Jim Lin, Vice President, Test Research, Inc. (TRI)

Analysts are predicting growth in some high-tech electronic product markets during the coming year, which should become even stronger looking further ahead. We expect increased investment in high-speed assembly automation to bring opportunities for our latest YR generation of surface-mount equipment, which contain many advanced innovations that increase productivity and support data-driven manufacturing management.

Smart factory is a central theme driving the evolution of manufacturing today, and we expect the pace of progress to accelerate. Manufacturers need advanced software tools to generate deeper insights from their production data in shoter time. This is the motivation behind the latest features of our YSUP factory tools, such as automatic defect analysis, which we introduced in 2023, and emerging AI-powered capabilities of our software packages and machine platforms.

In the year ahead, our Factory Automation section will continue its outreach to system integrators to accelerate the adoption of industrial robots into precision manufacturing. Fast, flexible, and reliable automation using robots such as our SCARA families and LCMR200 programmable production-line modules can make new and cleaner technologies more easily accessible and affordable.