Mar 11, 2018 
As if winning an unprecedented fifth consecutive Service Excellence Award from respected industry publication Circuits Assembly Magazine is not enough, pick & place equipment manufacturer Europlacer added further to its haul of medals by also seizing two NPI Awards for its brand-new atom placement platform.
The NPI Award for the industry’s top Multi-Function pick & place machine went to Europlacer’s highly-flexible atom3 machine, while the fast atom4 model secured the NPI Award for High-Speed pick & place. In addition, the Service Excellence Award was once again bestowed upon Europlacer as the business seen to provide the best customer support across a range of objective, independently scrutinized measures that include dependability, quality, responsiveness, technology and value for price.
President of Europlacer Americas, John Perrotta, had the distinct pleasure of being called to the podium three times during the Awards presentation ceremony, hosted on the show floor at the APEX Expo in San Diego. “Naturally, I was thrilled to receive the Service Excellence Award on behalf of everyone at Europlacer, as customer focus is genuinely at the core of our business,” says Perrotta. “A fifth consecutive award is unmatched in the industry, so you can imagine how proud we are to be recognized for this distinction within the highly competitive P&P equipment category.”
That satisfaction was soon to be supplemented with the announcement that Europlacer’s atom3 machine had won the Multi-Function pick & place award. “We entered both current models of our new atom platform into separate award categories, hoping that we might receive an honorable mention in one or the other,” explains Perrotta. “Winning both categories (Multi-Function and High-Speed) means a lot to us immediately following the global release at Productronica last November. Since then, our existing customers and new businesses are asking us more about how the atom can help them achieve higher volumes without compromising the operational balance they’ve developed for their high-mix lines.”
Commenting further on the Service Excellence Award, Perrotta points out that Europlacer looks to differentiate itself through its customer focus. “These premier industry awards validate what we set out to do from the beginning: provide our customers with an edge over their competitors. We take specific feedback from this group and our larger customer installed base and feed that back into all of the new products we develop. The atom platform concept itself came about from surveys and award feedback just like this – and it’s good to see this great new product come to fruition. Visitors to APEX 2018 were impressed with the new atom4 in our booth – fully functional in its test compliance with IPC’s CFX – Connected Factory Initiative, and operating in ‘real-time’ view for all attendees to witness.”
The Blakell Europlacer Group comprises the Speedprint Technologies, Europlacer, and Blakell Europlacer Distribution business units. All three are active and pre-eminent in the electronic circuit board assembly sector with advanced product and service solutions for electronics manufacturers in the UK and globally. Speedprint Technologies is a provider of screen printing equipment used in surface mount assembly processes. Europlacer is a provider of surface mount component placement equipment. Blakell Europlacer Distribution augments the provision of screen printing and pick & place platforms in the UK with a range of associated equipment, including AOI, X-Ray, reflow and PCB handling.
