Circuits Assembly - December 2007 - (Page 6)

NEWS In Brief A Sanmina-SCI (sanmina-sci.com) PCB assembly plant in Huntsville, AL, suffered a transformer fire Oct. 31, according to local news reports. The fire originated in the facility's power plant, the Huntsville Times reported. The extent of any damage is unclear at this time. Henkel Corp. (henkel.com/electronics) will now offer its full line of electronics materials through Ellsworth Adhesives (ellsworth.com). EMS firm Wolf Electronix has invested more that $1 million in equipment and improvements to its Orem, UT, facility. Upgrades include ESD flooring, lighting, screen printers, placement machines, ovens and AOIs. Indium Corp. (indium.com) named Simcona Electronics Corp. as sales channel partner for the eastern part of North America from Montreal to Miami. Kyzen Corp. (kyzen.com) named AEI Technologies Pte. Ltd. an authorized distributor in Vietnam. Promex Industries (promex-ind.com), Micropress (micropress.com.br/ingles), and Hunter Technology Corp. (hunterpcb.com) have committed to develop processes and work with interested OEMs to build products based on the Occam solderless interconnect concept conceived by Verdant Electronics (verdantelectronics.com). Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America (us.panasonic.com) named Technica USA (technica.com) as value-added sales representative for its electronics assembly equipment and services. ACE Production Technologies (aceprotech.com) named Laryo S.r.l. (laryo.it) its exclusive sales, service, installation, and support rep in Italy. Cobar Europe BV (cobar.com), part of the Balver Zinn Group, named PEM Technologies (pemtech.co.za) its representative in South Africa. Aqueous Technologies (aqueoustech. com) named ETek Europe Ltd. distributor in Eastern Europe. Industry Edited by Mike Buetow UP Media to Launch Industry’s First Virtual Trade Show ATLANTA – UP Media Group in February will launch Virtual PCB, the industry's first virtual trade show and conference for the PCB design, fabrication and assembly markets. The premiere event takes place Feb. 12-13, 2008. A fully interactive, Web-based event, Virtual PCB (virtual-pcb.com) incorporates all the critical features of a live event while allowing PCB design, fabrication and assembly equipment and materials buyers and sellers to interact online. Virtual PCB is supported by a proven software platform and will be accessible on-demand for three months following the two-day live event. Features of the upcoming virtual event will include custom exhibit booths, live attendee-with-attendee and attendee-with-exhibitor communication, live equipment demonstrations, real-time technical presentations and much more. Among the exhibitors to sign on so far are Agilent (agilent.com), BTU (btu.com), Dage (dage.com), DEK (dek.com) and EFD (efd-inc.com). UP Media Group President Pete Waddell said, "We've been researching virtual shows for over seven years, and the technology has finally caught up to where such an event can actually look and feel like a 'real' show. We don’t intend for Virtual PCB to replace the face-to-face experience, but rather complement existing marketing strategies and expand market reach." For more information about Virtual PCB, visit www.virtual-pcb.com or contact Alyson Skarbek, show manager, at 678-589-8865 or askarbek@upmediagroup.com. Guns, Germs Boosting Boston Area Hiring BOSTON – The big news from Nepcon East was what was happening away from the show floor. Most businesses, while noting a general slowing of growth this year, indicated they were in hiring mode going into 2008. Several firms were either openly seeking new hires or indicated they had positions to fill. Lightspeed Manufacturing, for example, posted a sign in its booth announcing several new positions. It wasn’t alone. This year, show organizer Canon Communications co-located Nepcon East with OEM New England. The move increased attendance at the two-day show, although it made it difficult to discern exactly who among those walking the floor were there to see electronics manufacturing gear. Precious little in the way of new equipment was introduced. For years, companies have treated Nepcon East as a regional show aimed at showing previously released equipment and materials to potential customers who might not have traveled to other, larger exhibitions. Still, while this reporter looked on, one EMS company had individuals from no fewer than three different companies approach and express interest in its services during a 10-minute span. CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY spoke with most of the 11 EMS companies exhibiting, almost all of which were New England-based. Most concurred that finding good employees has been tricky at almost every level – from operator to engineering to sales. Most, including Sendec, Technical Manufacturing Corp., Princeton Technologies, Sunburst EMS, Janco Electronics and Lightspeed, reported solid growth over 2007, and felt the prospects for 2008 were strong. Where demand was coming from was apparent: guns and germs. In the words of one, “military and medical are the best things about the industry.” Counterfeit parts remain a bugaboo. Component suppliers – direct and at the distributor level – are typically counted on to screen for bad parts, but more and more assemblers have been forced to take matters into their own hands, lest they risk field failures. Reporting back up the supply chain has improved, but countless bad parts continue to find their way to the factory floor. Most of the leading placement equipment companies exhibited: Juki, Panasonic, Fuji, Siemens, Samsung, Mydata, Universal, Sony, etc. A handful of notable rework companies, including VJ Electronix and FineTech were on hand. Test and inspection notables included VJ, Viscom, YesTech, X-Tek, Innov-X, Thermo Fisher Scientific, RMD Instruments and others. Soldering companies included Rehm and Pillarhouse. The major printer companies steered clear or used distributors. circuitsassembly.com 6 Circuits Assembly DECEMBER 2007 http://sanmina-sci.com http://virtual-pcb.com http://henkel.com/electronics http://ellsworth.com http://agilent.com http://virtual-pcb.com http://www.btu.com http://dage.com http://www.dek.com http://www.efd-inc.com http://indium.com http://www.virtual-pcb.com http://kyzen.com http://promex-ind.com http://micropress.com.br/ingles http://hunterpcb.com http://verdantelectronics.com http://www.panasonicfa.com/ http://technica.com http://ace-protech.com http://ace-protech.com http://laryo.it http://www.cobar.com http://pemtech.co.za http://aqueoustech.com http://aqueoustech.com http://circuitsassembly.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Circuits Assembly - December 2007

Circuits Assembly - December 2007 Contents Caveat Lector Industry News Market Watch Talking Heads Global Sourcing Screen Printing Better Manufacturing Metalization Options for COB Assembly A Test Comparison of SAC and Non-SAC Pb-Free Solders An A-to-Z Guide to X-Ray Inspection BEST: A ‘Funky Chicken’ with an EMS Niche Tech Tips Wave Soldering Process Doctor Pb-Free Lessons Learned Getting Lean Eastern Approaches Product Spotlight Ad Index Assembly Insider Technical Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - December 2007

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