Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 16 - John Waryold, an well-known expert in conformal coating and a 44-year veteran of electronics manufacturing, retired from HumiSeal effective Aug. 31. He will continue to advise the company in a lesser role.

Waryold, who for the past 20 years was vice president and general manager at HumiSeal, was also chairman of the task group responsible for most of the conformal coating standards in use today.

Waryold spent 44 years at HumiSeal, beginning his career in 1960 as a lab researcher and also holding positions in technical service and sales. He invented 1B31 and several other products that have become industry standards.

He authored several papers, and a chapter on conformal coating in the Printed Circuit Handbook. Waryold received the IPC President's Award in 2000 for chairing the task group that wrote IPC-CC-830.

SAN CLEMENTE, CA, Sept. 7 -- Legacy Electronics has signed Apera Technologies as its sales agent for components in Canada.

The move is effective immediately.

Under terms of the deal, Apera will represent Legacy's entire line of component products, including PCB subassemblies and DDR memory modules.

ANGLETON, TX, Sept. 16 -- Benchmark Electronics today announced it would split its chief executive and chairman roles. President and chief operating officer Cary Fu will now also be chief executive.

The current chairman and CEO, Donald E. Nigbor, will remain chairman.

CFO and treasurer Gayla J. Delly will now also be executive vice president.

"The board of directors decided to separate the roles to further enhance the corporate governance standards of the company," Nigbor said in a statement.

TEMPLE, TX, Sept. 14 — SMT Resource Group and Encore Capital Leasing rolled out a leasing program for buyers of assembly equipment. The companies provide 100% financing and terms ranging from 12 to 84 months.

SMT Resource Group sells, integrates and provides support and service for new and refurbished assembly equipment.

Encore provides financing for equipment procurement.

EL SEGUNDO, CA, Sept. 9 -- Market research group iSuppli Corp. today trimmed its 2005 chip forecast after worldwide semiconductor revenue growth recently showed signs of slowing.

The slowing will mainly affect fourth-quarter revenues, iSuppli forecast, saying second-half strong growth will be in the range of 10% higher than the first-half. First-half global semiconductor sales grew 31.4% year-on-year, but second-half sales will decelerate to 20% growth, the firm said.

iSuppli revised its 2005 forecast to 9.6%, down from 11.8%. The firm upped its forecast for 2004 one point, to 25.4%.

iSuppli forecast 1H 2005 sequential growth of less than 2%, followed by a pickup to 6% in the second half.

DRAM sales are expected to take a dive in 2006, limiting overall semiconductor growth to 2%. iSuppli predicts 2006 will mark the bottom of the semiconductor downturn.

SAN JOSE, Sept. 8 -- Deutsche Bank today reaffirmed its cautious outlook for the EMS industry, citing recent anecdotes from semiconductor makers, OEMs and retailers.

Analyst Chris Whitmore said many technology companies performed below expectations in July and August and "hope for a robust pickup in September is fading quickly." OEMs are dropping inventory levels, he noted, and concern is greatest for EMS companies that build communications gear.

"We continue to believe that the combination of slowing end demand and excess inventory across the supply chain will result in a significant deceleration of production trends across the EMS industry. We are most concerned about EMS vendors with substantial exposure to communications infrastructure."

As evidence, Whitmore cited:

Wal-Mart's tepid same-store sales increase of 0.5% in August and the company's failure to mention electronics in its list of top-performing products.
Target, which cited electronics as one of the worst performing products in August.
Best Buy's August same-store sales increase of 4.3%, below 6.7% last year and Wall Street's forecast of 5.4%.
3Com's cutting of its forecast for the August quarter and belief that sales declined 10 to 13% sequentially.
Cautious announcements by Intel, Fairchild, IDT, Altera and Cypress.

In addition, Whitmore noted warnings from several semiconductor companies of reduced inventory levels at OEMs, which could impact EMS production. DB believes market sentiment "is still too optimistic about EMS fundamentals" over the next six quarters.