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NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp. turned in a sterling fiscal first quarter, with sales jumping 14% year-on-year to a record $328.3 million.

 

For the period ended Dec. 31, the EMS firm reported net income of $12.6 million, up from $3
million last year, which included a $900,000 restructuring charge. Both figures exceeded previous company guidance.

President and CEO Dean Foate guided for second quarter revenues of $330 million to $345 million. “Although we anticipate modest sequential revenue growth in the second fiscal quarter, we are encouraged by recent new program wins,” he said, especially within the defense, security and aerospace sector. He reaffirmed full-year revenue growth guidance of 15 to 18%."

Cash flow from operations was $19.5 million, and cash and short-term investments increased $11 million from the fiscal 2005 year-end balance to $119.7 million.

For the quarter, wireline and networking sales were up 5 points year-over-year and made up 42% of sales.  Wireless infrastructure was 8% of sales, down 1 point. Medical was down 5 points to 28%, industrial and commercial  was up 1 point to 17%, and defense/security/aerospace was flat at 5%.

Plexus’ top 10 customers comprised 61% of sales during the quarter, the same as in the previous quarter.
Juniper Networks, with 22% of sales, and General Electric, with 15% of sales, were the only customers representing 10% or more of sales for the quarter. Sales to Juniper were also up 22% sequentially.

Operating margins improved 50 basis points for the quarter and the firm projected further improvement of 70 basis points in Q2. That would bring Plexus' operating margins to 4.6%, up 250 basis points year-over-year.


PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies and the Advanced Development Group of Speedline Technologies are conducting joint research on the implementation of closed-loop process control for paste printing PCB assemblies. The research will use Agilent's post-print inspection systems and Speedline's Accela printer to measure process performance in Pb-free manufacturing.
 
Based on a recent joint Pb-free study, Agilent and Speedline determined that the positional accuracy of the paste deposit relative to the pad is a key element to ensure quality in fine-pitch and small-device Pb-free assemblies. This suggests that closed-loop process control could be advantageous for quality during the transition to Pb-free manufacturing.
 
In follow-up testing still under way, the companies have demonstrated the potential to establish a closed-loop control method between the AOI system and the printer to manage positional accuracy of the pasted deposits.

 
Further details will be discussed during a session at the upcoming Apex show entitled, "Closed-Loop Process Control in the Solder Paste Printing Process." A preview of this technology and discussion of the research project will be available at Speedline’s booth, #1207.

NEW YORK -- Dover Corp. reported fourth-quarter sales rose 19% to $1.61 billion over last year. For the period ended Dec. 31, earnings from continuing operations rose 30% to $125.1 million, while net earnings were $116.1 million.

For the year Dover had revenue of $6.08 billion, up 17%, and earnings from continuing operations of $474.5 million, up 21%. Read more ...

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