Experienced Engineer and Business Development Self-Starter to Lead Growing Electronics and Baking Industry Sales in Mexico, Central and South America

September 6, 2022 – ECD announced today that Oscar Gomez has been named the company’s Latin America Sales Manager, effective immediately. This is a newly-established position due to ECD’s growing sales volume in the region and the expectation of continued manufacturing expansion throughout Latin America. Gomez brings a wealth of industrial oven process and thermal profiling optimization know-how and will work closely with ECD’s representatives and distributors to support the company’s baking and electronics industry customers in the region.

“From personal experience, I understand how important our thermal profiling tools are for getting the most out of a process and producing high-quality products,” explains Gomez, who leveraged ECD profiling and verification tools in a previous position. “We engineer smart technologies that bring value to customers’ operations – whether solving a yield issue, improving reliability or reducing overall operational costs. I look forward to being the go-to resource for our Latin American customers and winning new business by being a solutions provider.”

Before joining ECD, Gomez, a mechanical engineer, worked with leading bakeries and industrial manufacturing operations throughout Mexico. In addition to engineering roles, Gomez has also held positions in R&D and, most recently, oversaw sales and technical service efforts for Draxon, which specializes in combustion oven optimization and repair solutions. While at Draxon, Gomez relied heavily on ECD’s M.O.L.E.® thermal profiling technology to characterize industrial oven processes and troubleshoot failure root causes.

“Oscar is a welcome addition to the ECD team and has been training in our corporate headquarters since early this year,” shares Tara Fischer, ECD President and CEO. “He is an experienced engineer, is smart and inquisitive and will be a trusted partner for our Latin American customers and external sales representatives. We are delighted to have him on board!”

As Latin America Sales Manager, Gomez will oversee business development efforts in the region and, as he is fluent in Spanish and English, will spearhead the creation of Spanish-language ECD resources to make it easier for customers to understand the company’s informational content. Gomez, who holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Nuevo León in Monterrey, MX, will be based in Houston, TX. He can be reached via email at oscar.gomez@ecd.com.

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Austrian Loxone, a home and building automation solutions provider, has assigned EMS provider Zollner Elektronik with the production of their new “Touch Pure Flex” user interface.

Loxone has developed a flexible control element for building automation, which has been realised in cooperation with Zollner Elektronik – the “Touch Pure Flex”.

Earlier this summer –on the 27th of June, 2022 to be precise – Loxone Group CEO Thomas Moser visited the Zollner team in Altenmarkt and triggered the first order for an individual “Touch Pure Flex” via the Loxone online shop. He was later able to take it with him after it had been completed by Zollner.

The “Touch Pure Flex” is an attempt to simplify something that once was complicated. The new button standard has more than 14 touch points, twelve of which are freely placeable icons – which can be populated with individual symbols and markings -– plus two optional selection buttons, an LED matrix display with optional status LEDs for adjustment of functions as well as integrated temperature and humidity sensors.

Each “Touch Pure Flex” can be quickly and simply be “customer-created” from an online configurator where layout, functions and markings can be individualised. Adapted to these individual specifications, the user interface is marked with laser technology and produced, then completely preconfigured and sent to the customer.

Zollner Elektronik AG has been able to realise the industrial engineering, automation and production of the completely individualised products, while at the same time being able to define the applicable processes and systems for validation and subsequent segue, step-by-step into serial maturity.

The glass plate – user interface – of the “Touch Pure Flex” is produced using laser technology with the respective, individual symbols, laser engraved and assembled to be reliable and weather resistant.

“Through digitalization of the complete supply chain, from the incoming customer order at Loxone to creation of the production order at Zollner, the Touch Pure Flex can already be efficiently produces as a high-volume product starting with a lot size of 1,” says Loxone Product Manager Phillip Gujon in the press release.

“Loxone is one of the market leaders and has established itself as a pioneer in the area of smart house and building automation like no other company. For that reason we are very happy to support Loxone with our long standing expertise in automation and serial production as well as in the development of the sensitive process of glass and plastic adhesion, here custom produced with state-of-the-art laser technology. One fascinating and challenging task was also to realize a sophisticated logistics process. With the development of a digital supply chain, we were able to significantly enhance our competence and smooth new ways into a smart future,” adds Markus Kerner, Member of the Zollner Elektronik AG Managing Board.

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Integrated electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, ESCATEC, is upgrading its automotive EMS capabilities to meet the growing demand for electronic sub-systems in electric vehicles (EVs).

ESCATEC Electronics – the Group’s business unit located in Penang, Malaysia, – is spearheading the drive to expand in the automotive space under the management of Business Unit Manager, Teoh Ban Chong.

He is responsible for building up the necessary automotive-related talent and skill sets in ESCATEC, besides guiding the Group towards securing the necessary accreditations and standards, developing and implementing processes, systems and automation, as well as developing a reliable supply chain that meets the demanding needs of automotive OEMs.

