Circuits Assembly - July 2008 - (Page 8)

NEWS In Brief EMS provider Bantam Electronics (bantamsolutions.com) has signed an agreement to manufacture JBM Electronics’ (jbmelectronics.com) Gateway C120 Routers. Microboard Processing’s (microboard. com) Seymour, CT, manufacturing facility has achieved AS 9100 registration. The EMS firm recently achieved ISO 13485 registration as well. Blakell Europlacer (europlacer.com) has entered into an agreement to distribute Evest’s (evest.com.tw) placement machines. R&D Circuits (rdcircuits.com) opened a support office in Singapore, and named Zhou Feng, formerly of LSI, to head the expansion. Plans call for developing applications support for regional customers. EMS firm Mara Technologies purchased four Assembléon (assembleon.com) pickand-place machines, including an AX-501 and two MG-8Rs (ITF). The firm also procured two Assembléon screen printers. Qualitek International (qualitek.com) named JSK Associates (jskrep.com) territory representative in northern California and northern Nevada, responsible for soldering materials, fluxes and JT wave solder equipment. Finetech (finetechusa.com) opened a sales and support facility in Manchester, NH. It is the second US facility for the company, which manufactures rework and bonding equipment. Finetech’s main US demo facility is located in Tempe, AZ. The SMTA (smta.org) seeks abstracts on business; packaging; interconnection; markets; assembly; microsystems and nanosystems technology, and solar electronics for the Pan Pacific 2009 Symposium. Abstracts should be submitted by July 31, with title and author contact information, at smta.org/panpac/call_ for_papers.cfm. Milara Inc. (milarasmt.com) named Premtronic Sdn (premtronic.com) as its representative in Malaysia. Industry Edited by Mike Buetow SMTA Panel Talks Lean, Pb-Free and the Economy ANAHEIM, CA – The military and defense work that has buoyed the North American PCB industry the past five years won’t last forever. But companies that focus on developing sectors – including energy – can take advantage of the inevitable landscape changes. That was the consensus of an expert panel in late May at the SMTA Los Angeles/Orange County chapter meeting. The discussion, A Winning Strategy for Today’s Global Electronics Assembly Industry, focused mainly on the economy, Lean and lead-free. The panel consisted of Andrew Whittingham, operations manager, Alcon Labs (alcon. com); Atul Mehta, senior member engineering staff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (jpl.nasa. gov); Deon Nungaray, manufacturing process engineer, General Monitors (generalmonitors. com); Doug Dixon, electronics global marketing director, Henkel Corp. (henkel.com); Larry Aguilar, vice president of business development, Qual-Pro Corp. (qual-pro.com); Matt Holzmann, president, Christopher Associates (christopherweb.com), and Scott McCurdy, business development manager – western region, Freedom CAD Services (freedomcad.com). Circuits Assembly’s staff, the chapter board and the audience provided questions; the panel did the rest. Excerpts: In comparing metrics such as inventory turns among assemblers, Lean performance varies widely, with best-in-class companies reaching 20+ annualized turns, while most companies are in the mid-to-high single digits. What are the factors that set the best-in-class companies apart from the rest of the pack? Larry Aguilar: It’s about continually improving operations and focusing on all parts of the operation, where you think it will impact larger parts of the operation. It’s a consistent honing process, and companies that excel in Lean manufacturing become best-in-class. Atul Mehta: Lean manufacturing is a combination of good design, practical manufacturing, the most efficient use of space, minimizing downtime, eliminating defects efficiently – and as many as possible – and good communication. When you have all those connected in harmony, and you can respond to customer needs, that’s the key to good manufacturing. Deon Nungaray: You really have to use Lean in a way that’s going to suit your business. You really have to hone in on the parts of Lean that are going to work best for your organization. For example, what’s good for me is not necessarily [good] for my vendor. If I want parts relatively quickly to get my components fast, I have to make sure my vendors have components fast. If they can’t supply me with components relatively fast, then that’s going to screw me up. You have to have your supply chain in line with your philosophy of Lean. Fundamentally, should the high-reliability segment of the industry – military, aerospace, etc. – embrace or fight Pb-free? And what measures should they be taking to avoid component sourcing problems related to mismarked or counterfeit parts? Matt Holzmann: This is an issue at a high level in the industry, where there’s concern about mixing leaded with Pb-free. And we’re working our way through it, but there’s some serious issues being dealt with by military and aerospace manufacturers. The answer is to use XRF devices that can tell whether lead is in a component on virtually every lot. You have all these different issues that can result in less reliable product. There’s issues with Pb-free that people are seeing: things like wicking copper out of the barrels on boards because of the mix of tin and copper and migration toward the component; Intel is reporting something called “cratering.” And a lot of the yield issues are significant. So when you have to shoot things into space or put things into high performance aircraft, you can’t fool around. Andrew Whittingham: We make surgical equipment and this subject is very important to us, and although we haven’t converted to Pb-free, we’re being proactive in making sure we’re prepared to convert, if in fact we do. Corporately, we’re fighting hard to try to keep lead in the product, but I think that’s a battle we’re going to lose. I don’t think we can expect to manufacture with lead solder much longer. circuitsassembly.com 8 Circuits Assembly JULY 2008 http://bantamsolutions.com http://bantamsolutions.com http://jbmelectronics.com http://jbmelectronics.com http://microboard.com http://alcon.com http://microboard.com http://jpl.nasa.gov http://alcon.com http://jpl.nasa.gov http://generalmonitors.com http://henkel.com http://generalmonitors.com http://qual-pro.com http://christopherweb.com http://europlacer.com http://freedomcad.com http://evest.com.tw http://rdcircuits.com http://assembleon.com http://qualitek.com http://jskrep.com http://finetechusa.com http://smta.org http://smta.org/panpac/call_for_papers.cfm http://smta.org/panpac/call_for_papers.cfm http://milarasmt.com http://premtronic.com 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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