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Speaking of this Week — September 3, 2004
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
By Christine F. Della Monaca, Managing Editor, SMT
Speaking of this Week summarizes and analyzes events in the electronics assembly industry every Friday.
There's a lot going on this week before Labor Day. IPC released its new book-to-bill ratio, and there's tons of positive progress news. Trade show news past and present, as well as personnel and financial news, was on the radar as well. Finally, there's a look at the oft-neglected ESD market.
- First, Northbrook, Ill.-based IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries' new book-to-bill ratio, which is based on combined data from rigid PCB and flexible circuit producers. For July, the number saw a slight bounce to 1.10 from June's 1.06 figure, but didn't quite reach the year-high of 1.13 reached in February. The book-to-bill hit a 12-month high in October 2003 at 1.18. Hopefully the fall months will continue to bring us good things. In the meantime, the separate book-to-bill ratios were 0.99 for rigid PCBs and 1.57 for flexible circuits.
- In progress news, San Clemente, Calif.-based YESTech Inc. bought a new 5,400 sq ft building for its corporate headquarters and hired more people to help fill it to accommodate growth. A relief from the days of layoffs! In similar news, Espoo, Finland-based Elcoteq Network Corp. expanded its second manufacturing plant in Tallinn, Estonia, meaning the company will employ almost 3,200 employees and maintain 42,000 sq m of factory space between its two plants in Estonia. Key Largo, Fla.-based APE South is seeking customer testimonials about the durability of its equipment, to be used in a national campaign, with the grand prize winner awarded a trip to two for a week in Key Largo. Speaking of awards, the Minneapolis-based SMTA is honoring four individuals and a company at its Annual Meeting at SMTA International in Rosemont, Ill., later this month. Also at the show, Doug Farlow, president and CEO of Poway, Calif.-based Production Solutions will present a paper on efficient line changeover. Meanwhile, IPC is offering lower prices on single-user standards and specs bought on CD-ROM or through electronic download. The Herndon, Va.-based NEMI revised its recommendations for tin whisker acceptance test requirements after publishing draft recommendations in May and revising them based on supplier feedback. Franklin, Mass.-based Speedline Technologies Inc. shipped its 3,000th MPM UltraPrint 2000 stencil printer, and the Teddington, UK-based NPL consulted with industry advisors on its new materials program. FINALLY, Ashburn, Va.-based ZESTRON America introduced an improved product labeling system to prevent users from confusing different cleaning chemistries. Whew!
- In trade show news, NPL's summer Soldering Science and Technology Club meeting, held in mid-July at the organization's Teddington, UK lecture theater, focused on lead-free reliability and NPL projects. Speedline announced it would showcase its dispensing and stencil printing systems at SEMICON Taiwan in mid-September. The electronicaAsia show, taking place in mid-October in Hong Kong and co-located with the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, expects to see a record number of visitors and exhibitors. NEMI is sponsoring a RoHS/Lead-free Summit in mid-October to discuss the upcoming legislation, along with AeA, the Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA) and IPC. The meeting will be at StorageTek in Louisville, Colo., near Denver. IPC reports that its February trade shows, the co-located IPC Printed Circuits Expo, APEX and the Designers Summit, are 85 percent sold out, and will feature an enhanced technical conference with co-location of Electronic Circuit World Convention for the first time. Finally, SMT/HYBRID/PACKAGING 2005, taking place next April in Nuremberg, Germany, is seeking tutorials on subjects such as packaging, electronic assembly design and interconnection technologies, advanced materials, and sustainability by October 8.
- Greenville, S.C.-based KEMET Corp. named Philip Lessner, Ph.D. as its vice president of tantalum technology.
- After almost getting booted off the NASDAQ Small Cap Market, West Chicago, Ill.-based M-Wave Inc. announced this week it will be allowed to stay.
- Finally, Norwalk, Conn.-based Business Communications Co. Inc. sees the U.S. market for electrostatic discharge (ESD) products growing from $881.7 million in 2003 to $986.1 million in 2004 to $1.5 billion in 2009, representing an average annual growth rate of 8.3 percent between 2004 and 2009. ESD packaging should see the most growth over the next five years, and apparel the least.
This just in: According to this week's Quick Vote, 78 percent of you purchase used capital equipment, while 22 percent do not.
Have some insight on the industry? See something you don't agree with? Think I'm right on? Send it all to me at christinef@pennwell.com.