Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/757488
88 SMT Magazine • December 2016 aware of this possibility to do the second-phase process step to make sure that they get lots of speed, but with adding on the jet printer, you also will get the ease and the quali- ty of the board. Las Marias: Especially now that the trend is for smaller and smaller, more compact, high-density boards or de- vices, right? Bredin: Absolutely. Also with the broadband of boards, so that there is the all-in-one. Even the small hand-held, let's say, cell phone boards, they need these RFCs. Even within those very dense boards and the small components, on a few of the parts you still need a lot more vol- ume than what you can achieve, typically, with a screen printer, within the same print cycle. I would say we're fortunate in that. Also, some local big players in the smartphone segment are also investigating how they can utilize this jet printing technology. Las Marias: That sounds good for the company. Bredin: Absolutely. We are excited to make sure that we can explore all opportunities. Las Marias: How is the China market for Mycron- ic, in general? Bredin: It is the market where Mycronic is grow- ing the most. We have been active in North America and Europe for a very long time, and those markets are a bit more stable. From our perspective, China is where we can really see a huge growth in the future with both our current portfolio machines, what we have, and what is also being developed, in order to meet the de- mands from the Chinese consumer electronics producers, where we historically have not been a big player. We have things in the roadmap that are trying to get that changed. Las Marias: Recently, Mycronic acquired Shenzhen Axxon. What do you think is the rationale behind this acquisition? Bredin: The rationale is, of course, that it's a very good and a local dis- pensing company, which has a very interesting product portfolio that compliments what Mycronic al- ready has. They also have a very strong presence in China, where we can also learn from each other and utilize the synergies between these two companies who have huge po- tential, both to help Axxon grow in their segment, but obviously also for Mycronic to have an even stronger local pres- ence in China. Las Marias: What trends are you seeing in the market? Bredin: One of the trends that's been going on for almost forever is that things are getting smaller and smaller, but also, as we discussed earlier, one trend is that everyone is concerned about or in - terested in is Industry 4.0, and the smart factory has become very obvious that everyone is trying to target that part of the customer's mind. Every- one would like the factory to run less dependent on people. I guess also that' s been a trend that's been going on for a while with automation. We hear a lot of our customers, and poten - tial customers, talking about, "How can we help them to get the same number of boards or more being done, with less people involved?" Labor costs being one thing, but also the quality that comes with it. The risk of quality is that the more people you involve, the more added risk of some- thing being done not according to procedure. I think that is also a trend that's been going for a while. You will also see in this exhibition a lot of small booths with robotic arms moving things back and forward, and not long ago, the obvious choice was to have people doing that. Las Marias: Now there's like a proliferation of ro- botics in the industry. One of the equipment you are exhibiting here is the SMD Tower. Tell us more about that. Bredin: The tower is an automatic warehouse, you could say, with climate control inside so that humidity and temperature is under con- THE TIME HAS COME FOR JET PRINTING Thomas Bredin