productronica Names 2019 Innovation Award Winners

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The decision has been made. The winners of the productronica Innovation Award 2019 have been chosen just in time for the start of the world’s leading trade fair for electronics development and production. An independent panel has decided on the winners from amongst 80 entries across six categories.

Following on from 2015 and 2017, this is the third year in which Messe München is giving out the productronica Innovation Award. Falk Senger, Managing Director of Messe München, is thrilled with the huge number of participants: “The third year of the productronica Innovation Award has set a new record with around 80 entries. This is a sign both of the innovative prowess of the electronics manufacturing sector and of the huge importance placed on competitiveness throughout the entire industry.”

“Cables, Coils & Hybrids” cluster winner: Zoller + Fröhlich

Christoph Fröhlich, CEO, Zoller + Fröhlich: “As one of the first ever exhibitors at productronica, our father, Hans Fröhlich, recognized the importance of this trade fair early on. As the second generation at the helm of the company, my sister and I are extremely honored to accept the Innovation Award as part of this event. We are particularly proud of the fact that by combining the traditional values of a family business with high-tech production in Wangen im Allgäu we have been able to achieve a level of innovative prowess which puts us in a market-leading position. We continuously strive to systematically increase added value for our customers, now and in the future. The AM 04 Duomatic is yet another example of us doing so, by replacing two machines with one. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the panel of judges for this award as well as our employees for ensuring our continued success.”

“Future Markets” cluster winner: F&S BONDTEC Semiconductor

Siegfried Seidl, MAS, Managing Partner, F&S BONDTEC: “We are absolutely thrilled to receive the productronica Innovation Award 2019. It is recognition of our extremely successful collaboration with TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) on reliability diagnostics for power electronics: our revolutionary BAMFIT Tester is almost like a ‘time machine’ as it reduces the classic service life tests for heavy wire bonds from months down to minutes and thus significantly expands the range of diagnostic possibilities. This is a huge advantage, especially in the e-mobility era in which power electronics are becoming increasingly important.”

“Inspection & Quality” cluster winner: Vision Engineering

Joachim Glaab, General Manager, Vision Engineering Central Europe: “Effectively, as a Munich-based office of a long-established British company we have been exhibiting at productronica for 30 years and of course are still committed to taking part in and showcasing our company at all major national and international events. The award is confirmation that we have struck the right chord with the industry by developing an innovative future technology which is already capable of providing added value in terms of quality assurance, manufacturing and development. All of our employees are thrilled about the award. It will also encourage us in the future to continue to provide users with the best possible and most ergonomically convenient way of digitally or optically inspecting and viewing images.”

“PCB & EMS” cluster winner: Limata

Matthias Nagel, Co-founder, Limata GmbH: “It took four years to develop LUVIR: a really outstanding team achievement! Numerous major hurdles were overcome one by one and with a real sense of teamwork and motivation, from the concept stage right through to technical execution and final integration in the production lines. Outstanding levels of efficiency have been seen and achieved in these production lines all around the world for almost a year now, and hearing about how thrilled our customers are is a wonderful reward for all the hard work. And winning the Innovation Award for LUVIR at the world’s largest electronics trade fair is truly the icing on the cake.”

“Semiconductor” cluster winner: ASM AMICRA Microtechnologies

Johann Weinhändler, Managing Director, ASM AMICRA Microtechnologies GmbH: “The development of our new chip-on-submount die bonder is based heavily on the development-related synergies available to us on account of our successful integration within the ASMPT Group. The result is a CoS die bonder which achieves optimum bonding precision on account of the AMICRA dynamic alignment concept and, thanks to the ASMPT assemblies, also increases productivity. We are proud to receive the Messe München productronica award which will also spur the entire ASMPT team on to support the rapid developments in the advanced packaging sector with innovative, powerful technologies and products.”

“SMT” cluster winner: SEHO Systems

Markus Walter, Managing Partner, SEHO Systems GmbH: “SEHO is very proud to receive the productronica Innovation Award 2019. Thanks to continuous research, in-depth discussions with our customers and partners from industry and science, and not least our highly motivated team, SEHO is able to turn trends in electronics production into series-ready processes early on. Our goal is to continuously create added value for our customers by constantly further developing processes and our systems, optimizing them to meet future requirements and implementing innovative ideas. We have managed to do that brilliantly with the new SelectLine-C.”

The individual entries were assessed by an independent panel whose members included:

• Thilo Brückner, VDMA
• Klaus-Dieter Lang, Fraunhofer IZM
• Andrej Novikov
• Lothar Pfitzner, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• Rolf Winter, ZVEI
• Heinz Wohlrabe, Dresden University of Technology

The productronica Innovation Award is the first independent award in the electronics manufacturing sector and is organized in close cooperation with the trade journal productronica.