Circuits Assembly articles from October 2003

Circuits Assembly archives from October 2003

OEM product forecasting: through a glass darkly.(Original Equipment Manufacturer)(Editorial)
October 1, 2003... Here's a true story for you: In early 2001--just as all idleness was about to break loose in electronics production--an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider received some orders from an OEM customer. The orders looked suspect to...

Beware the misnamed monster.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Thanks for a good August issue, with lots of helpful information. But perhaps you should print a minor correction, for the benefit of youngsters like Phil Zarrow, who were not schooled in the days when students were expected to memorize poems...

Looking to catch the next big wave.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... I enjoyed your recent editorial ]"Misery Loves Company?" July, 2003]. Although I am not in the manufacturing industry any longer, I can understand and sympathize with those who still are. Mass production or even the service economy is not...

Saving U.S. manufacturing.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... I read Sue Mucha's article ["Calculating the Total Costs of Offshore Outsourcing" June, 2003] and agree with her. There is a lot to consider. I hope we can keep more of the effort in the U.S. We are trying to do our part. --Tim Easterling,...

Web sites worth mentioning.(Net gain: the latest the Internet has to offer)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... www.dowepoxy.com The Epoxy Products and Intermediates (EP&I) business of "the Dew Chemical Co. has launched e new site that employs Web-based software to help customers locate and select the right epoxy products. The site features order entry,...

Industry resources.(Net gain: the latest the Internet has to offer)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... www.leadfreesoldering.com This new Web site is designed to assist companies moving to lead-free assembly The site features interviews from engineers worldwide on lead-free issues. Free downloads include solder joint images, defect guides,...

Sanmina-SCI achieves certification for design and development.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Sanmina-SCI Corp. (San Jose, CA, www.sanmina-sci.com), a supplier of integrated design and electronics manufacturing services (EMS), announced that its Defense and Aerospace Systems organization (Huntsville, AL) has achieved ISO 9001:2000 and...

Ingenico selects MSL as strategic global supplier.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... MSL (Concord, MA, www.msl.com), an electronics manufacturing and supply-chain services company, announced that it has been chosen by Groupe Ingenico (Paris, France, www.ingenico.com) as its primary worldwide strategic supplier and will provide...

Feinfocus expands relationship with the APiA.(Industry News)(Advanced Packaging & Interconnect Alliance)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Feinfocus (Wunstorf, Germany, www.feinfocus.com) has announced the expansion of its membership with the Advanced Packaging & Interconnect Alliance (ApiA, www.apialliance.com). Feinfocus chose to expand this relationship to investigate the...

On June 30, 2003, the printed circuit board (PCB) industry lost a legend with the passing of 84-year-old Russ Boissoneau.(People)(Boissoneau co-founded Electropac Co. Inc. in 1976)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
October 1, 2003... On June 30, 2003, the printed circuit board (PCB) industry lost a legend with the passing of 84-year-old Russ Boissoneau. Cofounder and former vice-president of the Electropac family of companies, Boissoneau had played an integral part in PCB...

Klockner Pentaplast.(People)(Tom Goeke appointed chief operating officer of Klockner Pentaplast Group (worldwide); Michael Tubridy appointed president; David Veasey appointed vice president of operations)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Klockner Pentaplast (Gordonsville, VA), a producer of rigid films, has promoted Tom Goeke from president of Klockner Pentaplast of America Inc. (kpA) to chief operating officer of Klockner Pentaplast Group (worldwide). Michael Tubridy was...

Pinnacle Electronics.(People)(Ty Eggemeyer wins Ernst & Young 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year award for Western Pennsylvania)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Pinnacle Electronics' (Pittsburgh, PA) president and chief executive officer, Ty Eggemeyer, was selected as a winner in the Ernst & Young 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year competition for the Western Pennsylvania region. The competition recognizes...

P.D. Circuits.(People)(Andy Slade appointed quality manager)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Andy Slade has joined P.D. Circuits (Hampstead, NH) as quality manager. Slade was previously product development engineer at Sanmina.

Advantek Inc.(People)(Bruce Batten appointed president to replace retiring Tim Cowen)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Bruce Batten has been named president of Advantek Inc. (Minnetonka, MN), replacing the retired Tim Cowen. Prior to joining the company, Batten was vice president and general manager of electronic assembly products at CyberOptics Corp.

Circuits Assembly earns sixth ASBPE award.(Industry News)(American Society of Business Publication Editors awards given to Circuits Assembly)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE, Napervile, IL, www.asbpe.org) recently honored UP Media Group's Circuits Assembly magazine (Atlanta, GA) with its sixth regional ASBPE Award of Excellence. For five consecutive years,...

SMTA announces 2003 Hutchins Grant recipient.(Industry News)(Surface Mount Technology Association gives award to Andrew Perkins)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN, www.smta.org) has announced the recipient of the 2003 Charles Hutchins Educational Grant. Andrew Perkins from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA,...

