Circuits Assembly - February 2008 - (Page 10)

NEWS In Brief EMS provider Trilogy Circuits (trilogycircuits.com) has registered under the U.S. State Department International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Christopher Associates (christopherweb.com) announced delivery of its 100th Koh Young (kohyoung.com) solder paste inspection system in North America. The equipment was sent to a supplier of embedded computing systems in Huntsville, AL. More than 450 Koh Young systems have been installed worldwide. Aqueous Technologies (aqueoustech. com) appointed Accelonix (accelonix.fr) its distributor in France, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. EMS provider Fabrinet (fabrinet.com) completed construction of a 300,000 sq. ft. addition to its Pinehurst optical manufacturing complex near Bangkok, and has commenced operations. The factory brings the company’s global manufacturing capacity to more than one million sq. ft. Hanzas Elektronika (hansa-electronics.lv) selected Valor Computerized Systems’ (valor.com) vPlan enterprise-level process engineering software for its factories in Ogre and Ventspils, Latvia. Also, Sercomm Taiwan (sercomm.com) selected Valor’s DFM (Design for Manufacturability) software. TDK (tdk.com) developed an embedded chip process for semiconductors and passives. The total thickness is reportedly 0.3 mm for four-layer PCBs. Assembléon (assembleon.com) has established a direct sales and service presence in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. “This is a significant step forward in our ability to service customers, and underlines the importance of these customers for Assembléon,” said Harm van Leeuwen, director regional center, Europe. Industry Edited by Mike Buetow Asteel to Acquire Flash, Form $750M EMS Firm PARIS – Asteel Technologies (asteel.fr) will acquire Flash Electronics (flashelec.com) in an all-stock deal, forming an EMS company with some $750 million in annual sales, the companies announced in December. Flash’s senior management team will remain in place, with chairman Matthew Liu and president Chin Fan maintaining equity stakes in the new company. Asteel/Flash will be privately held and headquartered in Paris. Founded in 1999, Asteel has 12 manufacturing locations between France and Tunisia. The company has a subsidiary in Romania and plans to acquire an EMS company in the U.K. Fremont, CA-based Flash was founded in 1994 and has four manufacturing sites in the Silicon Valley, totaling more than 180,000 sq. ft., plus a 340,000 sq. ft. plant in Suzhou and a 56,000 sq. ft. facility in Shanghai. – Mike Buetow Online Assembly Trade Show Debuts This Month ATLANTA – Virtual PCB (virtual-pcb.com), the industry’s first virtual trade show and conference for PCB assembly, debuts this month. The fully interactive, Web-based event takes place Feb. 12-13, and incorporates all the critical features of a live event, while allowing engineers to interact online with fellow attendees and exhibitors. Following the two-day live event, Virtual PCB will be accessible on-demand for three months. Exhibitors include many of the leading industry suppliers, such as Agilent, BTU, Assembléon, Dage, DEK, Asys/Ekra, Siemens and several others. Attendees worldwide can view equipment and materials demos, talk to vendors and colleagues, download literature, and listen to technical presentations. Registration is free at virtual-pcb.com/attendees. More Cuts Ahead at Elcoteq HELSINKI – Elcoteq (elcoteq.com) will restructure its operations, selling certain underperforming plants and improving its materials management in hopes of cutting $101.5 million to $116 million from its annual operating costs, the EMS firm said Dec. 27. Among the steps Elcoteq will take include selling its Elcoteq Communications Technology GmbH subsidiary, and reducing or divesting its money-losing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, early this year. “In the long term we believe in the Russian market, (but) we are aiming to cut the losses; we have lost enough money there,” CEO Jouni Hartikainen told Reuters. Elcoteq will take a one-time charge of $22 million tied to the newly announced measures, most of it in its fourth quarter. The moves are undertaken in hopes of reaching a 2% operating profit margin in 2008. (Reuters Estimates says the analysts’ average forecast operating profit margin is 0.9% in 2008 and 1.1% in 2009.) Elcoteq said it would achieve the target through better materials management and asset utilization. Nonetheless, the ongoing restructuring won’t stop Elcoteq from hiring 200 to 300 workers at its Hungarian plant in the coming months. “We have some projects at the plant that require more manpower, and need at the moment a few dozen white-collar workers and a few hundred, maybe 200 to 300, blue-collar staff,” an Elcoteq spokeswoman said, as reported by Reuters in January. Elcoteq, Europe’s largest EMS firm, is in the process of a large restructuring program, with plans to cut staff globally to boost competitiveness with Asia. – Mike Buetow and Chelsey Drysdale Sanmina Acquires Certain Powerwave Plants SANTA ANA, CA – Amplifier maker Powerwave Technologies (powerwave.com) has sold part of its Hungarian manufacturing operations to Sanmina-SCI (sanminasci.com). As part of the deal, Powerwave signed a five-year manufacturing agreement with Sanmina. No financial terms were announced. In a U.S. SEC filing, Powerwave said the sale includes its manufacturing plant in Szekesfehervar, Hungary. – Chelsey Drysdale circuitsassembly.com 10 Circuits Assembly FEBRUARY 2008 http://www.flashelec.com http://www.asteel.fr http://www.trilogycircuits.com http://www.trilogycircuits.com http://www.christopherweb.com http://www.christopherweb.com http://www.kohyoung.com http://www.virtual-pcb.com http://www.aqueoustech.com http://www.accelonix.fr http://www.aqueoustech.com http://www.fabrinet.com http://www.virtual-pcb.com/attendees http://www.elcoteq.com http://www.hansa-electronics.lv http://www.hansa-electronics.lv http://www.valor.com http://www.sercomm.com http://www.tdk.com http://www.assembleon.com http://www.powerwave.com http://www.sanminasci.com http://circuitsassembly.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Circuits Assembly - February 2008

Circuits Assembly - February 2008 Contents Caveat Lector Letters Industry News Market Watch Global Sourcing Better Manufacturing Maximizing Lean Copper As a Viable Solution for IC Packaging Embedded Active Components for High-Rel Products Cover Story: XRF Equipment As a RoHS Screening Tool Tech Tips Selective Soldering Test and Inspection Process Doctor Pb-Free Lessons Learned Product Spotlight Ad Index Assembly Insider Technical Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - February 2008

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