Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1212069
98 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2020 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE This year's keynote was by Burt Rutan, the famous American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient aircraft. Burt designed the record-breaking Voyager, which, in 1986, was the first plane to fly around the world with- out stopping or refueling. He also designed the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer; in 2006, it set the world record for the fastest (342 mph or 551 km/h in 67 hours) and longest (25,766 miles or 41,466 km) non-stop, non-refueled circum- navigation flight in history. In 2004, Rutan's sub-orbital spaceplane design, SpaceShipOne became the first pri- vately funded spacecraft to enter the realm of space. As someone who has heard nearly every IPC APEX EXPO keynote, as well as dozens at CES and other trade shows, this was absolutely the best of the best. Burt was kind enough to spend a great deal of time with us after his presentation, so stay tuned for that very inter- esting interview. Two New Standouts So, what makes IPC APEX EXPO so much more valuable than the previous generations of events? And what makes it a micro CES? I believe it is due to the increasing number of new processes and equipment, some of which may not be fully available yet; however, if successful, they will potentially have a signifi- cant and lasting impact on the industry. We will be covering more of these new devices and processes, and I am sure there were many more that I did not have a chance to see, but two stood out to me. 1. PulseForge Soldering by Novacentrix We all expect that when soldering, we not only heat the solder to its eutectic point, but we also heat the substrate, which is not always desirable. According to their website, "PulseForge soldering enables the soldering of standard lead-free solder pastes on low- cost, temperature-sensitive substrates, such as paper and PEN, in milliseconds." It does