PRODUCTRONICA: A BEER IN REVIEW

摘要

While attendance rose modestly this year, Productronica has ceased to be a must-attend event for Europe's shrinking PCB base. But new innovations on the show floor revealed that Munich is still a good place to see the next-generation of PCB equipment and materials. On the last day of Productronica, Munich received its first snow of the year. But while the snow will melt next spring, Europe's PCB industry will probably remain frozen: a victim of its own high labor and tax rates-not to mention Asia's meteoric rise. The cavernous halls that once housed PCB exhibitors from all over the world hoping to sell into the European market were relatively quiet. Some exhibitors did well, but the real action took place across the atrium where assembly equipment vendors were swamped with people. "That was how it used to be on the PCB side," lamented one industry veteran.