2016 Magazine Archives

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FEATURES

APEX EXPO RECAP
Shop Talk
At IPC Apex Expo in March, the introduction of a shop floor communications specification was the talk of the annual trade show, overshadowing – and not by a little – the relative paucity of new equipment and materials making their worldwide debuts.
by Mike Buetow and Chelsey Drysdale

FACTORY MANAGEMENT
Energy Reduction in the Electronics Facility
Most electronics manufacturing factories have many opportunities when trying to reduce energy use. Moreover, certain capital improvements have short returns on investment and meet the overall goal of reducing energy consumption and lowering operating costs.
by Scott Mazur

PCB CLEANING
Impact of Multiple Thermal Cycles on the Cleaning Process
Given the many opportunities to clean PCBs following a soldering process, a study was conducted to assess the effects of single reflow, dual reflow and dual reflow plus bake on the PCB cleaning process or flux removal.
by Umut Tosun and Jigar Patel

BATH MAINTENANCE
Online Bath Monitoring
A major OEM equipped the cleaning baths at two production plants with measuring systems for continuous bath monitoring. Here’s why.
by Rebecca Dettloff

FIRST PERSON

• CAVEAT LECTOR
  From spec to standard.
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• ROI
  Game-changer or game-breaker?
  Peter Bigelow
  

• FOCUS ON BUSINESS
  Getting aligned.
  Susan Mucha

TECH TALK

• SCREEN PRINTING
  Activate that squeegee.
  Clive Ashmore
• TECH TIPS
  Taped shut.
  Roy Akber
• GETTING LEAN
  Controlling Kanban.
  Michael Ford
• DEFECTS DATABASE
  Flux pockets.
  Dr. Chris Hunt