they typically provide an on-site service to companies that are manufacturing electronics equipment. In this way, they claim they are able to improve quality and thereby provide an overall cost saving.

Bloodhound SSC

As an added attraction for the day the Bloodhound SSC (super-sonic car) was represented at the day. This vehicle is aiming to break the land speed record, raising it from the current 763 mph (1228 kph) figure up to 1000 mph (mach 1.4).

As the organisers say, Building a car quicker than a fighter jet is not, however, the primary goal of the project. Rather, it is to inspire future generations to take up careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by showcasing these subjects in the most exciting way.

The exhibition area for the car, not only showed a vehicle, but it also showed the engine that will be used, as well as the fuel pump - a 4.5 litre racing car engine capable to developing 620 shaft horse power.

In all this looked to be a very interesting project, and one we undoubtedly hear more about.

Next year

The organizers feel that this year has been a great success and have organized next year's event. It will take place in the same venue on 17 & 18 May 2011. There is also a South Africa version of the event. This took place in Johannesburg on 9 and 10 March 2010 - dates for the 2011 event are to be confirmed.