100 Years of Making Progress

Oosterhout, The Netherlands, May 31, 2016 - Vitronics Soltec celebrates 100 years of innovation and service to the soldering and printed circuit board industry.

"In 1916 we pioneered an industrial soldering system that started an industry," said Frank van Erp, Director of European Sales and Service for Vitronics Soltec. "And we’ve been pioneers in the industry ever since. But through all our additions and improvements, we keep finding better ways to transfer flux, more efficient ways to heat solder and our machines are now ready to work in an Industry 4.0 environment. In fact, our new Centurion presents benchmark thermal performance, a breakthrough in flux management and the best process capabilities at an entry level price."

But van Erp is quick to thank the committed employees and commercial partners that paved the way for this present success.

Brief History

While soldering—or the joining of metals—is a centuries old practice, innovations in the last century have made it an indispensable practice. Especially as technology decreases in size every year.

Vitronics Soltec was founded as Zeva in 1916. The company was a pioneer in industrial soldering, producing electric soldering irons. As printed circuit boards were introduced in the 1950s, Zeva helped automate soldering and produced an early wave soldering machine in the late 1960s, in close cooperation with the Philips Corporation. This partnership marked the beginning of a new period of growth.

During the 1970s and 80s, Zeva had a name change to Soltec (hybrid name combining SOLder and TEChnology), and then was acquired by Dover. Soltec acquired Vitronics in 1997 and became Vitronics Soltec. Seeing the opportunity for leveraging historical strengths, ITW—itself a 104 year old company—acquired Vitronics Soltec to help develop soldering technology to meet the increasing demand for miniaturized printed circuit boards.

Over the course of 100 years, Vitronics Soltec has consistently played a leadership role, making significant contributions to automated soldering including wave, reflow and selective soldering. And in 2015, Vitronics Soltec made two more strides forward by introducing the Centurion reflow soldering ZEVAm selective soldering platforms.

• The Centurion platform provides maximum efficient heat transfer allowing reflow soldering at the lowest setpoints possible, for minimal temperature change and minimized power consumption.
• The ZEVAm platform provides a flexible, high-performing and affordable point-to-point solder system, which easily handles the most complex printed circuit boards (PCBs) and can process three PCBs simultaneously.

Celebrating a century of growth for Vitronics Soltec is also a human story. “We’ve very much a company powered by passion for our work, respect for partners and colleagues, and integrity in every piece of process,” said van Erp. “This is how our customers know us. They expect innovation—which we’re pleased to deliver. But customers return again and again because of our soft side—they know us as easy to work with, passionate, and honest.”