Circuits Assembly - July 2008 - (Page 20)

Talking Heads try not to have a “shelf full of toothpaste offerings,” for example, that all do the same thing. We’d rather have just a few lines, but they are the best lines. CA: Within ITW, customer service is a big area of emphasis. Do you reassign staff in order to beef up that area? BS: That depends. We kept customer service intact. We think that’s healthy for this division, so customers have one customer service hub. The specialization behind that is to let the business units do their own thing. As you segment and the business stands alone, the units are fully autonomous to decide what to do to grow. JK: In November, we segmented our businesses internally. We now better understand our costs and what is sold in our business. We break problems down to smaller pieces and put people in charge to solve those problems. We’re sensitive to how customers want to do business in the field, however, and those wishes may or may not make sense to how we structure the internal business. Customers want to talk to the same people they’ve been talking to on their invoices, their products. CA: What are your thoughts on whether SnCu will outdo SAC as the Pb-free alloy of choice? JK: The groups I’m responsible for are metals (bar and wire) plus chemicals, K100LD bar among them [Ed.: K100LD is a eutectic SnCu solder]. All-tin product is all about getting away from silver, for which the price has gone up tremendously. This is a way to have a lower-cost alternative. SAC 305 is still the gold standard on a global basis. But it’s clear KLD bar and wire are making inroads. What’s interesting is the change started in Asia and Europe. The US has been slower to make that switch. At the same time, we’re selling KLD in bar and wire. I think there will be several alloys that will come to the forefront here. CA: What many readers still don’t understand is how affected you are by the metals markets. JK: It is a global market, like it or not. At one time I think people thought we could control pricing. As prices climb, we try to pass through metals so our customers can control costs. When everyone went to Pb-free, there were some pretty good jolts there. We follow the metals market daily. We change prices weekly, depending on what the market does. We want to have stability because we deal with distributors and they want to be able to give a customer a quote. We let our price float on top of metal. We try not to speculate in the market: That’s a good way to go broke. One concern is China has gone from an exporter of tin to a net importer. I think tin will get nothing but higher as the price of the dollar goes down. We track that every day. Metal is our number one raw material and we try to follow that business closely. Circuits Assembly JULY 2008 SAC is still the gold standard. But [SnCu] is making inroads. BS: On the paste side, more and more people want lower silver content because it will lower the metals cost. But, they don’t want to start if they don’t have the full data. We see that over and over again. People are conservative there because they want a proven entity. CA: Once the transition matures, what will be the percentage of use? JK: Companies are switching to Pb-free everyday, and we supply people who make everything from car radios to toys. Less than half the market has switched, according to IPC data. What has become clear is that both lead and Pb-free alloys are going to be around for some time. CA: Everyone talks about solder technology, but less is discussed on the flux side. What are you seeing in chemistries? BS: ITW likes to be on the forefront of developing new products. I think there’s no question you’ll see more water-based fluxes. In Europe, water-based fluxes continue to grow because of legislation on green initiatives. We see that in California, too. We’re ready to make that switch. People are also talking about halide and halogen content … we have paste, wire, and fluxes ready to sell in this area. We see that as an opportunity. CA: That involves some work, as it’s not just a drop-in. JK: There’s no question, if you’ve been using alcoholbased fluxes and want to switch to water-based fluxes, there’s some equipment changes. If you go back 2 to 3 years, there was a steep learning curve, but I think we are over that now. For some customers, it was a question of capital equipment, for others, just a few parts to change. Our products have been proven in a variety of setups. Also, because we’re global, we have an advantage in that we can offer a product for trial in Germany and then supply that product to a variety of locations around the world. I think more and more customers want to deal with a company that can supply their needs regardless of where they choose to make their products in the world market, and still get the full complement of products: bar, wire, flux and paste. n As it adopts the ITW 80/20 philosophy, Kester is counting on a streamlined product line featuring such solders as the newly introduced EM919G Pb-free paste. circuitsassembly.com 20 http://circuitsassembly.com

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

Circuits Assembly - July 2008 Contents Caveat Lector Industry News Market Watch Talking Heads Focus on Business Global Sourcing On the Forefront Screen Printing Tech Tips Will Electronics Follow the Sun? ‘Warm’ Manufacturing Heats Up Reputation Trumps Recession, China ‘Web Circuits’ A Novel Non-VOC Conformal Coating Krypton: Benchmarking Customer Satisfaction 2008-09 CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Buyers Guide Wave Soldering Pb-Free Lessons Learned Process Doctor Materials World SMTA Int'l Product Preview Ad Index Assembly Insider Technical Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - July 2008

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