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Speaking of this Week — May 9, 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.
Progress is the name of the game this week, and companies earning patents earned a large place in this news. There's also tons of progress (always good to see), followed by huge tradeshow news, personnel and financial news, and a slew of predictions. On with the show:
- Lots of companies are hitting the road to talk about themselves and their products, and Binghamton, N.Y.-based Universal Instruments Corp. is no exception. The company's first few Road Show events, one which took place in Orlando, Fla. on April 20, have been a success for the company. In patent news, Irvine, Calif.-based Newport Corp. was awarded a patent for its load port latch key design; Ypsilanti, Mich.-based Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. (ISSYS) was granted a patent that covers the manufacturing of stationary and free-standing micro-tubes; and Eatontown, N.J.-based AOS Thermal Compounds LLC was issued a patent for its thermal grease. Finally, Parsippany, N.J.-based Matheson Tri-Gas Inc. was this year's Supplier Excellence Award winner in the category of "Special Achievement" from Analog Devices Inc., and Aurora, Ill.-based Mitutoyo America Corp. established an Integrated Measuring Solutions Group.
- Alliances abound, and that's a good thing: Milpitas, Calif.-based Solectron Corp. signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture with China-based Guangzhou Soutec (Group) Technology Co. Ltd. (Soutec) for cell phone manufacture, while elsewhere in China, Grand Junction, Colo.-based GPD Global and Singapore-based Dou Yee Enterprises expanded their alliance in Asia-Pacific to include this white-hot country. In the meantime, Newport Beach, Calif.-based Router Solutions Inc. (RSI) and Winborne, Dorset, England-based PCB CAM Solutions Ltd. (PCS) formed a new partnership agreement that makes PCS RSI's exclusive representative in the UK and Ireland, while Garbsen, Germany-based FeinFocus USA and Vista, Calif.-based Palomar Technologies have come together to address optoelectronics, MEMS/MOEMS and RF component manufacturing challenges. Finally, Degussa AG and LPKF Laser & Electronics AG have established a "know how" transfer and license agreement.
- Huge tradeshow news: NEPCON West, Assembly West and Fiberoptic Automation Expo, co-located shows scheduled for October 28 through 29 in San Jose, Calif., have been postponed indefinitely. The official reason is that "the Northern California market is not strong enough for NEPCON West to provide the return on investment desired by exhibitors." In better news, Northbrook, Ill.-based IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries saw more than 220 PCB designers attend its inaugural 2003 IPC Designers Council Summit, which took place in March in Long Beach, Calif.
- Some personnel appointments: Doylestown, Pa.-based EMC Global Technologies Inc. has a new national sales manager in Christopher Perry, and appointed Heidi Greco as inside sales representative for the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest territories. And Breda, Holland-based Cobar Europe appointed Süleyman Tasçilar as applications engineer.
- A bit of financial news: Singapore-based EMS giant Flextronics saw a 2 percent increase in sales for fiscal 2003 over fiscal 2002. Every little bit helps...
- Finally, a whole bunch o' predictions and forecasts, past, present and future: IPC released its 2002/2003 National Technology Roadmap for Electronic Interconnections, which looks at OEMs over the next 10 years and analyzes how these needs correspond to the requirements of the PCB and electronics assembly industries. Meanwhile, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based In-Stat/MDR forecast that worldwide revenue for independent intellectual property (IP) providers should rise from $698.4 million in 2001 to $1.5 billion by the end of 2007. In-Stat also sees vertical markets such as healthcare and government offering the most opportunities for the deployment of wireless technology Bluetooth. The research firm predicts that these vertical markets will grow to more than 2 million deployed Bluetooth nodes worldwide in 2007. Finally, Norwalk, Conn.-based Business Communications Co. Inc. predicts that the ultrasonics market will rise fro a current $3.6 billion to $5.35 billion by 2008, representing an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 8.5 percent.
This just in: According to this week's Quick Vote, an astonishing 81 percent of you say rework is a problem at your company, while 19 percent say no.
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.