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Speaking of this Week — July 11, 2003
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
By Christine F. Della Monaca
Speaking of this Week reflects on events in the electronics assembly industry every Friday.
Lots of news this week as we all settle back in after the long holiday weekend. Progress news rises to the top again this week, partnerships are back on the radar screen and there's some high-profile personnel news, as well as tradeshow announcements, financial news and study results. Let's get to it:
- Progress news from Northbrook, Ill.-based IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries: The association announced the first revision to the IPC-2220 standard, which forms the foundation of all of IPC's design standards. Meanwhile, Natick, Mass.-based Cognex Corp. follows a trend by expanding into China, while e-epoxy.com, which bills itself as the first and only e-commerce site for the epoxy industry, is setting its sights there as well. At Pittsburgh-based Pinnacle Electronics, the company is celebrating President and CEO Ty Eggemeyer's win as Ernst & Young's 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year for the Western Pennsylvania region. Finally, Bethlehem, Pa.-based FlexLink Systems launched a new Web site, while Greenville, S.C.-based KEMET Corp. announced a strategic plan that involves reorganizing world operations. Primary production facilities will remain in Mexico, and the company is looking to those in Suzhou, China to be operational by the last quarter of 2003.
- Partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, oh my: San Clemente, Calif.-based YESTech Inc. entered into a partnership with Philadelphia-based Aegis Industrial Software that will see YESTech adapting Aegis' CircuitCAM software for training YESTech's X-ray and AOI systems. In the meantime, Ashburn, Pa.-based ZESTRON and Enthone have come together to establish process windows for MPC-based cleaning of Enthone Plus coated misprinted PCBs, while Medfield, Mass.-based Milara Inc. appointed Howard Budovsky of Waban, Mass.-based Matthew Associates Inc. as a manufacturer's representative for the New England area. Cambridge, Ontario, Canada-based ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. has won orders for turn-key automation systems valued at US $13.2 million from a major multinational automotive component manufacturer. Finally, on the acquisition front, Wilsonville, Ore.-based Mentor Graphics Corp. bought Alcatel's complete line of Ethernet and media access control (MAC) IP, while Reisterstown, Md.-based The Test Connection Inc. bought the MTS 500 Condor XL test system from Concord, Calif.-based US Digitaltest Inc., a subsidiary of Blankenloch, Germany-based Digitaltest GmbH
- Some big personnel announcements: Boston-based Teradyne Inc. promoted Mark E. Jagiela to president of the Semiconductor Test Division to replace Michael Bradley, recently promoted to president of the company. Mountain View, Calif.-based trade organization MEPTEC (Microelectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council) appointed Phil Marcoux as executive director. Finally, the Irvine, Calif.-based ASSA ABLOY Identification Technology Group (ITG) has a new chief technology officer in Peter Lowe.
- Tradeshow news: The Minneapolis-based SMTA announced the recipient of the 2003 Charles Hutchins Educational Grant as Andrew Perkins from Georgia Tech University, for his project entitled "Investigating the Combination of High and Low Cycle Fatigue on Solder Joints." He will be presented with the $5,000 grant at SMTA International in Rosemont, Ill., in September. Meanwhile, IPC announced the schedule of professional development courses for the 2003 IPC Annual Meeting at the end of September in Minneapolis. Topics range from lead-free soldering to embedded passives to bare die integration.
- A tidbit of financial news: Angleton, Texas-based Benchmark Electronics Inc. reaffirmed guidance for the second quarter of 2003 of $443 million in revenues and consensus earnings per share of 44 cents.
- Finally, looks at the industry: The Arlington, Va.-based Electronic Components, Assemblies and Materials Association (ECA) reported flat component orders for June, while a study by the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD Global Consumer Advisory Board (GCAB) revealed that many potential buyers of high-tech gizmos around the world such as PDAs and MP3 players are intimidated by the technology terms and perceived complexity of the gadgets, and are likely to delay high-tech purchases.
This just in: According to this week's Quick Vote, half of you either don't know when your company is going to lead-free soldering technology or has no plans. Of the half that do, 22 percent plan on 2004, 14 percent are looking at 2005, and 8 percent each are either looking at the second half of 2003 or the first half of 2006.
Have some insight on the industry? See something you don't agree with? Think I'm right on? Send it all to me at mailto:christinef@pennwell.com.