Justin Cody Worden, Director of Business Development, Austin American Technology

The popularity of automated component counting continued to increase heading into 2020. Going into the year we had high expectations as more and more factories recognize how many times a production line is halted based on poor inventory management of components. However, manually counting components is a time consuming, and a people consuming necessary evil, so it is logical to add automation into the inventory control process.

2020 started with some excitement for APEX because it was so early in the year. We are always eager to show our "best in class" DAGE Assure x-ray counters along with our latest innovations. It was a success. However, COVID soon came full force and industries were forced to shut down, factories were closed or at least not allowing visitors, and nobody really knew what to expect. I suspect most companies readjusted their forecasts for the remainder of the year.

With that said, 2020 turned into a great year for the Assure product line and we exceeded even our pre-covid expectations. 2020 was still a bit challenging, and it was a year full of online demos, presentations, and conference calls. This could become quite normal for the near future, and with no APEX in 2021, we will be planning to virtually show our existing, and new products, often.

We fully expect 2021 to continue strong after the craziness of 2020. It will be an exciting year for the Assure product line as we continue to introduce innovative s/w and hardware solutions to "Keep SMT Lines Running".