Pete Starkey visited atg Luther & Maelzer Europe and Japan Sales Director Peter Brandt. He reflected on joining the Mycronic Group, discussed the market and technology trends for testing, and what atg's expectations for this year's productronica.
Pete Starkey: Recently, atg Luther & Maelzer was acquired by Mycronic. How will atg Luther & Maelzer integrate into the Mycronic Group?
Peter Brandt: As of June, atg has become a member of the Swedish-based Mycronic Holding Group, and we are now part of this large European technology company. Mycronic is our first choice during the transfer process. We talked with several potential buyers, and we were finally very lucky to be acquired by Mycronic because they are the technology leaders in the assembly and loading board business. They produce pick and place systems, bonding systems, and digital mask writers. They know exactly how it works in the field of investment products. I am glad that we are talking about the same issues when we forecast for next year or when we need capital equipment.
You don’t always know; if you sell this machine, will you receive the order next year, or will it be cancelled? We have more or less the same basic market, but we can keep atg Luther & Maelzer as our own complete sales channel, because Mycronic is in the assembly and loading board industry, and we are in the bare board industry. This means that our supply and our support chain-such as our agents, distributors, and our complete service and sales organization-we stay the same. We are part of a technology company, but we can transfer our production, sales and services; everything else remains the same because there is no actual merger process.
The size of Mycronic relative to atg is also very good. We account for about 10% of Mycronic's revenue, and it provides us with a strong financial background when we have to finance machines, require bank guarantees or similar things. On the other hand, we are already an important part of the Mycronic business unit.
Starkey: Can you comment on the global and regional trends related to testing that you see in the market?
Brandt: We see that the market for packaging and substrate businesses is improving. This is mainly an improvement in the Asian market, such as China or South Korea, and partly Japan. This is our flying probe. Our flying probes have huge challenges in terms of accuracy and measurement methods. But this is a high-volume business. This means that we are only involved in smaller production volumes, because you can say that 99.9% of the electrical test market will be covered by special testers that use high-density and high-cost fixtures. In the case of fine pitch density, this technology is the market driving force, and we see that this technology will gradually enter the conventional PCB market, not just in the short term. But we are seeing more and more substrate applications in PCB. We call it Substrate-like PCB Products (SLP). Our standard PCB large-capacity flying probes for machines is a growing business.
To read the entire conversation appearing in the November 2021 edition of PCB007 magazine, click here.
Pete Starkey visited atg Luther & Maelzer Europe and Japan Sales Director Peter Brandt. He reflected on joining the Mycronic Group, discussed the market and technology trends for testing, and what atg's expectations for this year's productronica.
Pete Starkey: Recently, atg Luther & Maelzer was acquired by Mycronic. How will atg Luther & Maelzer integrate into the Mycronic Group?
Peter Brandt: As of June, atg has become a member of the Swedish-based Mycronic Holding Group, and we are now part of this large European technology company. Mycronic is our first choice during the transfer process. We talked with several potential buyers, and we were finally very lucky to be acquired by Mycronic because they are the technology leaders in the assembly and loading board business. They produce pick and place systems, bonding systems, and digital mask writers. They know exactly how it works in the field of investment products. I am glad that we are talking about the same issues when we forecast for next year or when we need capital equipment.
You don’t always know; if you sell this machine, will you receive the order next year, or will it be cancelled? We have more or less the same basic market, but we can keep atg Luther & Maelzer as our own complete sales channel, because Mycronic is in the assembly and loading board industry, and we are in the bare board industry. This means that our supply and our support chain-such as our agents, distributors, and our complete service and sales organization-we stay the same. We are part of a technology company, but we can transfer our production, sales and services; everything else remains the same because there is no actual merger process.
The size of Mycronic relative to atg is also very good. We account for about 10% of Mycronic's revenue, and it provides us with a strong financial background when we have to finance machines, require bank guarantees or similar things. On the other hand, we are already an important part of the Mycronic business unit.
Starkey: Can you comment on the global and regional trends related to testing that you see in the market?
Brandt: We see that the market for packaging and substrate businesses is improving. This is mainly an improvement in the Asian market, such as China or South Korea, and partly Japan. This is our flying probe. Our flying probes have huge challenges in terms of accuracy and measurement methods. But this is a high-volume business. This means that we are only involved in smaller production volumes, because you can say that 99.9% of the electrical test market will be covered by special testers that use high-density and high-cost fixtures. In the case of fine pitch density, this technology is the market driving force, and we see that this technology will gradually enter the conventional PCB market, not just in the short term. But we are seeing more and more substrate applications in PCB. We call it Substrate-like PCB Products (SLP). Our standard PCB large-capacity flying probes for machines is a growing business.
To read the entire conversation appearing in the November 2021 edition of PCB007 magazine, click here.
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