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Speaking of this Week — March 12, 2003
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
By Christine F. Della Monaca, Managing Editor, SMT
Speaking of this Week wraps up and summarizes the events of the electronics assembly industry every Friday.
What many of us suspected was true: Attendance WAS up at the recent APEX/IPC Printed Circuits Expo show, as confirmed this week by IPC. We've got lots of other progress news, trade show happenings past and present, companies coming together, financial results, a bit of personnel news, and a look at the state of the industry. Let's get to it:
- The biggest bit of progress news, of course, was Northbrook, Ill.-based IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries's release of the attendance figures for the first-ever co-located APEX and IPC Printed Circuits Expo. The year-over-year attendance for the combined shows was up 8 percent to 5,700 from 5,300 in 2003. The total of attendees and exhibitors was 10,200, with 480 companies in more than 154,250 net square feet of floor space. In other IPC progress news, the association released library generation tools in conjunction with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in support of the forthcoming IPC-7381, Generic Requirements for Surface Mount Design and Land Patterns Standard. In even more IPC news, the association recognized the winners of this year's Best U.S. and International papers at APEX/IPC Printed Circuits Expo. Crossing the pond, the Surrey, UK-based National Physical Laboratory (NPL) formed a consortium of 16 contributing companies to investigate solder joint reliability during the transition period to lead-free. Finally, Memtron Input Components, a licensee of Phoenix-based Duraswitch, announced that a major medical OEM customer expanded its use of Duraswitch technologies in new applications in their product line.
- In trade show news, NPL announced this week that it attracted a large number of delegates to its lead-free session at the Southern Manufacturing 2004 show last month. In May, attendees to IRPS 2004 in Phoenix will enjoy the largest number of technical papers received in IRPS' 42-year history. Finally, the Minneapolis-based SMTA announced its offerings for SMTA Boston, taking place in early May in Boston.
- Partnership news: UK-based Tin Technology has installed XiDAT technology from Fremont, Calif.-based Dage Precision Industries, while Key Largo, Fla.-based APE Automated Production Equipment announced a representation agreement with American Tec for its products in China. In other China news, Glendale Heights, Ill.-based Surya Electronics Inc., a minority-owned electronics manufacturer, announced this week that it has had a solid working partnership with an offshore assembly facility in China for the past four years. Portsmouth, R.I.-based IMS appointed JDM Associates Inc. as the company's representative in Florida and Georgia, while Ogdensburg, N.Y.-based Cyber Technologies USA appointed Acton, Mass.-based MPS Associates Inc. as a representative in New England. Last but certainly not least, Herzlia, Israel-based Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. formed a six-year-, multi-million-dollar per year agreement with Hewlett-Packard for HP to provide internal IT operations for Tecnomatix worldwide, and UK-based GSPK Electronics Ltd. secured a major new contract with Tyco Electronics.
- Some financial news: Duraswitch announced results for its fourth quarter and year ended December 31. For the year, the company's net loss was $2.6 million, or 27 cents per share. That's better than 2002's loss of $4.7 million, or 49 cents a share. And EMS giant Singapore-based Flextronics and its wholly owned subsidiary, Flextronics International USA Inc. put a new four-year revolving bank credit facility in place.
- Personnel news from two companies: Mentor, Ohio-based Libra Industries promoted Robert Hanzie, formerly director of finance to chief financial officer and James Guynn, former engineering supervisor, was bumped up to manager of engineering. And Bolton, Mass.-based DownStream Technologies LLC appointed Kenneth Tepper as principal.
- Finally, an important industry metric: The monthly order index compiled by the Arlington, Va.-based Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA) continued its upward movement in February. ECA's 12-month moving index is up nearly 10 points in the last six months after being flat for much of the first half of last year.
This just in: According to this week's Quick Vote, 58 percent of you did not attend the co-located APEX/IPC Printed Circuits Expo, 21 percent of you thought it was better than expected, and 21 percent more of you said it was about what you had anticipated.
Got 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.