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News
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Compiled By SMT Staff
Engent Launches Lead-free Deployment Solutions Program
ATLANTA — Engent Inc. has created a Lead-free Deployment Solutions Program to address the industry's shift to lead-free technology.
Major Japanese corporations have committed to eliminating the use of lead in electronic products by 2005. In addition, the European Union has set legislation in motion that mandates the use of lead-free materials in all electronic and other products by July 2006.
The elimination of lead in electronic products will require new materials and processes to be put into use. Engent will be partnering with multinational and regional OEMs, EMS providers and materials suppliers to study the properties and processing of new materials that do not contain lead and deliver a solution to these emerging mandates.
Engent's program defines a complete lead-free process including design considerations, solder paste, printing, placement and reflow process procedures, as well as the deployment of the process technology around the world. Engent currently is seeking additional partners to participate in this deployment and share in the overall results. For more information, visit www.engentaat.com/leadfree.
PCB Book-to-Bill Ratio
September Book-to-Bill Continues to Climb
NORTHBROOK, Ill. — The IPC IMS/PCB book-to-bill ratio for September was 1.15, meaning $115 worth of orders for new boards were received for every $100 billed (shipped). A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply. The ratio increased from the August level of 1.14. Sales billed (shipments) in September 2003 decreased 12.1 percent from September 2002, and orders booked increased 12.9 percent from September 2002. Compared to 2002, PCB bookings are down 13.1 percent YTD, while PCB shipments are down 22.2 percent YTD.
September's book-to-bill level increased slightly from August's numbers, and orders booked for September 2003 increased 12.9 percent from September 2003.
Siemens Dematic Installs its Siplace CF Machine, Won at APEX 2003
NORCROSS, Ga. — In an effort to increase attendance and support at APEX 2003 in a down economy, Siemens Dematic gave away a free Siplace C-Series placement machine for one year, including service, and drew the winning name at the show.
The contest drawing was held at the Siemens Dematic booth on April 2. The lucky entry form was drawn by John Bubello, publisher of SMT from numerous entries submitted throughout the show. The winner was U.S. Digital Corp., Vancouver, Wash.
U.S. Digital is a small- to mid-size designer, manufacturer and distributor of optical encoders, inclinometers, PC interfaces, digital readouts, motors and drives. David Madore, president of U.S. Digital was at APEX researching placement equipment. He was at the Siemens Dematic booth obtaining information about the Siplace platform of equipment when he was encouraged by a Siplace representative to enter the contest.
U.S. Digital was given the choice between two Siplace C-Series machines, the Siplace CF or CS. The company chose the Siplace CF machine due to its multifunctional capabilities for both high speed and flexibility. The Siplace CF machine was installed at U.S. Digital over the summer.
Agilent Receives Frost & Sullivan Award
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Agilent Technologies Inc. received Frost & Sullivan's 2003 Product Line Award for its line of test and inspection solutions for PCB assembly.
With the Frost & Sullivan calculated market share between 13.5 and 14.5 percent of the total SMT inspection equipment market, Agilent is the leading supplier in SMT inspection equipment, said Frost & Sullivan. Solutions by Agilent address limited access test, in-system programming, Bluetooth and wireless networking, fixturing, and lead-free processes.
In addition to the product line award, Frost & Sullivan's SMT and Electronic Components group awarded its Product of the Year award for 2003 to the Agilent 5DX Series 5000 automated X-ray inspection (AXI) system. The system reportedly can detect up to 90 percent of all physical manufacturing defects quickly and precisely.
e-epoxy.com Expands Supply Options for China
HONG KONG — e-epoxy.com, an e-commerce site for the epoxy industry, now is available to customers in The People's Republic of China. The site, in its third year of operation, is offering epoxies and related products for online purchase and delivery in North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Central Europe, the Middle East, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Southeast China.
Additionally, e-epoxy.com will offer several of the highest-volume epoxy resins manufactured by The Dow Chemical Co. to the China market. Dow products for sale on e-epoxy.com will come from its new Converted Epoxy Resins plant in Zhangjiagang, China.
e-epoxy.com plans to enter the Chinese marketplace with help from epoxy-e.com, an Internet source for epoxy information and news in China. The information portal is owned and operated by Zhu Wei, who has experience within the Chinese epoxy industry.
