-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Electropac Goes Flexible
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Electropac Co., Inc., offers rigid flex and flexible products from single- and double-sided flex circuits to 4-10-layer rigid flex. Current product builds are expected to exceed IPC-6013, Class 2 fabrication standards, and the company should have a MIL-P-50884 test specimen submitted for Department of Defense (DoD) certification in the next six months. Electropac will integrate flexible laminates using automated conveyor equipment, and has been granted a production order to manufacture a portable, handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) system.
UL Services Aid with Due Diligence
NORTHBROOK, Ill.-Two services from Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) can help organizations show due diligence to comply with the European Union’s (EU’s) RoHS Directive. The UL Registered Substance Product Certification and the UL Restricted Substances Management System Registration aim to give companies the confidence that their products comply with RoHS Directive’s restricted substances levels.
For the Registered Substance Production Certification, UL uses destructive testing consisting of an analytical chemistry process that tests the product down to the homogeneous material level. “We don’t solely use XRF technology, which is only a screening tool,” said Greg Monty, director of technology for the restricted substances unit of UL. The testing is essentially a multi-step process that breaks a component down and analyzes its full composition. Monty believes this analytical breakdown of material compositions is the only way to get a true reading on all substances within a component. “XRF is a quick and inexpensive test if you’re looking for things like heavy metal, for example lead paint,” he said. “But in the area of restricted substances in components, it’s a little trickier because they’ve set limits at pretty low values. The accuracy of the tool is not good enough that you can confidently say that the number received from the XRF is exactly what the content in the material is.” Monty noted that major deviations are found when comparing results from an XRF vs. an analytical chemistry method. Within this service, UL also marks each qualified part and conducts two on-site surveillance visits each year.
UL’s Restricted Substances Management Registration assesses a company’s compliance with the International Electrotechnical Commission Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components (IECQ QC 080000 HSPM) standard. The IECQ requires that companies have put processes in place to identify and control hazardous substance content in their products. The QC 080000 contains requirements above and beyond ISO 9001. For more information on these UL services, visit www.ul.com/rscs.
April Book-to-Bill Dips
BANNOCKBURN, Ill. - The IPC IMS/PCB book-to-bill ratio for April 2006 was positive, but dipped slightly to 1.07. IPC reports a book-to-bill for rigid PCBs of 1.08, while the N. American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio continued its descent to 0.87. For these segments combined, sales billed (shipments) for April 2006 increased 13.2%, and orders booked rose 5.6% year-over-year.
Canadian EMS Acquires San Jose-based Asemtec
VANCOUVER, B.C. - EMS provider Creation Technologies has acquired San Jose, Calif.-based Asemtec Inc., enabling Creation to cover key regions across North America. The acquisition brings Creation’s facility count to seven, all of which manufacture medium-volume, high-complexity electronics products. “While Tier I and Tier II providers have exited the market, so to speak, and are more focused on doing offshore business, there has been a bit of a void,” said Geoff Reed, CEO, Creation Technologies. “We’ve been able to fill some of that void.”
Unlike other EMS providers, Creation does the majority of its manufacturing in N. America. “We’ve always had a focus on the medium-volume, high-complexity, high-touch business. Because of that, we’ve been fortunate that most of our customers’ products are not suited for offshore,” he said. “While we are producing some higher-volume, more stable products offshore, our North American business is growing. Because the bigger guys have moved much of their manufacturing offshore, more of the high-touch business tends to gravitate to us.”
The Asemtec operation will be renamed Creation Technologies - San Jose. “What excites me the most about Asemtec is how long they’ve been around. Their employees include a well-trained, experienced workforce. Looking at their skill set, the workforce, and the diversified customer mix, we saw that as a great stepping stone into the market.”
Newsmakers
X-Tek Group (Herts, U.K.) selected Prodelec as its exclusive distributor in Italy to expand X-Tek’s range of real-time microfocus X-ray systems. These systems, including X-ray inspection solutions with submicron technology, will be integrated into Prodelec’s established electronics offering. X-Tek also appointed Peter Smith as operations director, responsible for all aspects of manufacturing, logistics, service, and systems development.
Seika Machinery, Inc., (Torrance, Calif.) names Rick Schultz account manager of the Sayaka PCB Routers Division, covering North and South America. Schultz brings with him more than 15 years of experience in the semiconductor and SMT markets.
Houston, Texas-based BP Microsystems will partner with PB-Technik for product distribution in Germany. PB-Technik will provide technical support and consultation to BP Microsystems’ German customers.
Ovation Products (Bethlehem, Pa.) hired Manfred Sauer as sales manager in Europe. Based in Germany, Sauer will be responsible for creating a representative network for Ovation’s Grid-Lok sales equipment in Europe and will establish OEM partnerships in the printer and pick-and-place markets.