Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

MINNEAPOLIS -- The turnaround at CyberOptics continued in the fourth quarter as the AOI OEM reported net sales rose 5% sequentially and 34% year-over-year.

ANAHEIM, CA – Producing a trade show in the middle of a recession rarely brings out the best in people. Sometimes, it doesn’t bring out the people at all. However, this year, as the recovery starts to settle in, Electronics West brought out a number of EMS firms positive about their 2010 outlooks; some even experienced solid growth in the last three years.

SIEVI, FINLAND -- Scanfil reported fourth-quarter sales of 48.1 million euros ($65.6 million), down 11.1% from 2008.

VELLINGE, SWEDEN -- Top 40 electronics manufacturing services firm PartnerTech reported fourth-quarter net sales of SEK 556.1 million ($77.4 million), down 14.6% from a year ago.

Separately, the company named Leif Thorwaldsson president and CEO, replacing Rune Glavare.

PHILADELPHIA – Soldering guru Dieter Brammer passed away this morning at his home in Philadelphia.

Brammer was well known in the surface mount electronics manufacturing industry as a pioneer in the use of forced convection reflow for SMT soldering.

Originally from Lüneberg, Germany, Brammer immigrated to the US in the 1960s as a locksmith. He became involved in the membrane switch industry, printing and curing conductive inks, which led him to the electronics industry and the search for efficient drying and curing ovens.

He founded Screen Printing Technology in the 1980s in Eastern Massachusetts, eventually switching to infrared and later convection reflow soldering ovens. The business later became ABW Systems.

SUZHOU – Nordson Dage can now build x-ray inspection systems at its plant in Suzhou, China.

The facility is able to provide complete, fully tested products from a manufacturing procedure that replicates those used at its headquarters in the UK.

The plant was set up originally four years ago to provide subassemblies for the firm’s x-ray inspection systems.