The name has changed; the focus has not. Assembly East is still the only East Coast trade event dedicated to the technologies for product assembly. This article provides a sneak peak at the products on display and the special programs taking place at the show.

Change is in the wind at the former Assembly Northeast and the former NEPCON Philadelphia. Now simply called Assembly East, the show will be held May 2 to 3, 2001, at the Fort Washington Expo Center in Fort Washington, PA.

Even though the name has changed, the focus has not. Assembly East is still the only East Coast trade event dedicated to engineered solutions for product assembly. Another change involves the former NEPCON Philadelphia. Now presented as a dedicated Electronics Assembly Pavilion, this will house the newest equipment to reduce assembly time and costs, and increase capacity and productivity, in printed circuit board assembly.

There will also be conference sessions on advanced manufacturing techniques, along with three plant tours and co-located technical conferences developed by the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) and Edison Welding Institute (EWI).

All totaled, the event will have more than 200 exhibitors serving almost every manufacturing industry. Exhibits will show equipment ranging from assembly machines, bar coding, conveyors and fasteners to machine vision, motion control, robotics, welding and workstations.

Conference Program

This year, instead of one keynote address, two keynote addresses will lead off the two-day event. William Ripley--leader of the Comanche Program Airframe, Propulsion and Dynamic Components Analysis & Integration Team at Boeing Aircraft and Missle Systems Helicopter Div.--will speak on Wednesday, May 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. He will discuss plans for the deployment of new lean design and fabrication tools on the EMD Comanche helicopter.

A tour to Boeing's Ridley Park, PA, facility will complement Ripley's keynote address. This facility builds the CH-47SD Chinook tandem rotor transport helicopter and the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter. The tour will be held Wednesday, May 2, from 2 to 5 p.m.

James Shandersky--director of engineering for the Global Applications Tooling Div. at Tyco Electronics (Harrisburg, PA)--sets the tone for Thursday, May 3. His keynote speech, which runs from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., will briefly explain terminal crimp design criteria. He will also discuss typical production variations, such as wire condition, terminal attributes, wire and terminal presentation, and tooling condition.

Two plant tours are scheduled for Thursday, May 3. The first tour, scheduled from 1:30 to 4 p.m., is to Siemens Moore Process Automation (Spring House, PA). Attendees will see the manufacturing facility, along with those areas benefiting from the company's blitzing and continuous improvement initiatives.

The second tour, scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m., is to Quad Systems (Willow Grove, PA). On this tour, attendees will view a production line that assembles boards used in surface mount component placement systems. Advanced packaging placement systems that handle applications from advanced surface mount assembly to flip chip, chip on board and complex hybrid circuit assembly will also be demonstrated.

The conference sessions are always a highlight of the show. This year, SMTA and EWI will host sessions. SMTA will present six sessions featuring information on surface mount and advanced packaging technologies. Planned sessions include "Surface Mount Technology Fundamentals," "Design for Manufacturing," "Emerging Technologies," "An Introduction to Advanced Component Packages," "BGA and CSP Rework" and a free "0201 Placement Forum." Full-day sessions run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Half-day sessions run from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1:30 to 5 p.m.

EWI will provide a series of materials joining workshops. These workshops include "Plastics and Composites Welding," "Brazing and Soldering," "Small-Scale Resistance Welding," "Principles of Adhesive Bonding" and an "Introduction to Microlaser Processing." Sessions run on Wednesday and Thursday from 9:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Assembly conference sessions will run concurrently with SMTA and EWI sessions. These sessions will cover "Doing Business with the DOD," "Troubleshooting the Ultrasonic Welding Process," "Automated Equipment in a Lean Enterprise," "Quick and Continuous Through a Kaizen Blitz" and "Advantages to Manufacturing in Mexico." Sessions run on Wednesday and Thursday from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Registration Information

Registration is free before April 20. After this date and on-site, the charge is $35. Registration opens daily during the show at 7:30 a.m. For more information, contact Assembly Customer Service at 888-267-3796 or online at www.atexpo.com.