Circuits Assembly - August 2008 - (Page 10)

NEWS In Brief Lord Corp., a supplier of thermal management materials, adhesives, coatings and encapsulants, has invested $2.5 million to renovate its electronic materials labs at its Cary, NC, headquarters. As part of the expansion, the firm consolidated labs previously located in Elverson, PA, and Indianapolis. The expansion includes about 7,500 sq. ft. of new or refurbished lab space and $600,000 in new instruments and equipment. A-Laser (a-laser.com), a division of FCT Assembly, purchased an LPKF (lpkf.com) Microline 600 laser system. Mirtec Co. Ltd. (mirtecusa.com) said North American revenue was up more than 81% year-over-year for the first six months of fiscal 2008. The privately held company did not disclose revenue figures. In a statement, president Brian D’Amico cited the firm’s two new AOI platforms: the MV-7L and MV-3L. BPM Microsystems (bpmmicro.com) named Esman Elektronik (esman.com) as its distributor for Turkey. Lenthor Engineering (lenthor.com) has been approved for Lockheed Martin’s (lmco.com) corporate AVL. Valor Computerized Systems (valor. com) signed a cooperative agreement establishing a technological partnership under which it will provide Guilin University of Electronic Technology (GUET) with DfM and other software, and GUET will use the tools in its educational programs. EMS firm Assel selected Valor’s (valor. com) vPlan enterprise-level process engineering software platform for electronics assembly. Photo Stencil (photostencil.com) has expanded its capacity in the US and abroad, upgrading its photoplotting infrastructure and adding electroformed stencil manufacturing capacity and capability. Industry Edited by Mike Buetow The deal is now in the hands of the state, which has 90 days to approve it. Jabil employs almost 1,900 workers in St. Petersburg, and city officials appeared determined not to let the company relocate. Local officials apparently put the package together and approved it without disclosing the name of the company to the public. Indeed, some council members said they weren’t clued in, the paper reported. “When I voted on it, I didn’t even know who it was. I thought it was Raytheon at first,” council member Karl Nurse told the Times. She added the wages were what made her “comfortable” with the deal. – Mike Buetow Henkel, Shanghai University Form Electronics Analysis Center SHANGHAI – Henkel (henkel.com/electronics) and Shanghai University, along with other research universities, have entered into an agreement to form a Shanghai Region Joint Electronics Research and Failure Analysis Center. “One-third of Henkel’s Shanghai-based 150-person research and engineering team is dedicated solely to technology development activities, and over 3% of our research and development expenditure is earmarked for cooperative efforts with universities and technology institutions,” said Dr. Horst Eierdanz, corporate vice president, Henkel R&D Engineering Adhesives. The roadmap of the three-year project includes study of the interfacial bonding mechanisms between metals and organic polymers; new latent curing systems for advanced electronics polymer applications; fundamental studies of the rheological behavior of microelectronic assembly materials; nanocomposite microelectronic packaging materials, and advanced microelectronic thermal solutions. The duration of the project is scheduled through March 31, 2011. The official signing ceremony took place June 10 at Henkel’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai. – Chelsey Drysdale Private Investment Group Purchases SCS INDIANAPOLIS – Private investment firm Berwind Corp. has acquired Specialty Coating Systems (scscoatings. com) from Bunker Hill Capital L.P. for an undisclosed sum. Bunker Hill had acquired the company, which makes parylene conformal coatings and various spray and curing equipment, in December 2005 from Cookson Electronics (cooksonelectronics.com). – Chelsey Drysdale Catalyst Acquires Ramp Industries ENDICOTT, NY – Catalyst Manufacturing Services (catalystems.com) has acquired certain assets of fellow NY-based EMS provider Ramp Industries (rampindustries.com). No financial terms of the agreement were disclosed. The combined companies will provide manufacturing of electronic and electro-mechanical assemblies, as well as complex wire harness assembly. Catalyst has locations in Endicott; Raleigh, NC; and Tijuana. – Mike Buetow Silicon Forest Growing Capacity VANCOUVER – EMS firm Silicon Forest Electronics (si-forest.com) has added 20,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space and reconfigured two manufacturing lines to increase speed and flexibility for quickturn, low-volume production. The company also added high-speed equipment, more than doubling its overall machine capacity to more than seven million placements per month across a total of four lines. Additional capacity improvements are planned for late 2008, which will add another two to four million placements per month. – Mike Buetow Building Blocked: Lego Pulls Flex Deal COPENHAGEN – Lego Group is taking its toys and going home. Europe’s largest toy maker will end its threeyear outsourcing deal with Flextronics (flextronics.com) next year and bring manufacturing back in-house, the company said in July. circuitsassembly.com 10 Circuits Assembly AUGUST 2008 http://henkel.com/electronics http://a-laser.com http://lpkf.com http://mirtecusa.com http://bpmmicro.com http://www.scscoatings.com http://esman.com http://www.scscoatings.com http://cooksonelectronics.com http://lenthor.com http://www.lmco.com http://catalystems.com http://www.valor.com http://rampindustries.com http://www.valor.com http://si-forest.com http://www.valor.com http://www.valor.com http://photostencil.com http://flextronics.com http://circuitsassembly.com

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

Circuits Assembly - August 2008 Contents Caveat Lector Industry News Market Watch Talking Heads Screen Printing Better Manufacturing Auditing a Fabricatior Cutting Machine Programming Time Simultaneous Acoustic Imaging and Surface Mapping Tech Tips Soldering Test and Inspection Process Doctor Pb-Free Lessons Learned Getting Lean Component Advances Product Spotlight Ad Index Assembly Insider Techincal Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - August 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.