Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

ROUND ROCK, TX - Benchmark Electronics will open a manufacturing facility in this city north of Austin later this summer, according to reports. The new plant will bring up to 80 new jobs to the area, a local agency spokesman said.

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL – Panasonic Factory Solutions Co. of America said it recorded double-digit growth in its fiscal year ended March 31. The SMT equipment supplier cited notable progress with Tier 1 suppliers, including a more than 200% increase in mid-market penetration and nearly 400% growth in refurbished machinery sales.

"By refining our infrastructure, the evolution of our market strategy, and the innovative hardware and software innovations, we accomplished tremendous growth in fiscal 2013,” said M. Faisal Pandit, president of Panasonic FSA.

The company said it doubled its new customer accounts over the past year while research and collaboration yielded new innovations such as the AM100 placement machine, PanaCIM Express MES software, and other new products.

"Our growth in fiscal 2013 clearly proves Panasonic Factory Solutions has listened to and acted on what the market needed in order to offer total solutions aligning with the low volume high-mix market, as well as our Tier 1 manufacturers,” Pandit said.

REGGIO EMILIA, ITALY -- Yamaha Motor IM Europe opened a demo center here, working with its Italian sales partner Mancini Enterprise and technical collaborator AEB Robotics on the surface-mount process equipment show room. The center showcases Yamaha’s printing, placement, AOI and x-ray inspection equipment.

Its location, at AEB Robotics’ headquarters in Reggio Emilia, near Bologna, demonstrates solutions for advanced manufacturing challenges. AEB also shows its equipment for laser marking, dispensing, depaneling, and tabletop robots.

“Our new demonstration center will help us build closer relationships with the high-tech communities in northern Italy and nearby areas, by enabling visitors to see our advanced solutions in action and discover all the information they need from our experts on the spot,” said Nobuyuki Nishizawa, general manager, Yamaha Intelligent Machines Europe.

“We are pleased to welcome Yamaha to AEB Robotics, we believe that our collaboration with Yamaha is the result of an important synergy. We are confident that this team of professionals will cooperate successfully to Bring added value to customers said Antonia Fiaccadori CEO at AEB Technologies.

CHICAGO -- Electronics manufacturing services provider Staci Corp. has been sold to Centre Lane Partners for an undisclosed sum.

SAN FRANCISCO — “Technology in the marketplace has advanced over the years to change the way we live. In today’s world, mass implementation of these new technologies needs to accelerate in order to keep pace with society’s demands. Yet, we’ve repeatedly seen technologies that held great promise fall short of market realization because the promise came with too many barriers – capital expenditure, global supply-chain, technological scale-up, regulations, market timing, infrastructure, and so on."

So says Dr. Gene Kim of Alpha, a division of Alent. Kim is co-chairing the first Global Summit for Advanced Manufacturing (GSAM), a forum to explore practical solutions for today’s most pressing manufacturing challenges, including the convergence of miniaturization, automation, integration, ruggedization, materials and processes, along with other special topics.

GSAM will feature case study-based presentations, networking opportunities and one-on-one individual meeting sessions on how to leverage today’s successfully developed and manufactured products to yield viable solutions for the emerging manufacturing leaders of tomorrow.

The event takes place here July 9 and 10 and will be colocated with SemiCon West.

"The true manufacturing value-add offered by a technological advancement comes from its total cost-of-ownership benefit, but key decision makers have lacked a forum in which they could candidly and thoroughly discuss this assessment," says Kim. "GSAM was conceived to encourage these important discussions – real people discussing real manufacturing challenges in an environment that cultivates manufacturing innovation.”