Apr 24, 2012 
Blakell Europlacer Ltd., a manufacturer of market-leading flexible SMT placement machines, introduces the newest addition to its range of distribution products — Aleader Automatic Optical Inspection.
The Aleader AOI range includes both on- and offline systems that use 3-D topography and face recognition algorithms to result in systems that are easy to program, provide extremely low false call rates (typically less than four false calls per 1000 devices tested) and are competitively priced.
Blakell Europlacer’s UK General Sales Manager Andy Jones explains why he felt that Aleader was the right system to add to its other SMT assembly equipment portfolio: “We have been selling AOI systems for a period of time and have been very successful. However it has become clear that due to the nature of the UK market, many manufacturers are looking for a system that can be adapted quickly to reflect the changing nature of their business.”
Headquartered in Israel, Aleader Europe is the European distributor for AOI systems and, in the global territories that have established distribution networks, sales of Aleader AOI systems are flourishing. Aleader already has installed more than 30 systems in the Israeli market.
“Before distributing Aleader in the UK market, I took a trip to Israel to visit Aleader Europe, and I met with a number of CEMs, asking some key questions about operation, programming, false call rates, difficult-to-find faults, etc. The answers to these questions from all of the users were pleasingly positive,” said Jones. “I was particularly struck by the fact that in all cases there was not an ‘AOI engineer’ assigned to handle the machine, instead a production operative was running the general assembly equipment that programmed the machines.”
The Aleader ALD510 was released into the UK market during the recent NEW exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. For more information about Aleader, or any of Blakell Europlacer’s distribution products, e-mail andy.jones@europlacer.co.uk.
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.
