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Dr David Maddison’s report on: Electronex 2023 & Australian Manufacturing Week We saw quite a few interesting exhibits at this year’s Electronex show and thought readers who didn’t get to attend would like to see them. So here is a summary of some of the more fascinating products we saw at the show. O ur article on Electronex in the May 2023 issue (siliconchip. au/Article/15771) was based on what the exhibitors told us would be at the show. Some exhibitors didn’t provide any information in advance, while others were showing off products or services we didn’t cover in that article. This year’s Electronex was held simultaneously at the same location as Australian Manufacturing Week (AMW) at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, otherwise known as “Jeff’s Shed”. Electronex featured technologies, products and services relevant to the Australian electronics industry. AMW was geared more towards additive manufacturing, CNC machinery, machine tools, plastics technology, raw materials, training, maintenance, machine vision and scanning, welding and heat treatment, among other areas. The combined exhibitions occupied most of Jeff’s Shed. Here are the exhibitors we think our readers will be interested in, in alphabetical order: ADMATEC https://admateceurope.com AMW ADMATEC is a Netherlands-based (Dutch) company that produces high-volume ceramic and metal 3D printing machines – see Fig.1 and the video titled “Animation of the ADMAFLEX 130 process principles” at https://youtu.be/i_ntORKtUTs Altronic Distributors www.altronics.com.au Electronex Readers will be familiar with Altronics via ads in the magazine. Altronics’ stand at Electronex promoted their extensive product range (Fig.2), which you can check via their website or catalog (www.altronics.com.au/catalogue/). For those wondering, their direct competitor, Jaycar, did not exhibit at Electronex, presumably because they market their products primarily to consumers. Fig.1: a range of AMDATEC 3D-printed ceramic parts. 10 Silicon Chip CNS Precision Assembly www.cns.org.au Electronex CNS Precision Assembly is based in Hornsby, NSW. They are equipped for laser engraving and cutting; rework services; purchasing; surface mount board assembly; through-hole and cable assembly; PCB cleaning and conformal coating; and testing and inspection with an environmental chamber, test jig or optical inspection. They are an NDIS-certified employer and offer valued employment for people with various disabilities. element14 https://au.element14.com Electronex Another recent advertiser and component distributor, element14, also had a stand at Electronex. They carry around 950,000 products and components from about 2000 manufacturers. Emona Instruments https://emona.com.au Electronex You will likely also be familiar with Emona Instruments, supplier of many test instruments for hobbyists and professionals, including the popular Rigol brand – see Fig.3. They also have educational and training products, and additive manufacturing equipment, among other items. Among their product line, but not showed off at Electronex, include the Australian-designed Emona TIMS telecommunications training systems, which are exported worldwide. FANUC Oceania Pty Ltd AMW www.fanucoceania.com.au FANUC is a Japanese company that produces a variety of automation products, including robots. It is the largest Fig.2: the Altronic Distributors stand at Electronex. Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au Fig.3: two of the many Rigol oscilloscopes sold by Emona, with large displays, probing a test board. Fig.4: a FANUC CRX-5iA “collaborative robot”, capable of lifting 5kg with a 994mm reach. Fig.5: a full-scale prototype Black Diamond brand rock climbing helmet produced in a Formlabs 3D Form 3L resin printer. Note the support structure, which will be removed. Fig.6: a Metamako MetaConnect 48 low latency switch for applications such as share trading, produced by GPC Electronics. manufacturer of industrial robots in the world. One product on display was the CRX-5iA “collaborative robot” - see Fig.4. It can lift 5kg and has a nearly 1m reach. See the video titled “FANUC CRX-5iA Demo with Mari Cruz” at: https://youtu.be/8q3OkNQoVQU Faraday Shielding & Design https://faradayshielding.com.au Electronex Faraday Shielding & Design is an Australian company founded in 2002 that specialises in electromagnetic shielding. That includes design and consultancy, supply and installation and testing, including the provision of the extensive magnetic shielding required for MRI machines. Formlabs https://formlabs.com/asia/ AMW Formlabs is based in Massachusetts, USA and offers a range of 3D resin printers. A wide variety of clear and coloured resins are available in cartridge form (similar to an inkjet printer), including for biomedical applications and elastomeric (rubbery) materials. See Fig.5 and the video titled “The Form 3L Ecosystem Workflow” at https://youtu.be/18m4Fbe8IQE Fig.7: electronic enclosures from Hammond Manufacturing. siliconchip.com.au GPC Electronics https://gpcelectronics.com.au Electronex Established in 1985, GPC Electronics is one of Australia’s largest contract electronics manufacturing groups. They began