APE, Automated Production Equipment, Marks 56-year Milestone

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Automated Production Equipment, or A.P.E. as the company has been known for more than a half century, is marking more than 50 years as a leading U.S. equipment supplier serving the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) industry. The company was founded in 1969 by the late Bill Scheu, pioneering innovative hot-air SMT rework equipment for the removal and replacement of ‘chip’ components on printed circuit assemblies. His son, Casey Scheu, President, recalls the introduction of the Chipmaster 1000 system, still sold today, along with more than 30 other products for the electronics manufacturing industry.

“We’re a 3rd- generation family business,” notes Casey, in making the announcement. “We’ve been designing and manufacturing PCBA rework equipment and actually a complete line of products and support items for total and complete circuit board restoration here in the U.S.A. for more than 50 years. Our products range from through-hole eyelets, traces, and donut frames all the way to micro-BGA placement and rework systems.

“With little or no prior experience,” he adds, “operators can be quickly trained to perform high-level rework procedures and repairs on today’s most challenging electronic printed circuit assemblies in commercial, military, aviation and aerospace applications.”

Looking ahead, the company is expanding beyond merely providing equipment to also providing contract assembly and rework/repair services as well. Casey notes that even though APE is headquartered where it began in Key Largo, Florida, the company also has a facility in New York that was run by Bill’s sister Marilyn Clance until 2000. Recently, son Steven Spencer Scheu joined APE in 2022, and Dylan Cyrus Scheu also came aboard in 2024. “Even though manufacturing and assembly is now done in Southwestern Virginia, our Sales offices and corporate headquarters are still in the Florida Keys, where we began,” Casey adds. Casey joined the company in 1991. Casey and his father Bill founded the forced hot air rework division of the company in Florida in1993 with the Chipmaster SMD-1000 hot air-based rework system, a system still manufactured and available today and designed for the removal and replacement of SMT and BGA components.

Over the years, other hot air rework systems of different configurations have joined the lineup, including vision-assisted rework stations, pre-heat systems, plating, heat-seal bonding, top and bottom heat rework systems, and others. Early on, A.P.E. began providing equipment and services to the Military, and for 50 years has been a prime US Defense Contractor, according to Casey. The company moved into ‘cyberspace’ more than a decade ago with the purchase of the APE.com domain in 1994.