Second-user assembly kit targets Russian market

This week sees AlternativeSMT arrive on the Russian market when the company exhibits at at Expoelectronica in Moscow.

AlternativeSMT will exhibit this week on Booth K06 in Hall 3 at Expoelectronica - the 10th International Exhibition for Electronic Components and Technological Equipment in Moscow.

ExpoElectronica, which runs from 25th to 28th April 2007, is the largest specialised trade fair in Eastern Europe, and is traditionally held alongside with ElectronTechExpo - the International Exhibition for Technological Equipment and Materials for the Electronic and Electrical industry.

Established over ten years ago AlternativeSMT is one of the largest distributors of refurbished second user SMT assembly equipment in Europe.

Since its conception the company has worked with a variety of clients in the manufacturing and subcontracting field, such as Solectron, Motorola, Flextronics and Celestica.

AlternativeSMT has delivered a number of manufacturing solutions ranging from single machine installations to installing entire SMT production lines.

Based in Camden, London, the company's customer base stretches from the USA to Europe and Middle East, and it is now expanding its services into Russia.

AlternativeSMT buys and sells a number of manufacturers machines, including: Fuji, Mydata, Philips, BTU, Electrovert, MPM, DEK and Universal.

This range of manufacturers means that Alternative is capable providing customers with a choice at every level of the production line, whether it be - screen printers, placement machines or ovens.

AlternativeSMT maintains an in depth engineering knowledge of the machines in stock.

By having this knowledge it offers its clients the kind of services delivered by the larger OEMs but at a substantially reduced rate.

With this engineering knowledge AlternativeSMT can also offer they're client contract maintenance and refurbishment programmes.

As a dealer in second user equipment Alternative is able to cut the corners on cost of spares for some of the maintenance contracts that it undertakes.

Four years ago, AlternativeSMT launched the FeederMaster, a multiplatform feeder test jig that can be adapted to test a large range of manufacturers' feeders, including Fuji, Phillip, Sanyo and, most recently, Siemens.

The jig is designed to functionally test feeders by simulating the production environment.

This makes it possible to identify and remedy any faults on feeders before they reach production, therefore reducing lost production time due to faulty feeders.

AlternativeSMT has also developed an innovative approach to selling second user SMT assembly equipment with the development of its made-to-order range of Fuji QP242 pick and place machines.

Typically, on the second-user market, a buyer would have to accept a machine in the condition in which it is sold, with only the options and configurations that are on the machine when bought.

If they do not fit the customer's specification exactly, little can be done to upgrade or change the configuration without going back to the original equipment manufacturer for costly upgrades.

The move into customising equipment means that AlternativeSMT has put the flexibility back into the second-user market where it has previously been lacking.

Peter Fraiman, Managing Director says: "We are very proud of what we can achieve here at AlternativeSMT and we feel that our engineering knowledge and knowhow has provided us the ability to suit our customers needs, at a price to rival the new equipment manufacturers".

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