Jul 24, 2013 
Blakell Europlacer, a manufacturer of market-leading flexible SMT placement machines, announces that it hosted the first user group meeting in May 2013 for customers of Smans, Europlacer’s pick-and-place distributor for the Benelux region.
The meeting, which will become an annual event, took place at the Smans facility in Turnhout and featured live demonstrations of the highly acclaimed Europlacer iineo platform backed up by the ii-feed component feeding solution. The demonstrations were complemented by the ii suite of offline preparation tools.
More than 20 people attended the event and the feedback was all positive. Norbert Smans, Managing Director at Smans, said, “We have now been working with Europlacer for many years and with the new features that have been developed with the Europlacer product portfolio we felt that a user group meeting was by far the best way to reach out to all of our customers and ensure that they are completely up to date with all of these exciting developments.”
Sharing information during a “user day” results in a much better, more efficient way of understanding the ideas behind new developments. The how and why of new features is much easier to understand than communication through written information.
Steve Farragher, International Sales Manager for Blakell Europlacer, added, “It takes a considerable effort to stage an event like this so the feedback from the customers is truly the only real measure of how successful of how well the event has been received.”
Following is customer feedback from the event:
Alfred van der Laan, Director at Major Electronics, said, “We thought that it was a very interesting day and as users who are always looking to improve working processes, we were most impressed with the new tools such as the AAS (Auto adaptive Sequencing) and the new software tools that will provide us with the opportunity to be more efficient and, in turn, be able to provide a an even better service to our own customers. This was a great opportunity to meet with other Europlacer customers and share ideas.” For more information about Major Electronics, visit http://www.major-el.nl/.
Jeroen Schuiling, Production Manager at Global Electronics B.V., said, “My engineers attended the user group meeting and were impressed with the way the event was conducted and organised. It is very satisfying to know that the new products and benefits that Europlacer has been developing are compatible through the majority of the machine range. We are always seeking ways of offering more value for our customers and we can see that Europlacer is making this possible.” For more information about Global Electronics B.V., visit www.global-electronics.nl.
Europlacer became a division of Parable Trust Ltd. in 2013. Europlacer has been developing machines for SMT electronics assembly since the 1970s and invented the intelligent feeder concept in the 1980s. After acquisition by Blakell Europlacer in 1991, the company moved away from split-axis to the inherently more capable X-Y architecture that underpins the company’s pick-and-place machines today. Europlacer’s policy has been to ensure wherever possible that technology purchased many years ago, especially feeders, remain compatible with the latest pick-and-place equipment. Europlacer designs and manufactures a comprehensive range of highly flexible SMT pick-and-place systems for the global electronics industry. For more information, visit Europlacer’s Web site at www.europlacer.com.