in Sydney and now also have facilities in New Zealand and China. They work in aerospace, defence, medical devices, automotive and transport, communications and industrial – see Fig.6. Hammond Manufacturing www.hammfg.com Electronex Hammond Manufacturing is a Canadian company that makes a variety of enclosures for electronics, including for hobby use – see Fig.7. Some are available at Altronics (www.altronics. com.au/hammond/all/). Hawker Richardson https://hawkerrichardson.com.au Electronex Hawker Richardson is involved in industrial tooling, robotics, electronic production, inspection and industrial X-ray. Among the items they had on display was an X-ray component counter that can X-ray a roll of bulk electronic components, such as reels Figs.8 & 9: the Scienscope X-ray component counter from Hawker Richardson. A close-up is shown at lower right. Australia's electronics magazine September 2023  11 of surface-mount components, to determine the number present; see Figs.8 & 9 and siliconchip.au/link/ablm They also had a manual ‘pick and place’ system on display, the Fritsch LM901, for picking and laying out surface mount electronic components on a PC board – see Fig.10. It is for prototype and low-volume work rather than high-­ volume production. For more information, visit siliconchip. au/link/abln HIKMICRO www.hikmicrotech.com/en/ Fig.10: the Fritsch LM901 manual pick-and-place system from Hawker Richardson. HIKMICRO is a Chinese company that makes a range of thermal and night vision imaging devices. These have various uses in the electronics industry – see Fig.11. IntelliParticle www.intelliparticle.com.au Fig.11: a HIKMICRO infrared camera imaging a block of three fuses. One is hot and therefore likely overloaded. Electronex AMW IntelliParticle makes an electrically conductive paint-on product that can be used to create heating elements. Various formulations are possible, including types that adhere to ceramic surfaces, eg, to make a ceramic cooktop – see Fig.13. Electrical connections can be made to the painted element with adhesive-backed copper tape or other means. The product was invented by a small suburban-based inventor in Sydney working in his garage. For more information, see the video titled “IntelliParticle Heated Metal Plate” at https:// youtu.be/O6EJwt_GdvQ i-Submerge https://i-submerge.com Electronex i-Submerge is an Australian company offering products for monitoring marine environments. They include a micrologger for long-term data collection, scientific camera systems, aerial survey systems, aquaculture systems including underwater monitoring cameras and a series of patented waterproof equipment enclosures (Fig.12), which were on display. Fig.12: i-Submerge underwater equipment enclosures. Fig.13 (above): an IntelliParticle painted heat panel. Meltio https://meltio26.com Meltio is a Spanish company that makes 3D printer machines based on laser metal deposition (LMD), where weld beads are stacked and fused into a laser-generated melt pool. It is much like how a potter creates a vase by stacking a series of long thin lengths of clay on top of each other and merging them – see Fig.14. Apart from depositing wire stock, the deposition head can also lay down metal powder, or both wire and powder simultaneously. Metals that can be deposited include stainless steel, mild steel, carbon steel, titanium, nickel and copper. The deposits are fully dense with excellent microstructure. The general name for the process is Laser Metal Deposition – Wire Powder (LMD-WP). See the video titled “Meltio’s Metal 3D Printing Technology Explained by CTO Brian Matthews” at https://youtu.be/ apA_kgugdR0 Monash Nova Rover www.novarover.space Fig.14 (left): the Meltio LMC process, showing a vase-like object being formed from metal. 12 Silicon Chip AMW AMW Monash Nova Rover is a multi-disciplinary student team from Monash University in Melbourne designing and building rovers suitable for Mars or Lunar exploration. To hone their skills, they participate in the annual University Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au Rover Challenge (URC) in Utah, USA and the Australian Rover Challenge (ARC) in South Australia. This year’s rover is pink to raise awareness of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) – see Fig.15. Nitto www.nitto.com Fig.15 (left): the Monash Nova Rover. Fig.16 (below): a range of Nitto PVC-based electrical insulation tape from the 203E series, as typically used in Australia. AMW Nitto is famous for its electrical tapes (see Fig.16) but makes many other products such as adhesive tapes, double-sided tapes, other tapes, membrane materials, gasket materials, fluoropolymer sheets, porous films, medical products and many others. I have seen decades-old Nitto electrical tape that was still good as new, but many modern cheaper tapes lose their adhesion over time. Consider that when using electrical tapes in safety or mission-critical applications. NPA www.npa.com.au Electronex Australian company NPA had a wide variety of cable and wiring accessories, Nylon fasteners and electronic hardware on display at Electronex. Omnia Wheel www.omniawheel.com AMW Omnia Wheel is a trademark of the Australian company Rotacaster Wheel Pty Ltd. They make a range of