Legacy Electronics Expands
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Less than three years ago, Legacy Electronics purchased a 15,000 sq. ft. contract manufacturing building in the Amanecer Industrial Complex and invested $3 million in SMT manufacturing and automated test equipment (ATE). This investment was made to help position the company for what it considered to be the next generation of SMT component manufacturing.
The company has expanded again to a new 45,000 sq. ft. facility in Rancho San Clemente Business Park and made an additional $2.2 million capital investment in manufacturing and test equipment. In addition, Legacy is retaining the original 15,000 sq. ft. facility for future expansion.
Legacy also purchased BTT DDR440 test equipment from King Tiger Technology as add-on technology to its current testers. The company also invested in six new Assembléon Topaz X2 high-speed placement machines.
Nextek Expands Production Operations
MADISON, Ala. — Nextek Inc. expanded its production operations to meet increasing customer demand. Additional state-of-the-art automated surface mount assembly equipment has been installed to provide expanded capacity for advanced technology printed circuit assemblies using BGA, CGA and CSP packaging as well as standard SMT. The additional capacity, combined with the ability to handle any type of surface mount package, will assist the company in servicing its customers.
Additional dispense and ultraviolet cure equipment also has been installed in the company's Class 10,000 cleanroom to address the increasing demand for microelectronic and optoelectronic assembly of fiber optic transceivers and medical devices.
AIM Opens Office in Suzhou, China
SUZHOU, China — AIM has opened an applications support and sales office located here. The office will provide technical support for the complete AIM line of electronic solders and chemicals throughout China and will work in conjunction with AIM's Asian production facilities and distributors.
Wang Hong Jun, Wader, AIM's newly appointed applications engineer, manages this newest AIM office. He brings several years of experience in the support of electronic assembly processes and holds an advanced degree in engineering.
MicroScreen Expands Facilities to Include New Inspection Room
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — MicroScreen LLC has completed fabrication of its new inspection room, dedicated to inspection of stencils for printing solder paste on PCBs. Stencils inspected in this room are produced as laser cut, chemically etched and electroformed.
This room contains a full range of equipment to perform parameter verification and measurements. Included are basic microscope and optical coordinate measurement machines. The newest piece of equipment included in this facility is the LPKF ScanCheck AOI system, which captures the entire stencil area in one pass at 12,000 dpi.
The climate-controlled facility is used for final inspection on all stencil dimensions to ensure they conform to customer specifications. Final documentation also is completed at this time.
Nu Visions Implements Valor's New Product Introduction Assembly Solution
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. and LAKE FOREST, Calif. — Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC has purchased a Trilogy 5000 next-generation NPI engineering solution from Valor Computerized Systems. The initial order is valued at US $250,000 at the corporate Springfield manufacturing plant.
Trilogy 5000 enables Nu Visions to validate incoming bill of material (BOM) and approved vendor list (AVL) files on a job-by-job basis, which helps ensure a streamlined CAD-to-assembly process. Trilogy 5000 automatically uploads the validated BOM/AVL files into Nu Visions' existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) to reduce manual entries for an improved procurement cycle.
Second National Bank Names Jennie S. Hwang to Second National Bank Board of Directors
WARREN, Ohio — Second National Bank has elected Jennie S. Hwang, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors.
Hwang, an SMT Editorial Advisory Board member, is recognized as a leader within the high-tech industry. She is a pioneer in the worldwide infrastructure establishment of SMT. She holds 10 patents and has provided services to many organizations worldwide, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark offices. She also has authored more than 200 publications and five internationally used textbooks in leading technology areas.
Hwang has served as a pioneer for women in numerous capacities, including being the first and only woman holding the national presidency of the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA). She has received many awards and honors, including being the only woman from Ohio to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering; the only Ohio woman to be inducted into the International Hall of Fame of Women in Technology, plus distinguished alumni awards from both ChengKung University and the Kent Van Horn Distinguished Alumni Award from Case Western Reserve University. She has been named an "R&D Star to Watch" by Industry Week and is an inductee into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame.
