Cookson Electronics (Londonderry, NH) recently celebrated the expansion of its Polyclad Laminates electronics material manufacturing facility in Elk Grove, CA. More than 75 guests, including customers, state and local officials, media and company employees attended the event. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by tours of the new manufacturing area and a buffet luncheon.
The expansion of Polyclad's Elk Grove laminate and prepreg manufacturing area represents an over $20,000,000 investment initiative by Cookson Electronics in the state of California. The operation will be a major resource to the Americas and Pacific Rim-based printed wiring board fabrication industry, providing material supply, service and support. Products manufactured at the site will include Polyclad low and high Tg FR-4 products, including the recently introduced FR-370HR lead-free assembly-compatible CAF resistant materials.
The plant's design includes vacuum presses, automatic build-up lines and automatic fabrication equipment. Additionally, new lean manufacturing and advanced scheduling practices will accelerate product delivery speeds and reduce excess inventory problems for customers. The new plant is 43,200 sq. ft. and situated on 8.3 acres. The real estate enables Cookson Electronics the opportunity to expand both manufacturing capacity and personnel to meet future customer demands.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Siemens Dematic Electronic Assembly Systems Inc. (EAS, Norcross, GA) sponsored the Atlanta International School's (AIS's) International House of Technology (IHOT) in the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Regional Championship competition held March 19-20 at the Gwinnett Civic and Cultural Center in Duluth, GA.
FIRST is an international program designed to inspire interest in the sciences and challenge middle school and high school students to use their creativity, knowledge and leadership skills to build robots to compete with other robots. Siemens Dematic supported the team by providing a facility, tooling and funds necessary to complete their project. The competition is designed to foster students' interest in science and technology and to help them apply classroom lessons to real-world situations. The partnerships developed between schools, businesses and universities promote an exchange of resources and talent and expose students to new career choices.
The IHOT team was successful at the tournament and won the Rookie All Star Award. With this award, the team is now eligible to advance to the National Competition to be held in the Georgia Dome on April 18.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
CSA International (CSA, Northbrook, IL) and Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) have adopted an expanded Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and completed the first phase of a mutual acceptance program for electrical components, the first milestones of an agreement the two testing organizations signed Nov. 10, 2003.
That agreement, which is designed to assist manufacturers in getting their products to Canadian and U.S. markets more quickly, without redundant testing, was the result of several months of negotiation between UL and CSA, with support from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Electro-Federation Canada and major electrical manufacturers.
The expanded MoU covers 50 additional component and 11 additional end-products categories as well as all of the 13 product categories covered in the original 1996 MoU, allowing manufacturers to obtain both UL and CSA certification and listing with a single product test conducted by either company.
With the completion of the first phase of the component agreement, CSA and UL now accept several component categories for use in low voltage distribution and industrial control equipment. As many as 52 additional component categories and 11 additional end-product categories are being considered under the agreement.
A complete listing of components and end-products covered by the expanded MoU and the component acceptance agreement is available at: www.csa-international.org/components and www.ul.com/components.
CSA is a provider of product testing and certification services for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, gas and a variety of other products. UL is an independent, not-for-profit product safety certification organization that has been testing products for more than 110 years.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Siemens VDO Automotive has completed the acquisition of Chrysler Group's Huntsville Electronics operations, advancing Siemens VDO Automotive to a top-three spot in the global automotive electronics supplier industry.
"Today is a great day for the future of Siemens VDO Automotive and the community of Huntsville," said Siemens VDO Automotive AG Group president and chief executive officer (CEO) Wolfgang Dehen during a company event unveiling the new monument sign. "Huntsville Electronics brings us additional capacity, capability and expertise to grow our core competencies in areas such as powertrain electronics, vehicle instrumentation and driver information."
This transition of ownership enables the manufacture of electronics to remain in the Huntsville, AL, community. The company plans to make the location one of its global electronics manufacturing and engineering centers of expertise.
As a subsidiary of Siemens VDO Automotive, the Huntsville plants will have access to a range of business opportunities within the rapidly growing global $125-billion automotive electronics market.
With the completion of the acquisition, Siemens VDO Automotive has complete access to Huntsville Electronics, including two facilities comprising 1.1 million sq. ft. of space and approximately 2,000 employees. Huntsville Electronics generated approximately $1 billion in annual sales last year.
Siemens VDO Automotive is a tier-one supplier of automotive electronic/electrical systems and components with applications covering gasoline and diesel powertrain technologies, safety and chassis systems, body electronics, plus interior products including infotainment systems.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
During a reception at Apex 2004, Soldertec Global awarded its Lead-Free Solder Co-operation Award to global solder materials manufacturer Indium Corp. and its customer Motorola.
The award recognizes the collaboration between the two companies. Indium's vice president of technology, Ning-Cheng Lee, and Motorola's Dr. Edwin Bradley and Dr. Vahid Goudarzi have developed a lead-free assembly process and solder paste that has been used to assemble more than 8 million cellular phones world-wide. The team shared their process details with the global electronics assembly industry.
The result of this co-operation is the Pb-Free Quickstart process, offering yields and benefits which are equal or better than similar processes using lead-bearing solders Benefits include a wide process window, component-friendly profiles and no requirement for nitrogen-reflow.
Several hundred process, quality and production engineers have been trained on the successful implementation of the process.
The Soldertec Global Lead-Free award, established in 1999, has been awarded to industrial consortiums, material suppliers and lead-free users from North America, Europe and Asia.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Foresite (Kokomo, IN) has licensed FinePoint to launch the newly developed C3. The C3 was designed by Foresite to create a method of localized extraction and cleanliness monitoring on electronic assemblies.
Focusing on a 0.1 in² area of a circuit board, the machine uses a steaming mechanism to extract a residue sample. The sample is collected in a disposable test cell and analyzed on the manufacturing floor. A 'clean' or 'dirty' reading is immediately seen, and samples that warrant further analysis can be sent to a lab for ion chromatography analysis.
Foresite president Terry Munson said, "Foresite saw a critical need for cleanliness monitoring on the manufacturing floor. FinePoint has dedicated itself to surface matter cleanliness and is well positioned to bring the C3 to market. Foresite will continue to develop surface matter solutions and provide process consulting for electronic assemblers."
Foresite Inc. (formerly CSL) is a process consulting house and analytical laboratory dedicated to solving reliability issues for electronic assemblies. With over 12 years of experience in the industry, Foresite specializes in failure analysis, process qualification and cleanliness investigation.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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