Well is is good to be back in the snowy Northeast. My thoughts on APEX?
1. Lead-free was clearly the theme.
2. "Wow" Event: One component placement machine was placing 01005 passives (they look like sand!)
3. My sense was the show was a great success, but it did not have the "feel" of a large turnout to me. Perhaps, it was because my hotel (The Hilton) was dominated by Rotarians, who were having a world-wide meeting there. Also APEX seemed to occupy much less of the convention center than in Nepcon days.
4. The lead-free inspection standard IPC 610D was released. I did not get a chance to review it, but some people were disappointed that it apparently has no images of "bad" lead-free joints. However, it is a great start to have some documents!
5. Inspite of the lead-free theme, many still seem blase about the transistion (gasp!)
6. I really enjoyed my new noise reduction headset my wife got me for Christmas on the plane ride.
7. Time to go shovel snow.