BRIEFS
bb electronics Selects Cogiscan
bb electronics purchased an MSD Control system from Cogiscan. The system provides a solution to automate the control of moisture-sensitive devices (MSD) to ensure full compliance with the joint IPC/JEDEC industry standard J-STD-033A , Handling, Packing, Shipping and Use of Moisture/Reflow Sensitive Surface Mount Devices. The automated MSD Control system ensures that the latest standard will be implemented properly. By providing real-time visibility of all components on the factory floor, it enables production personnel to be proactive and reduces bake cycles.
Zestron and Brady Compatibility
After years of successful collaboration, Brady Corp., a leader in identification solutions and Zestron have completed an extensive update of their compatibility testing. Under the direction of Brady's Chemical R&D teams, Brady's family of polyimide label materials was tested with nine different Zestron cleaning agents. The updated confirmation shows strong compatibility between Brady labels and Zestron cleaning agents. To obtain a copy of the test results, contact Zestron at (888) 999-9116.
GPD Global Expands Alliance
GPD Global and Dou Yee Enterprises expanded their alliance in the Asia-Pacific region to include China. Dou Yee has been supporting GPD Global customers in the electronics assembly and semiconductor packaging markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam since January 2001. The expansion will allow GPD Global and Dou Yee Enterprises to provide combined support to companies conducting business in both Southeast Asia and China.
Cognex Offers VisionGuide Reference
Cognex Corp. announced the availability of the Cognex VisionGuide, a free comprehensive machine vision reference and application guide. The CD includes application examples; an interactive tutorial on building vision applications, lighting and optics videos; and a utility program that helps determine the field of view and resolution requirements of vision applications. Designed as an introduction to machine vision for manufacturing and production control engineers and managers, the content illustrates how to build vision applications that can accurately and reliably gauge, guide, identify and inspect products to reduce scrap costs, inventory problems and achieve product quality.
NEWSMAKERS
People
Philip Newbury has been promoted to vice president of distribution sales for SMT Resource Group LLC, Wake Forest, N.C. Newbury has been with the company since 2001 and has been promoted from regional sales manager. In his former position, he was responsible for the sales of PCB assembly products to the global electronics market. Additionally, he was the director of Lead-free Business Development, where he evaluated key technologies, partnerships, market drivers and products to offer to the customer base.
Breda, Holland-based Cobar, a supplier of solder pastes, fluxes and other soldering materials, appointed four new directors from within the company. Manfred Bult has been promoted to director of Order Processing and Procurement. Ineke van Tiggelen-Aarden was appointed technical director. Harry Trip has been named director of technical support. Frank Vos has been promoted to financial director.
Shipley Co. LLC, Marlborough, Mass., announced three management appointments within their PWB business. Bob Ferguson has been named PWB general manager of North America. He has more than 20 years experience in the circuit board industry and most recently was PWB vice president, sales and marketing of North America. Additionally, Jean-Pierre Robic has been appointed PWB general manager, Europe. Robic will retain his roles as the company's vice president and microelectronics general manager for Europe. Finally, Wolfgang Schiller has been named to succeed Sean Fitzgerald as PWB director, sales and marketing of Europe. He will continue in the capacity of PWB general manager, Shipley GmbH Germany.
Companies
Aqueous Technologies, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., introduced a DI Resin Regeneration Service to help companies maximize production and save costs. The service is a way to increase uptime. The company picks up existing carbon and resin tanks, refills the carbon and resin, and then returns the refreshed tanks the same day, reportedly eliminating the downtime other exchange services create by holding the tanks for an undisclosed period of time.
Eastlake, Ohio-based Gould Electronics Inc. restructured its Japan-based parent company, Nippon Mining Holdings Inc., and its three primary business groups — Nikko Metals, Japan Energy Co. and Nikko Materials Co. Ltd. The company said the restructuring involved the transfer of all Gould's assets and liabilities to Nikko Materials USA Inc., a subsidiary of Nikko Materials Co. Ltd. The restructuring resulted in a stronger financial entity with better access to U.S. capital sources.