News
GELDERN -- After less than a year, Germany's two largest PCB manufacturers have dissolved a joint sales, marketing and production deal.
In a press release today, Fuba and Ruwel said they have also withdrawn a corporate holding company. The companies joined forces just last year.
As a reason the companies cited differences in views on the strategic alignment.
For the second half of 2004, sales rose 14.4% to $79.7 million. Second half net income was $2.9 million, vs. a loss of $3.7 million.
For the quarter, gross margins were 10%, up from 4.3% last year.
Dynalab electronics manufacturing services include through-hole and surface-mount PCB assembly, wire harness and cable assembly, insert molding, and electromechanical assembly. The company also supplies proprietary continuity test equipment to the general electronics, automotive and telecommunications industries.
The company earned a profit of $3.4 million the Q4 2003.
For the year, net income was $7.4 million, down $700,000. Revenue rose 54% to a record $425.4 million.
The fourth quarter proved to be extremely difficult," said
Jeffrey T. Gill, president and chief executive, in a statement. "The record
increase in revenue was overshadowed by cost overruns that were
incurred to increase manufacturing capacity, launch new programs and
respond to shortages in material during a period of escalating
customer demand."
Gill said he expected the problems to be rectified in the first six months of 2005.
"The outlook for continued growth remains positive, with net
orders increasing 30% to $129.7 million during the quarter, resulting
in an increase in net orders of 48% to a record $476.4 million," Gill said.
Backlog rose 26% to $249.8
million at the end of 2004, while new contract awards increased to a
record $1.5 billion, from $639 million for the prior year.
Revenue from its electronics group was $46.4 million in the fourth quarter, down 13% year-on-year and up 16% sequentially. The company launched new programs for aerospace and defense during the quarter. Gross profit declined to $6.2 million from $11.1 million last year and 8% sequentially.
For the year, electronics revenue fell 9%
to $165 million, primarily
reflecting lower shipments of federal data storage products and circuit
card assemblies for an
attack helicopter program and an end-of-life missile program. The
company did see a 17% increase in revenue from test and measurement
services. Gross
profit declined to $28.4 million, from $36.3 million in 2003.
PCB East will be held Oct. 10 to 14, at The Center of New Hampshire in Manchester, NH. It is produced by UP Media Group, and sponsoredby by Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture and Circuits Assembly.
Papers or presentations are being sought for the technical conference on such topics as:
- High speed, high frequency and signal integrity
- Lead-free processes and their effect on PCB design
- Impedance and crosstalk control
- EMI/EMC analysis
- Embedded passives and active devices
- Thermal analysis
- RF and microwave
- Packaging and components
- Area arrays
- FPGA design and implementation
- Flexible circuitry
- HDI design and technologies
- PCB design/layout techniques
- Component library creation and management
- Design for manufacture, test and assembly
- Design (including analog, digital and power supplies)
- PCB fabrication
- Soldering
- Surface finishes
- Industry forecasts
- Business and design/supply chain issues.
Papers will be 30-minutes in length, while lectures will be one hour, workshops two hours, and seminars 3.5 hours. Also sought: presentations for a Professional Development Curriculum of one- and two-day tutorials.
Abstracts of 100 to 300 words are due March 4. Visit www.pcbeast.com to submit online, or send via email to Andy Shaughnessy, ashaughnessy@upmediagroup.com.
The PCB East conference and exhibition is for designers and manufacturers of printed circuit boards and semiconductor packages.
In addition to watching the road ahead, automotive cameras will also be used to monitor the driver and occupants for several new safety applications over the next few years, according to ABI Research.
Onboard cameras are the predominant technologies earmarked for driver monitoring. Through the use of specialized algorithms, these cameras will monitor the driver and check for conditions of distraction or drowsiness. Cameras will also be used for occupant detection as part of next-generation airbag systems.
"We are expecting a new dynamic testing procedure to be released by NHTSA this year in the U.S., which will act as a catalyst towards the adoption of optics-based occupant detection systems, as well as other leading-edge technologies," said Robert Laguerra, senior analyst, in a press release. "This will significantly impact all automakers looking to sell to this market."
The major advantages of camera-based occupant detection systems over current pressure/weight sensor-based systems are in improving occupant classification and position-sensing (Is this an adult? a child? a suitcase?), and in dynamically suppressing airbag deployment.
This can save lives and decrease costs, ABI says, because the number of airbags in a vehicle has increased so much that it may soon cost more to replace all the deployed airbags in a vehicle than just to buy a new car.
