Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Current

Press Releases

PALO ALTO, CA — Arch® Systems, the leading provider of machine data and analytics for electronics assembly operations, today announced the appointment of Joel Eterovich as VP, Global Sales.

Eterovich has 25 years of operations and sales experience across multiple global industries. He has a passion for helping the world's largest industrial companies digitally transform their enterprises to unlock hidden productivity and drive breakthrough gains in sustainability.

Eterovich started his career at Rockwell Automation, working in their electronics manufacturing factories to transform silos of data into production insights. He transitioned to sales and engineering leadership roles across North America with a focus on accelerating growth of key strategic software acquisitions. He holds a BA in industrial engineering from The Ohio State University as well as an MS in operations research from Cleveland State University.

Arch has built the largest collaboration of industry domain experts working hand-in-hand with data scientists to constantly map new signals from the noisy data, adding them to the ever-growing library of actionable insights.

These insights are changing how manufacturers tackle their most complex problems, allowing them to simplify and align actions both on the shop floor and the top floor. Arch also is a recipient of a 2022 Mexico Technology Award, 2022 GLOBAL Technology Award and 2022 SMT China Vision Award. The ArchFX Platform provides the machine connectivity, data management and advanced insights needed to achieve digital transformation across the manufacturing organization. For more information, visit archsys.io or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

KUALA LUMPUR — Electrical and electronic manufacturing company VS Industry Bhd has allocated capital expenditure (capex) of around RM80 million for the financial year 2023 (FY2023).

Managing director Datuk Gan Sem Yam said FY2022 was a demanding year as it was fraught with a multitude of challenges from the effects of a prolonged pandemic and global macroeconomic issues.

Nevertheless, the company had navigated through these taxing business operating conditions and delivered a commendable performance, he said in a statement today.

“Looking ahead, while the elevated market uncertainties are expected to persist, we remain steadfast and focused on growing our business. With the order flow from customers continuing to be satisfactory for our local operations, we target to deploy around RM80 million for capex to expand and enhance our capacity and capabilities. “Over in Indonesia, we anticipate better contribution this year as a customer is increasing its orders,” Gan said.

At the group level, he noted that VS Industry will continue to channel resources to further strengthen its initiatives on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) front.

“Moving forward, we are cautiously optimistic on VS’ outlook and opine that the financial performance of the group in FY2023 to be satisfactory,” he added.

The group noted that it has a dividend policy of 40 per cent payout of net profit and for FY2022 ended July 31, 2022, it had continued with its dividend payout practice with a total dividend per share amounting to two sen, representing a 45.8 per cent payout based on FY2022’s earnings per share of 4.37 sen.

INGLESIDE, IL — IDENTCO will exhibit at the IPC APEX EXPO at the San Diego Convention Center, January 24-26, 2023, in San Diego, California. The IDENTCO team will showcase its complete range of electronics labeling solutions in Booth #1614.

IDENTCO’s labeling and high temperature solutions enable customers with SMT lines to print on-demand miniature tracking labels and automatically apply those labels to their printed circuit boards and components using existing pick-and-place assets. A pre-printed label option also is available through IDENTCO’s Print Service Centers in the US, Germany and Mexico. Additionally, the system can be used to automatically place high temperature die cut polyimide masks for selective solder masking.

IDENTCO offers the thinnest pick-and-place label presenter in the industry that is compatible with all major pick-and-place machines and saves valuable space in the pick-and-place machine. High performance labels and matching ribbons withstand the extreme temperatures and solvents used in the manufacture of surface- mount and through-hole printed circuit boards, providing traceability throughout the entire assembly process. Labels also are available with electro-static dissipative (ESD) properties to meet the requirements of ANSI/ESD S20.20.

For box build, subassembly, UL compliance, and branding applications, IDENTCO provides high-graphic custom printed labels utilizing its extensive portfolio of durable label materials, precision die cutting, and advanced color matching expertise.

Visit IDENTCO at the IPC APEX EXPO to see the complete SMT label automation system in action. IDENTCO delivers the total solution with our superior micro-miniature labels, label feeders, printers, ribbons, and support.