Productronica 2003 draws U.S. companies to Munich.(Industry News)(industrial equipment trade show goes to Munich)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Productronica 2003 will take place Nov. 11-14, in Munich, Germany. According to show organizers, leading U.S. companies will be among 1,500 international exhibitors on the 1.4 million sq. ft. exhibit floor. The exhibit floor is organized by...

Report: use of Internet to purchase direct materials surpassed indirect materials.(Market Watch)(electronic procurement statistics)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The institute for Supply Management (ISM, www.ism.ws) and Forrester Research Inc. (Cambridge, MA, www.forrester.com) have released the latest Research Report On eBusiness, which tracks online activity for manufacturing and non-manufacturing...

Bluetooth semiconductor market making solid progress.(Market Watch)
October 1, 2003... According to a new report from In-Stat/MDR (Scottsdale, AZ, www.instat.com), the Bluetooth semiconductor market has made solid progress in spite of economic ups and downs, The final 2002 worldwide chipset shipments were 35.8 million units,...

July 2003 book-to-bill.(Market Watch)(U.S. IMS/PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio for July 2003)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The U.S. IMS/PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio for July 2003 was 1.04. Sales billed (shipments) in July 2003 decreased 3.7% from July 2002 and orders booked increased 9.2% from July 2002. Compared to 2002, bookings of PCBs are up 0.3%...

Cookson EE opens manufacturing facility in China; partners with MMI Systems.(Asia Watch)(Cookson Electronics Equipment, MMI Systems Pte Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Cookson Electronics Equipment (CEE, Franklin, MA, www.cooksonee.com), also known as Speedline Technologies Inc., has entered into an exclusive partnership with MMI Systems Pte Ltd. for the manufacture of certain MPM stencil printers. The...

CoorsTek expands Korean facility.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... CoorsTek (Golden, CO, www.coorstek.com) announced the opening of a recently completed 8,900 sq. ft. building addition to its Gumi City, Korea facility, with this addition, CoorsTek Korea now has over 20,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space...

Flextronics to acquire ODM Microcell.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Flextronics (Singapore, www.flextronics.com) has signed an agreement to acquire Microcell Group, an original design manufacturer (ODM) of wireless global systems for mobile communications (GSM), general packet radio service (GPRS) and enhanced...

Universal Instruments establishes Dover Software India (DSI).(Asia Watch)(Peter Bollinger appointed manager of system software products and India operations; Ketan Parekh appointed president)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Universal Instruments (Binghamton, NY, www.uic.com) has announced the establishment of Dover Software India (DSI) in Bangalore, India. DSI is a cooperative arrangement between Dover companies, Universal Instruments and DEK International to...

Mykrolis expands executive presence in Asia.(Asia Watch)(Gerry Mackay, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, will relocate to Singapore. )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Mykrolis Corp. (Billerica, MA, www.mykrolis. com), a supplier of components and subsystems to the semiconductor industry, has announced that Gerry Mackay, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, will relocate to Singapore. His...

The balancing act: learn how to balance a line using some very simple calculations.(On the Forefront)(production line design)
October 1, 2003... A fundamental aspect of automated surface-mount assembly is having a process that runs at optimal efficiency, with the least amount of waiting time between machines. Having a machine waiting for the one in front of it to supply printed circuit...

The status of lead-free standards: lead-free standards are difficult to develop without a consensus.(IPC Standard Features)
October 1, 2003... IPC has many standards either under development or under revision to support the electronics manufacturing and interconnect manufacturing service (EMS/IMS) industries and has recently released a white paper (IPC-SPVC-WP-006), "Round Robin...

Component placement.(Ten Timely Tips)
October 1, 2003... 1. One principle of international diplomacy is "trust but verify," which also applies to selecting and qualifying placement equipment. Talk to users of the equipment to compare their experience against what the salesperson tells you. Write into...

Predicting reliability of double-sided area array assemblies.(Component Placement)
October 1, 2003... Demand for high-density assemblies is forcing designers to make greater use of the under-side of the printed circuit board (PCB) to mount complex semiconductors, including ball grid arrays (BGAs), chip-scale packages (CSPs) and quad flat...

Crossing the bridge from dispensing to mass imaging.(Screen Printing)
October 1, 2003... Traditionally, equipment and process development have been pigeonholed into their respective fields of expertise, requirements and categories. While working within these separate areas and concentrating on developing the best solutions for a...

Conformal coating made easy.(Materials/Environment)
October 1, 2003... The biggest challenges for my company, a contract house specializing in the conformal coating of rigid and flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs), are to deliver the customer's order almost immediately and, of course, run a profitable business....

Mexitronica 2003: the National Electronics Manufacturing Conference and Exposition of Mexico.(Show Preview)(Calendar)
October 1, 2003... Now in its ninth year, Mexitronica 2003 will be held October 21-23 at the Expo Guadalajara, Centro de Expositions, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Show days and hours are as follows: * Tuesday, October 21 3:30-9:00 p.m. * Wednesday,...

Seal, tape and reel machine.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... The TM 50 is a universal heat and pressure seal, tape and reel machine. The machine features advanced electronic control capabilities typically only found in high price units and works on carrier tapes from 8 to 56 mm. No tools are necessary to...

