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News
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Kester Sold to American Capital
DES PLAINES, Ill. — Kester, a business unit of Northrop Grumman Corp., has been sold to American Capital Strategies Ltd. The acquisition allows the company to break from the defense arena and return to its roots of supplying assembly materials to the electronics assembly, component, electrical and industrial marketplace.
According to Dave Torp, Kester's vice president of marketing and business development, the acquisition allows the company more freedom. "We have increased flexibility and agility within the marketplace, and can generate more business, especially in foreign entities," he said. "American Capital is aggressive in maximizing customer satisfaction. With them, we are free to market globally, manufacture and support customers, especially in China."
Kester was sold to American Capital in its entirety, Torp said. "It's a unique win-win-win situation for Kester, Northrop Grumman and American Capital." He added that Kester's management team remains intact.
Kester comprises a significant portion of American Capital's holding portfolio. The increased flexibility and agility to respond to the market allows the company to move in directions that they feel are key — and to do so at the right time. Kester has implemented a "phase-gate" system, which allows the company to accelerate new product development from years to months.
American Capital's investment takes the form of a revolving credit facility, senior term loans, senior and junior subordinated debt, and preferred and common equity. Post-closing, American Capital owns 84 percent of Kester on a fully diluted basis. The remaining ownership represents amounts under the employee options program, as well as equity co-investors.
APEX Boasts Strong Attendance
NORTHBROOK, Ill. — Attendance totals indicate that the first co-located IPC SMEMA Council's APEX/IPC Printed Circuits Expo/IPC Designers Summit exhibition and conference held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif., in February was a success. IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries announced an 8 percent attendance increase over last year, bringing the number of attendees from 5,300 in 2003 to 5,700.
The three-day event drew a total 10,200 attendees and exhibitors, and featured 480 companies covering more than 154,350 net sq. ft of exhibit space. The professional development courses saw almost 1,300 participants and 1,100 technical conference attendees. Additionally, the Interconnect Manufacturing Services (IMS)/Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Presidents Management and Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Management Council meetings drew a total of 105 senior level managers.
Next year's co-located exhibition and conference will take place February 22 to 24, 2005, in the same location.
PCB Book-to-Bill Ratio: February Book-to-Bill Holds Steady
NORTHBROOK, Ill. — The IPC IMS/PCB book-to-bill ratio for February was 1.08, calculated by averaging the index numbers for orders booked over the past three months and dividing it by the average index numbers for sales billed during the same period. The ratio remained at the January level. At the same time, sales billed (shipments) in February 2004 increased 27.5 percent from February 2003, and orders booked increased 42.3 percent from February 2003.
February's book-to-bill level held steady from January's numbers, while orders booked for February 2004 increased 42.3 percent from February 2003.
electronica 2004 to Focus on Applications
MUNICH, Germany — electronica 2004, which runs November 8 through 12 here, will feature applications that are expected to drive growth in the industry. The show is expected to attract more than 77,000 international visitors.
The show will feature 16 main exhibit halls, covering more than 1.4 million sq. ft, involving key electronics areas such as passive components, power supplies, semiconductors, microchip products, discrete semiconductor components, system peripherals, ED/EDA equipment, and measurement and testing technology. In addition to trade show exhibits showcasing all areas of the electronics industry, visitors will have the opportunity to gain more in-depth information by attending different technical conferences and presentations. The "Embedded in Munich" conference, "Automotive Innovation" user forum, "The World of MEMS" user form, "Wireless Communications" user forum and the EMS Village all are included with admission to electronica.
Halls will be divided into:
- Semiconductors
- Embedded in Munich
- Sensors and microsystems
- PCBs and other circuit carriers and EMS
- Interconnection technology
- Electronic design (ED/EDA)
- Assemblies and subsystems
- Switches
- Passive components
- Displays
- Power supplies
- Casing technology
- Servo technology/drive elements
- Test and measurement.