patented wheels that can work in both a forward direction and in a lateral direction using small rollers at right angles to the forward direction built into the circumference of the wheel. They have uses in applications like robotics, conveyor belts, transfer tables (tables to transfer cartons or other goods from one area or conveyor belt to another; see the series of videos at siliconchip.au/link/ablo), hand trucks and many others – see Figs.17 & 18. Permark www.permark.com.au Figs.17 & 18: an Omnia Wheel transfer table and some Omnia omnidirectional wheels in the cut-out. Electronex Permark performs screen/digital printing and engraving on metals and plastics through to speciality adhesives, membrane keypads and touch screens – see Fig.19. Precision Electronic Technologies https://precisionet.com Electronex Precision Electronic Technologies is an Australian company that provides contract electronic manufacturing solutions and services such as PCB manufacturing, PCB assemblies, cables, wiring harnesses, stencils, plastic and metal enclosures, decals, membranes and turnkey solutions. QualiEco Circuits www.qualiecocircuits.com.au Fig.19: a range of sample membrane keypads from Permark. Electronex QualiEco Circuits is a PCB supplier and contract assembler to hundreds of businesses in Australia and New Zealand. They’ve been involved in the local electronics industry since 2003. They offer PCB manufacturing using a wide range of technologies and methods, component procurement, SMT stencil manufacturing and PCB assembly. Redback Test Services www.redbacktest.com.au Electronex Redback Test Services is an Australian company that offers various electronic test services and products such as test siliconchip.com.au Fig.20: Redback Test Services’ test fixture with an image of a test piece on a monitor. Australia's electronics magazine September 2023  13 probes, test fixtures, test equipment interfacing and production test automation – see Fig.20. Reid Print Technologies https://reidprinttechnologies.com.au Fig.21: wearable and other products from Reid Print Technologies. Reid Print Technologies is an Australian specialist manufacturer of flexible and wearable printed electronics. Products include wearable and stretchable sensors for health monitoring, defence, consumer and industrial applications. Other products include PTC (positive temperature coefficient) heaters, force sense resistors (FSR Sensors), membrane switches, graphic overlays, capacitive sensors, printed UHF antennas, functional and wearable smart printed electronics, proximity sensors, NFC (near field communications) technology, backlighting technologies, touchscreen protectors and waterproof keyboards – see Fig.21. Reid has ISO:9001 and ISO:13485 medical certifications. Rohde & Schwarz (Australia) www.rohde-schwarz.com/au/ Fig.22: the latest Rohde & Schwarz MXO 4 Oscilloscope. Electronex Rohde & Schwarz is a German company established in 1933 and is famous for electronic test, broadcast, cybersecurity, radio monitoring, radio location equipment etc. One of their displays was the R&S MXO 4 series oscilloscope, described as a next-generation device and previously advertised in the magazine. It features the world’s fastest real-time update rate of 4.5 million waveforms per second, a 12-bit ADC (analog-to-digital converter), a sampling rate of 5Gsamples per second, a bandwidth of 200MHz to 1.5GHz and a spectrum acquisition rate of 45k FFT/s (FFT = Fast Fourier Transform) – see Fig.22. Silvertone Electronics https://silvertone.com.au Fig.23: Silvertone’s Signal Hound SM200C is a 100kHz to 20GHz spectrum analyser. Electronex Electronex Silvertone Electronics (https://silvertoneelectronics.com) is an Australian company that specialises in both UAVs and communications. Their equipment includes spectrum analysers, electronic counter-surveillance systems, software-­ defined radio and general test and measurement apparatus – see Fig.23. UAVs were not on display at Electronex, but we looked at one of the Silvertone drones, the Flamingo, in the May 2015 article on the Australian International Airshow (siliconchip.au/ Article/8550). It was designed by Silicon Chip contributor Bob Young, the founder of Silvertone. Sun Industries https://sunindustries.com.au Electronex Sun Industries is an Australian company that does industrial printing, including user interface solutions such as membrane keypads, capacitive switches, backlighting, flexible printed electronics, screen printing, ‘subsurface digital printing’, printing onto and etching of aluminium, lithographic printing and more. They can also use ‘stoving’ to print enamels to metal plates, produce domed urethane badges, do laser etching of serial numbers, production of tooling, graphic design and others. Tektronix www.tek.com/en Fig.24: a Tektronix 4 Series MSO being demonstrated at Electronex. 