News
March Plasma Systems (Concord, CA) recently established direct operations in Japan. The new March offices are located in the Nordson facility in Tokyo, Japan.
"With a growing customer base in Japan, our new offices in Tokyo allow us to provide our customers with local sales and service support," said Peter Bierhuis, president.
The Japan facilities will be equipped with March plasma treatment systems for customer training, demonstration and applications support. To manage Japanese operations, March appointed Terumitsu Tsuji as business manager, Japan and named Yuji Takai regional sales manager.
Other recent activities include the appointment of new distributors for the semiconductor and printed circuit board (PCB) market segments, and the formation of strategic alliances with key allied equipment partners in the Japanese market.
March Plasma Systems is a provider of gas plasma technology for semiconductor, PCB and webbed material industries.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider EPIC Technologies (Rochester Hills, MI) has recently added two new surface-mount technology lines to its facility in Juarez, Mexico. The new Siemens lines bring EPIC's Mexico capacity to a total of seven lines. Steve Fraser, general manager of EPIC's Norwalk, OH, facility, said the company specifically uses Siemens machinery because of its quick changeover capability that allows for flexibility and accuracy.
Fraser said, "In addition to the new Siemens lines, we have added another EPM wave solder machine, EPM vapor phase rework station for fine pitch, flip chip and ball grid array (BGA devices) and two vapor phase inline reflow ovens in our Juarez location."
The vapor phase reflow ovens use an inert Teflon solution, which will not leave a residue on the printed circuit boards that go through it. One of the advantages of vapor phase reflow ovens is the lower operating temperatures (lead solder 200oC and lead free 230 oC). The company will now be poised to handle most lead-free alloys.
EPIC's 70,000 sq. ft. operation in Juarez opened in July 2002 with just over 100 employees. The staff grew to 260 workers last summer, with current employment in Mexico at over 600 people. In addition, the operation has implemented a 24/7 schedule since January to provide additional capacity and flexibility. The success in Juarez has led EPIC's management to conduct a preliminary analysis to expand their Mexican operations, possibly with an additional site in late 2004.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
SMT Resource Group LLC (SMTR, Wake Forest, NC), a reseller and integrator of new and refurbished electronics assembly equipment, is celebrating its fifth year of operations.
SMTR has delivered approximately 500 machines to customers worldwide during its first five years. The majority has been sold internationally, especially to Asia, where China is the biggest market, followed closely by Korea. The mix of customers includes local customers and North American companies manufacturing in Asia.
SMTR has increased profits every year, converting them into inventory and leveraging them into financial relationships with banks.
SMTR's Eastern
Technical Center with 6,000 sq. ft. is located in Wake Forest, NC, and
includes the company's administrative offices. The Central Technical
Center in Temple, TX, has 50,000 sq. ft.; the Western Technical Center
has 12,000 sq. ft. and is located in Concord, CA. SMTR has over 100
major pieces of equipment in inventory. Additionally, the company has
sold 200 machines during the past year.
Eric Berg founded Encore Trading East LLC in December 1998, after a career with GE Capital, Universal Instruments and Texas Instruments. Chris Thornton founded Encore Trading West LLC in early 1999 with the intention of working with Encore Trading East. This resulted in the joint formation of Encore Trading International on April 15, 1999.
Malcolm Montanjees owner of Equipment Services LLC worked with Berg and Thornton at GE Capital and assisted Encore Trading Intl., which lead to formation of SMTR on Jan 1, 2002.
SMTR wants to recognize Dave Heller, who began with Encore Trading on April 15, 1999. Heller has worked in the used equipment business, beginning with Universal Instruments close to 20 years ago after being employed at IBM. He is now the Tech Center Manager for SMTR's Eastern facility.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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