Buffalo Grove, IL – Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America has been awarded a 2009 Global Technology Award for its NPM (Next Production Modular) electronics assembly platform in the category of Pick and Place – High-Volume Equipment. The award was accepted at a ceremony during Productronica at the New Munich Trade Fair Center in Munich, Germany.

Panasonic’s NPM (Next Production Modular) platform integrates screen printing, dispensing, placement, and AOI into one configurable platform. Production can be scaled to exact factory needs with heads and functions changing as production requires. Productivity is maximized through two plug-and-play heads with no pairing limits working on both stages of the dual lane. This allows two different boards or different sides of the same board to run using both sides of the machine’s feeders and balancing the top and bottom of a board with large part discrepancies. Lean manufacturing is supported with quick changeover (SMED) while single button exchange carts and quick release nozzle stockers are ideal for high-mix needs.

Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America President Tom Gebhardt commented, “We’re proud to be recognized for the true all-in-one capabilities of the NPM. We’ve built upon the technologies of our popular CM equipment series minimizing capital investment, floor space and spare part inventory expenses while providing a scalable and customizable solution for varying production and market requirements. This is the third time Panasonic has won a Global Technology Award and it’s a testament to our continuous dedication to bringing new products and services to market to maximize our customers’ productivity.”

The Global Technology Awards program is designed to honor the best innovations for electronics surface mount manufacturing products and services introduced in the last year. Entrants were judged by a panel of industry experts on innovation, speed/throughput improvements, quality contribution, cost benefits, environmental consideration, ease of use/implementation, and maintainability/repairability. Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America won the 2005 Global Technology Award in Pick and Place Systems and the 2007 Global Technology Award in Contract Services in addition to this year’s award.