Lead-free selective soldering system.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... PCBRM-15 is designed to handle the higher temperature and corrosive nature of high tin percentages normally found in lead-free materials. A restricted solder wave selectively reflows through-hole components for rework and selective soldering on...

Label applicator.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... A completely redesigned applicator head on label applicator ABA 04 improves cycle times to 2.5 seconds per label. The new light-weight head features theta rotation and a programmable z stroke for applications where labels need to be placed on...

Machine vision sensors.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... The DVT Legend 500 Series line of smart cameras includes Legend 520, a CMOS camera; Legend 530, the smallest Ethernet-ready vision sensor on the market; Legend 540, offering real-time machine inspections; Legend 542c, which combines color...

Lead-free solder paste.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... NC-SMQ230 is an air reflow, no-clean solder paste specifically formulated to accommodate the high processing temperatures required by Sn/Ag/Cu and Sn/Ag lead-free alloy systems. The paste provides outstanding printing performance along with...

Lead-free, no-clean solder paste.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... NC254 lead-free, pin probe testable no-clean solder paste offers broad process windows for printing, reflow and pin probe testing. The paste can be printed at high speeds without slumping, provides consistent stencil release and repeatable...

Thermally conductive adhesives.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... Multi-Cure adhesives are ideal for bonding heat sinks or heat-sensitive components, or for applications where an increase in thermal conductivity between assembled parts is desired. The ultraviolet (UV) light curing option for fillets and...

Automatic Printed Circuit Board (PCB) plotter.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... The ProtoMat H100 rapid PCB prototyping milling machine is fully automatic. The plotter's new features include: automatic tool change, tool calibration through optical sensor, a camera system for automatic fiducial recognition and an integrated...

XYZ dispensing systems.(Product Preview)
October 1, 2003... The Ultra TT Automation Series x-y-z dispensing technology brings accuracy and convenience to automated tabletop assembly processes. Benchtop bonding, gasketing and filling operations can be programmed with a Palm handheld device. Intuitive...

Comparisons made among Mexico, China and Eastern Europe for electronics manufacturing.(Mexico News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... According to new studies by Technology Forecasters Inc. (TFI, Alameda, CA, www.techforecasters.com), electronics manufacturing companies have more choices than ever for low-cost manufacturing yet also have the most pressure to choose the...

Elcoteq facility receives quality award, to manufacture WLANs for Strix Systems.(Mexico News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Elcoteq Network Corp. (Irving, TX, www.elcoteq.com), a provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS), announced that Elcoteq Americas' Monterrey, Mexico, facility has been awarded the 2003 Quality Award by the government of the state of...

Substrate support system.(Product Spotlight)
October 1, 2003... The Red-E-Set substrate support system for screen printers producing single-and double-sided printed circuit boards (PCBs) uses a spring loaded pin support system and can be configured in less than five minutes. The system uses independently...

Dispensing valve.(Product Spotlight)
October 1, 2003... The HY-FLO dispensing valve provides material control and repeatability by maintaining consistent temperature and material viscosity. An embedded thermocouple offers closed loop control, compensating for temperature changes in the environment....

Bar code reader.(Product Spotlight)
October 1, 2003... The Gryphon D200 ESD bar code reader was developed for electrostatic discharge (ESD) control and is composed of a slightly conductive plastic to prevent the accumulation of tri-boelectric charges. Specific cables guarantee ESD safety between...

Wire and cable cords.(Product Spotlight)
October 1, 2003... Koiled Kords[TM] are used for computers, bar code readers, medical equipment, material handling equipment, production line tools, commercial vehicles and in a variety of instrumentation and testing devices. The light (UL-type SVO), medium...

Through-hole placement, soldering machine.(Product Spotlight)
October 1, 2003... The Axion odd-form component placement and selective soldering machine provides full automation of through-hole components by picking and placing them onto the board and also soldering the component with a laser diode from the bottom side of...

Data transport software.(Product Spotlight)
October 1, 2003... The I/Gear data transport software platform provides connectivity between nearly all types of programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human machine interface software, enterprise software packages, bar code scanners, marquees, scales, printers,...

Depaneling vision system.(Product Spotlight)
October 1, 2003... The Cencorp Vision System is capable of performing fiducial recognition, edge recognition, panel and board verification and automatic product program selection. The system uses a proven software engine and a high-quality frame grabber for...

The customer is king again: but everybody benefits when the right EMS provider is selected and process control is increased.(Ask Les)
October 1, 2003... Q: We are a small- to medium-size electronics products company and are considering outsourcing our printed wiring assembly activities. We are not sure whether we should consider one of the larger, multi-plant electronic manufacturing services...

Circuit-level traceability: recent software developments help to monitor placement machines.(Problem Solved)
October 1, 2003... Problem We will consider two companies--the first makes air bag sensors and the second produces pacemakers. Both have very stringent traceability requirements. The number of mission-critical parts for both automotive devices and medical...