DEERFIELD BEACH, FL — Inovaxe, a world leader and provider of innovative material handling and inventory control systems, is pleased to announce its 20-year anniversary. Founded in 2003, today Inovaxe’s products are used to streamline material handling and accuracy issues throughout the electronics manufacturing operation, especially where SMT devices are used.

Inovaxe is focused on developing state-of-the-art Low Volume/High Mix to High Volume Manufacturing material handling systems. Its solutions are designed and developed using decades of combined real-world experience in managing production and inventory in electronics manufacturing environments, and resolve fundamental problems associated with managing work in progress (WIP) and production activities.

Inovaxe President Ben Khoshnood commented about the anniversary: “We are excited to see that modular smart racks are finally winning the race of intelligent material storage systems.”

Until Inovaxe’s solutions came into the market, electronics manufacturers endured generic, unfocused products that did not manage their specific production and inventory management needs. Material handling systems were limited to racks, bins, boxes and passive carts that were loosely adapted to the electronics manufacturers’ needs. Software solutions were only designed to have broad applications.

Inovaxe has designed an ultra-lean intelligent inventory management system to store and manage all types of packages, including SMT reels, JEDEC trays, tubes, cut tape, loose and bulk items, feeders, PCBs, PCBAs, plus boxes, throughout the manufacturing operation. Their product series offers a variety of mobile and stationary stockroom racks, kit racks, lineside storage racks and supermarkets, along with MSL storage units. Inovaxe’s software provides interfaces to SMT equipment, X-ray counters, incoming goods stations, MES and ERP systems. For more information, visit www.inovaxe.com.

PENANG, MALAYSIA — ViTrox aims to be the World’s Most Trusted Technology Company in providing innovative, advanced, and cost-effective automated Machine Vision Inspection Solutions for the semiconductor and electronics packaging industries. We are proud to announce our participation at the IPC APEX Expo 2023!

The event is scheduled to take place at the San Diego Convention Center, California, from 24 to 26 January 2023. We would like to invite you to visit our booth (#1413) to discover the full-line showcase of ViTrox SMT Inspection Solutions, ranging from V310i Advanced 3D Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) Solution, V510i Advanced 3D Optical Inspection (AOI) Solution, V810i Advanced 3D X-Ray Inspection (AXI) Solution, V9i Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) Solution, and of course, our Industry 4.0 Manufacturing Intelligence Solutions - V-ONE.

The V310i 3D SPI is the key to ensuring SMT product quality, providing effortless programming while achieving excellent repeatability and accurate inspection results. The SPI can be easily implemented on any PCBA line as we offer different models to suit different board sizes. In addition, our V310i 3D SPI is equipped with Ultra Smart A.I. programming, allowing users to access stencil Gerber files and begin inspection immediately without the need for manual parameter setup and adjustment. These next-generation systems are intuitive to use and allow an inexperienced user to get the expected results. Read more about our V310i 3D SPI Solution here.

Next in our line-up will be the V510i 3D AOI solution, which is well-implemented with in-depth Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Smart Technologies. With A.I. Smart Programming, our AOI could assist to achieve a reduction in human dependency, rapidly improving the programming speed, and guaranteeing quality, accuracy, and consistency during inspections – catered especially for various production environments. Therefore, users will enjoy up to 80% programming time reduction, ultimately achieving a higher yield with lower operating costs. A piece of great news to be shared with the public is that our V510i 3D AOI has successfully qualified for the IPC-CFX- 2591 Qualified Products Listing (QPL) and has received the mandatory IPC-CFX messages for classification. Read more about our V510i 3D AOI Solution here.

The third solution will be our V810i S3 AXI Solution, which has been designed with an ergonomic style by eliminating the location of external servers at the system's exterior to save up production floor space. Additionally, with the new machine geometry design and scanning method, inspection speed has been improved by up to 30%! The V810i S3 AXI is also equipped with machine Internet of Things (IoT) solutions that will aid engineers in troubleshooting systems easily and performing preventive maintenance actions to minimise production downtime. Furthermore, the V810i S3 AXI solution integrates artificial intelligence (A.I.) capabilities to expand the opportunity for AXI inspection, enabling our unique A.I. inspection model to detect defects of specific joint types and further improve inspection accuracy. To top this all off, our V810i AXI has also passed the qualification audit for IPC-CFX-2591 Qualified Products Listing (QPL) and received the mandatory IPC-CFX messages for classification! Read more about our V810i S3 AXI Solution here.

