UK SMT Market Is Booming

UK General Sales Manager Andy Jones commented, “We released news about the results during March before the end of the quarter. We knew that we had some good prospects that still had not placed orders, and we closed around £1million worth of equipment orders in March alone!”

Customers who invested in Blakell Europlacer products during Q1 include both CEMs and OEMs, and are a mix of approximately 50 percent existing and 50 percent new clients. The sale of Europlacer iineo machines contributed to the majority of the quarter’s results, reflecting the growing market share of the most flexible pick-and-place machine currently available on the market.

“Europlacer’s SMT platform has always been known for its flexibility, and we have grown a strong, loyal customer base, both in the UK and globally. In the last few years, the UK market — like many others — has become more heavily focused on high-mix, low-volume manufacturing with an increasing emphasis on high technology and the ability to place a wide range of exotic SMT devices. iineo is the perfect solution,” added Jones.

The iineo machine, with its two variants — iineo-I and iineo-II — is capable of running at speeds up to 30,000 cph, can hold up to 264 x 8 mm devices and can place from 01005 to 70 x 70 mm in size while accommodating devices as tall as 35 mm.

Andy concludes, “We are not so arrogant as to presume that we are the only system available on the market for flexible manufacturing. There are plenty of other machine vendors out there with very capable offerings; however, I do feel that our market share within this flexible environment is very healthy and the superb results are a direct consequence of this increased market share.”