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The Inside Line
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Tyco and Remploy Provide Jobs for the Disabled
UK — Built on experience gained from working with more than 2,500 organizations, Remploy Interwork's service reaches out to UK businesses and disabled people seeking jobs. Remploy has more than 80 factories employing approximately 10,000 people.
The company purchased Tyco Mirae machines because people with disabilities can run assembly lines using the equipment.
"Remploy is able to compete successfully in a country where some of their competitors have gone out of business, and others have packed up and moved to China," says George Szekely, general manager of Tyco Electronics Corp.'s Automation Group.
Remploy Electronics has completed the first half of a US $1.3 million (£700,000) investment in new production lines. A special electronics division was set up in July 2003, and Remploy anticipates 35 percent growth in the next financial year. A US $644,980 (£350,000) printed circuit board (PCB) assembly line has been commissioned in Bolton, and a similar installation will follow at the Barking facility. The equipment will provide the capability for placing various devices, including 0201 surface mount packages, fine-pitch quad flat packs and micro BGA components. The group will have the capacity to place 60,000 components per hour. The electronics division can provide design and prototype assembly through volume production and test to packaging and global distribution.
Remploy Electronics has six sites, including those in Southampton, Brixton, Holloway and Medway, that provide small-, medium- and high-volume batch production in a high-mix environment. The group says it has identified a market niche between international contract manufacturers and local suppliers.
Remploy Interwork also offers consulting services to employers, providing expertise on all aspects of disability employment. Their training services provide a flexible training package designed to address issues surrounding disability and employment. — Gail Flower
SMTA Boston Speaker Takes Lead-free to Board Level
BOXBORO, Mass. — Underneath the components and solder paste is the actual printed circuit board (PCB) itself. At a recent SMTA Boston Chapter meeting here, Martin Neusch, senior field application engineer for Merix Corp., discussed board materials used in the challenging reflow environment of lead-free assembly, as well as how to determine material suitability through testing.
Neusch began his presentation by touching on what's driving the move to lead-free, including the WEEE and RoHS Directives in Europe. Merix, a high-technology PCB supplier with an emphasis on serving telecom OEMs, has been engaged in lead-free processing and testing for the past five years. Merix also has been involved with various consortia, such as NEMI, which indicated the high probability of lead-free becoming widely accepted, Neusch explained.
Laminates need to survive the high soldering temperatures required by the industry-preferred replacement for tin-lead solder, tin-silver-copper (SAC). "Anyone can build a lead-free board," Neusch said. "How reliable is that board if you deploy it in the field for three years?"
To find out, Merix engages in lead-free material testing, with two emphases: materials must survive initial assembly, and show post-assembly reliability. "No single parameter indicates lead-free assembly compatibility," Neusch said. "Materials must past multiple tests."
These tests include interconnect stress testing (IST), six-pass IR reflow simulation, T260 and T288. Through such tests and others, Merix found a group of materials that will withstand the rigors of lead-free assembly, as well as several materials that will not. In the middle are materials suitable for lead-free assembly under certain conditions. "Materials that pass the Merix testing program tend to pass it significantly," Neusch said. — Christine F. Della Monaca