“Automotive-related EMS presents a different set of challenges compared to other market segments,” said Ban Chong. “For instance, while ESCATEC already has the IATF 16949, we are still securing other automotive-specific international accreditations to qualify us as a potential EMS partner to major car makers. These include the VDA 6 (German Automotive Quality Management System) that will enable ESCATEC to export to Europe.”

There are also other standards relating to the use of hazardous materials and environmental protection, which ESCATEC together with its automotive supply chain will have to comply with, such as IMDS (International Materials Data System), FMD (Full Materials Declaration), GADLS (Global Automotive Declarable Substance List), RRR (Recycle, Reuse and Recover Policy), and others. “Car makers may also have their individual ‘Customer Specific Requirement’ relating to processes or product quality which their EMS partner must be able to satisfy,” explained Ban Chong. Many of these standards will also apply to ESCATEC’s automotive supply chain and the Group is already assisting its vendors towards doing so.

Automotive EMS also relies much more heavily on automation as production runs are usually high-volume/low-margin mix while the quality and safety of the product is vital. “The high use of automation minimises the possibility of human and material errors and enables standardised high quality to be delivered across the board,” explained Ban Chong. “Moreover, recent history shows that manufacturing defects can cause huge losses to car makers in recalls, warranties, and loss of reputation.”

The risk and consequences of manufacturing defects have prompted car makers to demand that their manufacturing partners and respective supply chains have in place a very effective ‘traceability system’ which can trace every single item, component, and raw material, that goes into each product. “Car makers are very stringent on safety as people’s lives are at stake, thus they want to be

able to trace every fault that may occur in their vehicles back to the source and identify any vehicles that might be at risk,” added Ban Chong.

ESCATEC Electronics currently has two automotive customers with one assembly line each. “We are already in discussion with potential new customers,” said Ban Chong, “so we are planning new assembly lines besides forming a dedicated NPI (New Product Introduction) team to serve automotive-related projects.

Background on EV growth

Recent developments illustrate the growing importance of the global electric vehicle market with industry analysts projecting that the worldwide market will grow on average 24% annually from 2021 until 2028 (from US$287 billion in 2021 to US$1,318 billion in 2028).

Much of the growth is being driven by international efforts to cut carbon emissions and mitigate climate change, as illustrated at the landmark UN climate talks held in Glasgow in Nov 2021 when 30 national governments and six major car manufacturers – including Ford, Mercedes Benz, General Motors, and Volvo – announced that they will work toward phasing out sales of new petrol or diesel-powered vehicles by 2035 in the developed world and elsewhere by 2040.

PCB West: The leading technical conference and exhibition for electronics engineers. Coming Oct. 4-7 to the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. pcbwest.com

SAN JOSE, CA ― September 2022 ― Shenmao America, Inc. is pleased to announce that four of its solder materials have received UL ECVP 2809 (UL Environmental Claim Validation Procedure, UL ECVP) for Recycled Content Standard which now includes auditing of social responsibility procedures. Additionally, more of its recycled tin products will be UL certified in the near future.

Under the vision of becoming a resource-saving and environment-friendly global excellent solder enterprise, Shenmao has declared that the production of various solder products and the development of green energy industries by recycling tin alloy will be the primary development strategies to enhance the company's competitiveness. At the same time, the company hopes to reduce its carbon footprint and deepen ESG work.

Specifically, Shenmao is committed to the goal of resource recycling and sustainable development. In addition to cooperating with national policies to implement waste recycling, the company also urges group companies to carry out effective waste treatment to reduce overall environmental pollution risks. In other words, through the internal system integration, Shenmao can fully utilize most of the resources among the groups and reduce the environmental load.

Shenmao has achieved recycled content validations from UL since 2021 for four solder materials, including PF606-P26R Solder Paste, PF643-BR Solder Bar, PF643-F4R Solder Wire and PF644-HR Solid Solder Wire. These products contain a minimum of 80 percent recycled content, consisting of 100 percent recycled tin alloy.

For all of these recycled materials, every step in the recycling process is audited to prove transparency and reliability. Furthermore, Shenmao has overcome technical difficulties and made the quality and performance of these recycled solder materials achieve almost the same level as the virgin materials. By controlling the impurity of recycled tin alloy, the performance of these recycled solder materials shows no significant difference comparing to those using virgin materials. As the increase of recycled tin, market acceptance is getting better and better.

For more information, please visit www.shenmao.com.

About SHENMAO

SHENMAO is dedicated to the production of solder products including Water Soluble and No-clean Solder Paste, Laser Solder Paste, Solder Preforms, Cored Solder Wire, Wave Solder Bar Alloys, Wave Soldering Fluxes, Extremely Pure Solder Powder up to Type 8, BGA and Micro BGA Solder Sphere, Wafer Level Packaging Solder Paste and Fluxes, LED Die Attach Paste, High Performance Liquid Fluxes, Solder Preform, Solar Ribbon, Plating Anode used in PCB Fabrication, Assembly and Semiconductor Packaging Processes.