14 Silicon Chip Electronex Tektronix is a well-known test and measurement equipment manufacturer and now owns the Keithley brand. One of the products on display was the 2 Series MSO, where MSO stands Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au AMW featured lots of different machinery, such as the metal plate CNC water jet cutter shown in the photo at right. for Mixed Signal Oscilloscope. An MSO can display digital and analog signals at the same time. The 2 Series MSO has a bandwidth of up to 500MHz, can record up to 10M points per trigger, has two or four analog channels and up to 16 digital channels, and has a sample rate of up to 2.5GSa/s. They also had a 4 Series MSO on display – see Fig.24. Traversal Labs https://traversal.io AMW Traversal Labs offers what they call “data engineering solutions”. They turn “operational data into actionable insights”. Areas include machine vision, modelling and visualisation of operations and machine learning to discover useful patterns in operational data, among others – see Fig.25. Vernier Foundation www.vernier.org.au/vernier-foundation/ AMW The Vernier Foundation is the charity arm of the Vernier Society and “has been formed to promote and attract the interest of young people to engineering and assist in their training and education”. The Vernier Society “seeks to inform the wider community about the value of engineering and manufacturing in Australia”. Fig.25: Traversal Labs’ demonstration of “segmentation” to “disambiguate the structure of industrial scenes”, such as identifying pallets, shelves or bulk materials by their geometry. They also show an analysis of “keypoints” of the human body and joint angles to identify problems before harm occurs. siliconchip.com.au More on Electronex & AMW by Tim Blythman Tim also attended Electronex and AMW this year and has the following to add to Dr Maddison’s observations: Boston Micro Fabrication https://bmf3d.com AMW This company showed off tiny and detailed 3D prints and their applications – see Fig.26. One application is the iteration of designs (such as optimising for shape) for a medical microneedle. Such a needle is used to administer medications directly into the skin. The printers used to produce these prototypes have a resolution of 2μm. Once the designs have been finalised, they can be mass-­ produced by traditional methods like injection moulding. Other 3D-printed products on display included a spiral syringe and 3D-printed valves for gene sequencing and lab-ona-chip devices. These resolutions have typically been achieved using TPP (two photon polymerisation), which uses two intersecting beams to accurately polymerise the raw resin. Carbon fibre 3D printing Various Companies AMW Several companies, including Konica Minolta and Markforged, were showing off 3D printers that can incorporate continuous carbon fibre into a print. They claim that such parts Fig.26: very impressive miniature 3D prints from Boston Micro Fabrication. Although not easy to photograph, they also had a microscope set up so that you could actually see the (microscopic!) prototypes in real life. Australia's electronics magazine September 2023  15 Fig.27: Control Devices demonstrated a range of switches, including illuminated, waterproof and specialised types. Fig.28: touch-sensing demonstrations at the Microchip Technology stand. can replace machined aluminium. To demonstrate, they had test prints that visitors were challenged to break! (Nobody succeeded, as far as I know...) Control Devices www.controldevices.com.au Fig.29: LEACH has a factory in Guangdong, China, that can manufacture and test complex PCBs like the ones shown. Electronex We spoke to Monique from Control Devices. They had samples of many of their switches and interface devices on display (see Fig.27). They always have new and interesting switches to show in their ads, and it was good to be able to try them out in real life. Leach PCB Assembly www.leach-pcba.com/en/ Electronex Shenzhen (China) based Leach provides electronic manufacturing services, and they had many large, complex PCB assemblies they previously made on display at the show – see Fig.29. Microchip Technology www.microchip.com Fig.30: Ocean Controls showed off their range of industrial instrumentation products. Electronex Microchip Technology, which makes many of the microcontrollers we use in our projects, was keen to tell us about their low-power touch controllers. These controllers use capacitive touch sensing and can be implemented with little more than a trace on a PCB, thus with no extra cost if a PCB is already required. As well as the microcontroller-integrated peripherals we have explored previously, they also offer standalone touch-sensing chips that communicate over I2C and offer features such as automatic calibration. On display and available to try out were numerous development boards and demonstrations (see Fig.28). One showed a controller consuming single-digit microamps while also detecting touches. Ocean Controls https://oceancontrols.com.au Electronex Ocean Controls had a range of industrial control equipment on display, including a few parts wired together to demonstrate how they can be used – see Fig.30. They told us that they have moved to newer premises in Carrum Downs, Vic. Rolec OKW www.rolec-okw.com.au Fig.31: Germany-based ROLEC OKW has a local presence supplying a wide range of enclosures. 16 Silicon Chip Electronex The Rolec OKW stand had an array of unusual and interesting enclosures, including parts that could be used for making smart watches, pendants and medical devices – see Fig.31. SC Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au