Southern Manufacturing & Electronics show: highlights
Last week saw some of the Freshleaf team exhibiting at the Southern Manufacturing and Electronics show in Farnborough – a three-day festival of all things techie. The goal was to build the profile of DistiSync, our pricing and lifecycle management software, and also to learn more about the ecosystem in which it lives. Being aimed at electronic component manufacturers and distributors, it was an opportunity to find out more about the challenges experienced by those businesses.
In addition to having some great conversations about how software can overcome various business roadblocks - and of course grabbing some free merch - I also took the opportunity to have a look around at the other stands. Everyone was happy to chat, and to explain their business even to someone who’s really not a potential buyer!
There was some fascinating kit on display, from robot arms - and indeed complete robots - to CNC machines spraying coolant around (inside the machine, thankfully), and something that resembled a very high-tech chip fryer. Having been looking at pictures of PCBs on customer websites for over a decade, I finally met a PCB assembly machine and got to see first-hand how components get into place. I was also introduced to an ultrasonic component cleaner (cleaning things with sound – but how??). And I discovered that calculating shrinkage is a challenge in injection moulding – which is why the plastic seat on your Ikea stool might not fit onto the metal frame as intended. It’s easy to forget that everything we use in our everyday lives had to be manufactured, and processes developed and refined to efficiently create all that we use.
All in all, a worthwhile and also educational three days in Farnborough.