Aegis Launches European Subsidiary
PHILADELPHIA — Aegis Industrial Software Corp. formed a wholly owned international subsidiary, Aegis Industrial Software Europe Ltd., headquartered in the United Kingdom.
The company already has a European presence with 75 European customers, six value-added resellers (VAR) and 10 European-based machine vendor partners.
Barrie Murray-Upton, managing and operations director, and Peter Clegg, business development director, head the European team. Both are experienced in bringing U.S. CAD/CAM companies to Europe. Christian Teasdel is responsible for customer support. Teasdel has more than four years' experience in the company's software through its machine vendor partners.
The subsidiary is expected to scale throughout 2004, and uses the independent regional VAR model, supplemented by specialized local language sales representatives.
Assembléon, Tecnomatix Provide Programming Solutions
HERZLIA, Israel — Assembléon and Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. have collaborated to replace CIMbridge software with Tecnomatix Unicam's eM-Assembly Expert for Assembléon customers.
Under the terms of the agreement, eM-Assembly Expert, a key component of the eMPower PCB assembly suite from Tecnomatix Unicam will replace the CIMbridge platform Assembléon customers currently use. Tecnomatix acquired the CIMbridge business unit from GenRad in October 2002, and has planned to upgrade CIMbridge users to an integrated programming platform. With this offering, CIMbridge users will be provided with software development upgrades as well as assembly and test advances.
Association News
SMTA Forms Technical Committee
MINNEAPOLIS — The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) formed the SMTA International Technical Committee for 2004. The SMTA International conference again will be co-located with Assembly Tech Expo (ATExpo) September 26 through 30 at the Donald Stephens Convention Center in Chicago.
The 2004 committee is led by veteran Conference Chair Rob Rowland of RadiSys Corp. Rowland is an Editorial Advisory Board member of SMT Magazine, and also is the primary author of Applied Surface Mount Assembly.
The committee is comprised of Gerry Adams, Dade Behring; Donald Banks, 3M Co.; Srinivas Chada, Ph.D., Jabil Circuit; John Evans, Ph.D., Auburn University; Gail Flower, SMT Magazine; Rich Freiberger, ZF Array Technology; Reza Ghaffarian, Ph.D., Jet Propulsion Labs; Ken Gilleo, Ph.D., ET-Trends LLC; Steve Greathouse, Intel Corp.; Jeff Kennedy, Manufacturers' Services Ltd.; Andrew Mawer, Motorola SPS; Julian Partridge, Ph.D., Staktek; Viswanadham Puligandla, Ph.D., Nokia Mobile Phones; and Paul Vianco, Ph.D., Sandia National Labs.
Tracks for the 2004 conference include assembly, business issues, components, emerging technologies, PCB technology and process control.
E/CIT Program Fills Need for Embedded Passive R&D
NORTHBROOK, Ill. — IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries added Mentor Graphics design tools to its Emerging/Critical Interconnection Technology (E/CIT) program, which is an electronic interconnection research and development (R&D) project designed to provide a test bed for design tool development and demonstrate various buried passive technologies in a production setting.
Established in 2002 by IPC and the Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane), the program aims to strengthen the abilities of both the Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. PCB industry to support the military's PCB requirements through a program of research, education and industrial extension.
The program conducts manufacturing R&D programs and serves as a focus for the DoD to work with the U.S. electronic interconnection industry. Additionally, the program facilitates solutions to current military problem areas, and evaluates new design and manufacturing technologies for future military and commercial requirements, prior to adoption by PCB manufacturers.
EMS News
Surya Electronics Outsources to China
GLENDALE HEIGHTS, Ill. — Surya Electronics Inc. has been working with an offshore assembly facility for the past four years. By treating the China locality as a second production department, the company can offer customers direct control over procedures, requirements and work instructions from their U.S. headquarters. Because it does not contract overseas, the ISO-9002-certified company control engineering changes, logistics and quality assurance, assuming all liability.