François Monette, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Cogiscan Inc.

2019 has been one of the most exciting years in the PCB assembly arena in recent memory. Continued economic expansion has fueled innovation and demand for more capability and functionality in all electronics segments. Key areas of interest for the industry are vehicle electrification, high speed wireless communications, energy efficient lighting and commercialized space applications.

As always, more capable electronics in smaller spaces are compelling innovation in every area of PCB assembly. Electronic components below the visual threshold, smaller than a grain of pepper, are being used. Active components are thinner than ever before and flexible substrates are becoming mainstream. In order to support these new technologies, assembly material manufacturers are forced to innovate in order to achieve the functional and reliability demands placed on these new devices.

AIM released two new wire solder products in 2019, CX18 and RX18. These flux cores were developed to provide greater performance with a wide variety of solder alloys. RX18 was developed specifically for use with point-to-point robotic soldering equipment.

The market for this equipment has grown due to the low cost of entry, small footprint and low power consumption as compared to traditional wave soldering. RX18 is optimized to provide faster throughput, fewer defects and better overall solder results. AIM CX18 complements RX18 for manual solder operations with fast wetting and low odor.

When combined with AIM's REL61™ or REL22™ alloys, the combination of soldering performance and product reliability are unparalleled throughout the industry.