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The Inside Line
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Cookson Explains Price Hikes
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — David Zerfoss, president of Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials Group recently explained his organization's decision to raise prices as much as 5 percent. The price increase began March 5.
"To continue to make adequate investments in R&D, we had to shore up our pricing. This is our first increase in more than three years," said Zerfoss, adding, "We are certainly not alone in our actions."
Companies supplying basic chemistry to Cookson have increased their prices, as have oil and gas companies. This is reflected in the prices of Cookson's materials products sold to electronics manufacturers.
"Our healthcare and insurance costs, post-9/11, have gone up tremendously, only a fraction of which we have passed on to our employees," said Zerfoss. "The cost of doing business continues to rise. In the past, we willingly absorbed some of the expenses within our company for these costs." But to keep growing and investing in R&D, Cookson had to increases prices, he added. "In a difficult business environment, such as we have experienced during the past two-and-a-half years, all issues become magnified," Zerfoss continued. "Managers need to be even more meticulous regarding costs and overheads in order to generate satisfactory returns on investment."
As solutions become more complex, associated costs increase. Lead-free, for example, requires more expensive equipment and materials due to the higher costs of alloys involved as well as the cost of licenses required to access these materials. Yet, many of Cookson's customers expect "green" products at the same price. In the past, suppliers like Cookson absorbed the extra costs. "We simply can no longer afford to do that," Zerfoss said.
Ultimately, the consumer must pay for a cleaner, lead-free environment. Companies supplying the electronics industry must provide productivity-enhancing technology and meet consumer demand. —Gail Flower
Milara Introduces Vibrating Squeegee Technology
MEDFIELD, Mass. — End users have become more aware of throughput capability when considering a new stencil printer. In response, stencil printer manufacturers have begun improving their cycle times.
Milara's vibrating squeegee apparatus oscillates along a single axis perpendicular to the direction of squeegee travel. The resulting analysis of the squeegee stroke shows a "zigzag" motion, which fills and levels stencil apertures evenly. This means solder definition and deposition consistency is achievable at high squeegee speed.
"The vibrating squeegee is capable of producing a superior print at speeds up to 500 percent greater than conventional methods, especially on fine-pitch devices," said Krassy Petkov, CEO.
To deposit material onto the printed circuit board (PCB), the paste must roll as the squeegee moves across the stencil apertures. The squeegee's vibration excites the paste molecularly, reducing its cohesive bond and causing it to roll freely. Reducing the cohesive bond in the printed material also extends its functional service life as it begins to dry. This ensures the printability of high viscosity materials, meaning less wasted solder. In a recent demonstration, the vibrating squeegee printed a no-clean solder paste with a viscosity of 1.8 million centipoise, Petkov explained.
By vibrating the squeegee blade, the adhesive bond between paste and squeegee is reduced, and the squeegee sheds the paste, further improving paste roll. As the squeegee passes over an aperture, reduced adhesion between squeegee and paste means the deposit is less likely to be dragged out of the aperture. At the end of the print stroke, as the circuit is separating from the stencil, the vibration of the squeegee is transmitted to the stencil, allowing the solder deposits to release from the apertures freely, with almost no deformation. The squeegee vibration allows it to separate itself from the printed material as it is raised off the stencil at the end of the print stroke. — Jenny Popp