Wire Bonder: On the floor at Productronica 2009
Posted by Rich Hueners on Thu, Dec 10, 2009 @ 10:49 AM
From the floor of Productronica in Munich, Germany. Traffic was much the same as it was at IMAPS 2009 in San Jose. From Tuesday thru Thursday, we saw medium traffic in the morning to afternoon. On Friday, the volume was noticeably lower. Nonetheless, it was a a successful show.
Palomar's highly versatile 8000 Wire Bonder/Ball Bumper was center stage at the booth, wire bonding on a 10"x8" stage! Palomar's 6500 Ultra High Accuracy Die Bonder got considerable interest from many visitors, especially from those in the LED manufacturing business.
One can always get a good feel for the pulse of the business by looking at the number of exhibitors. In the case of Productronica, there were certainly fewer exhibitors. But I must say that the show's management did a great job in laying out the booths in proportion to the number of booth attendees: case it point, 50% of the trade show area was full AND yet it did not feel empty. The standard of booths felt higher than Semicon West. It was plain to see that exhibitors/companies were focused more on quality than quantity.
The most significant thing we saw at this show was an influx of business from Eastern Europe, specifically Russia, Romania and the Czech Republic. Countries who once weren't considered real business opportunities in the advanced high tech market are suddenly viable. LED manufacturers represented the bulk of Eastern European companies.