Apart from that, we will also be showcasing our award-winning V9i Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) Solution, which is designed for flexible inspection that aims to automate manual inspection tasks, particularly for conformal coating inspections and final assembly inspections. Distinctively designed with a 6-axis COBOT, our solutions allow adjustable angle inspections with capabilities up to 90°, guaranteeing convenience and minimising human judgment errors. With its Advanced smart learning algorithm, V9i ARV’s system programming does not require any CAD information and it is able to detect conformal coating defects such as coating insufficiency, the appearance of bubbles, coating splashes on the component body, etc. It also checks the screw defects, cosmetic defects, connector pins, label defects and etc that commonly detect in the final assembly process. Other than that, the solutions provide better traceability in the back-end assembly process compared to human manual inspection. Read more about our V9i ARV Solution here.

We will also be showcasing our Industry 4.0 Manufacturing Intelligence Solutions – V-ONE, a Smart Manufacturing necessity that ensures connectivity within the production line, accurate visualisation of data analytics and adept reactivity in Machine-2-Machine (M2M) production. Designed with customisable, flexible drill-down charts and dashboards that optimise production efficiency with insightful real-time information and A.I. prediction, implementing V-ONE allows stakeholders to exceedingly optimise production through insightful analytics on a real-time basis. Meanwhile, alert triggering, one of V-ONE’s main features, will automatically alert stakeholders of any production abnormalities, thus allowing immediate issue-resolving to minimise production interruptions. With V-ONE, anyone can monitor the production status anytime, anywhere. Read more about our Industry 4.0 Manufacturing Intelligence Solutions - V- ONE here.

Do not miss out on this annual opportunity to meet and network with us at the IPC APEX Expo! ViTrox’s on-site experts will ensure that all your questions are answered and that you will have an amazing visitation experience at our booth. We highly recommend that you schedule a meeting via this appointment form so that our on-site experts will better understand your challenges and provide beneficial solutions for you. For more information, contact us via enquiry@vitrox.com. We hope to see you soon!

ATLANTA — Koh Young, the industry leader in True3DTM measurement-based inspection solutions, truly values the contribution, experience, and loyalty of its employees. Koh Young is proud to announce it has promoted Heriberto Cuevas Velazquez to Regional Sales Manager, Mexico and Ramiro Mora will be the Mexico Applications Team Leader.

For over a decade with prominent electronic manufacturing service (EMS) provider in Mexico, Heriberto successfully implemented multiple programs to reduce downtime and improve productivity by analyzing manufacturing data and implementing corrective or preventative standards. Previously, as the Applications Engineering Project Manager at Koh Young America, Heriberto managed multiple customer implementation projects and helped increase the Koh Young team with cross-training and process standardization. Heriberto will become the Regional Sales Manager responsible for the “Bajio” territory, which covers parts of the states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, Queretaro, and Michoacan in Mexico.

Ramiro Mora will become the Applications Team Leader in Mexico. After 16 years with major Tier 1 EMS providers in Mexico, he transitioned to Koh Young America as a Field Service Engineer, and most recently an Application Engineer. Over the past 5 years, Ramiro has applied his proficiency in electronics manufacturing to help customers find ways to reduce costs and boost quality. A certified Green Belt with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree specialized in productivity and quality, Ramiro will lead our Mexican team of applications engineers to help customers apply our inspection solutions more effectively and make life easier for them.

“When an organization promotes from within, no matter the level, employees can see that their input and experience are truly valued,” said Ramon Hernandez, Head of Sales and Service for Mexico & South America at Koh Young America. “Not only will these promotions strengthen our resolve to deliver best-in- class support to its customers, but it will also open doors for new growth and experience.”

Koh Young is always seeking top talent to continue building it best-in-class company and we are eager to talk with interested applicants. You can visit us on 24-26 January 2023 at IPC APEX EXPO in Booth 1116 at the San Diego Convention Center in California. If travel is not an option, you can learn more about our culture and career opportunities at https://kohyoungamerica.com/careers/ on the Americas regional website. If you are looking for opportunities outside of the Americas region, please visit us at kohyoung.com/en/CareersCompany/recruit. We would love to talk with you about your career goals.