Circuits Assembly - December 2008 - (Page 14) NEWS People Salcomp named Jari Saarinen chief financial officer, effective Jan. 25, 2009. The company also promoted Pekka Kyyriäinen to vice president, global operations, superseding Osmo Oja, who is retiring. He was general manager of Salcomp’s plant in China since 2006. Sunburst Electronics hired Ken Votruba as manager of sales and service in Ohio. Krayden appointed Eric Monson salesman for Utah, Idaho and New Mexico, and Ken Vitale as sales representative in Richmond, VA. J. Mike Sapienti joined Sanmina-SCI as PCB senior business development manager for defense and aerospace. He has 25 years’ experience in manufacturing, defense and aerospace to Sanmina-SCI, including at Intrinsix Corp., Zycon, Parlex and Teradyne. Axis Electronics promoted Paul Jackson to manufacturing director and Chris nye to materials director. AdoptSMT Group appointed Barry Clark managing director for its London-based AlternativeSMT group. He was previously with Universal Instruments Corp. Synchronized Manufacturing Technologies named Jolene Schofield program manager and Steve Cahalane operations manager. Schofield has 20 years’ experience, including her tenure with SanminaSCI. Cahalane has been an engineer, materials and operations manager at Wang and Celestica. Unisem promoted Mike Griffin to corporate vice president of marketing and business development, Gil Chiu to vice president and region head of business development for North America, and S.C. Lim to vice president and region head of business development for Asia. Industry Cletronics to Expand Plant, Staff MEDINA, OH – Cletronics Inc., a small EMS company and manufacturer of coils and inductors, will add 12,000 sq. ft. to its factory here as part of a $960,000 expansion. The company (cletronics.com) will hire three new full-time workers, bringing its total headcount to 16 (not including two part-timers). The local county granted the company a 40% tax abatement for 10 years, under terms of the Community Reinvestment Act, according to reports. – Mike Buetow Ayrshire Electronics Buys ACT Plant in Corinth CORINTH, MI – Ayrshire Electronics (ayrshireusa.com) has acquired ACT Electronics' facility here for an undisclosed amount. In doing so, Ayrshire saved the largest EMS factory in the US – some 350,000 sq. ft. – and the jobs of about 200 full-time workers and 50 more part-timers. In a statement, the office of Gov. Haley Barbour said, "Ayrshire Electronics is expected to keep 200-plus workers on the job under the umbrella of a new corporate structure and new management effective as early as (today)." ACT put the plant, formerly owned by ITT, up for sale in September. It also closed a site in Hudson, MA. The phone at its San Jose site, the former GSS Array, has been disconnected. Calls to the company's Hudson site were not returned. Ayrshire operates five plants in the Midwest and Mexico. – Mike Buetow Orbotech Pulling Out of Assembly AOI Biz YAVNE, ISRAEL – Beset by losses, Orbotech (orbotech.com) in mid November announced plans to drop out of the PCB AOI equipment business and reduce its workforce by 15%. Starting in the third quarter, the company began scaling back its activities in the assembled PCB business. By year-end, the company will no longer develop and market assembled PCB equipment, but will continue to service its installed base of products. AOI for assemblies make up a small portion of Orbotech's revenues. Sales for the segment were $3.9 million during the September quarter, down 31.6%. Orbotech reported overall sales of $94.8 million for the period. Among the charges taken by the company were a one-time charge of $5.4 million to write off remaining goodwill within its PCB assembly business, and $3.7 million in restructuring charges. Orbotech also announced plans to cut about 15% of its worldwide workforce in the third and fourth quarters, a 15% reduction in corporate management salaries, smaller reductions in other salaries, and other cost-cutting measures. – Mike Buetow Nanowires Ideal for EMS, Say Researchers YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY – IBM (ibm.com) and Purdue University (purdue.edu) researchers have discovered tiny silicon nanowires might be ideal for manufacturing in computers and consumer electronics because the structures repeatedly form the same way. According to a Purdue spokesperson, the researchers used a transmission electron microscope to observe nanowires made of nucleate. Silicon nanowires form from gold nanoparticles ranging in size from 10 to 40 nm. This is the first time researchers have made such precise measurements of the nucleation process in nanowires, a participating researcher said, according to published reports. The researchers studied silicon; however, the findings could be applied to manufacturing nanowires made from other semiconducting materials, published reports say. Nanowires could aid the semiconductor industry’s ongoing need to place more transistors in smaller spaces. The challenge will be to replace gold with other metals used in electronics, according to the researchers. The National Science Foundation is funding the program. – Chelsey Drysdale circuitsassembly.com 14 Circuits Assembly DECEMBER 2008 http://www.cletronics.com http://www.ayrshireusa.com http://www.orbotech.com http://www.ibm.com http://www.purdue.edu http://www.circuitsassembly.com
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