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TORONTO – Adeptron Technologies has entered a letter of intent with R.H. Global Technologies for the private placement of $6 million worth of common shares.

DERBYSHIRE, UK -- Electrochemicals supplier Electrolube has opened a corporate office in California and an operations center in Chicago to support US customers.

In a press release, the company called the moved a demonstration of Electrolube’s "continuing commitment to the US market."

The new offices will provide the US team with a base to build distribution channels, increase sales and marketing activities and enhance customer and technical support over the coming months.

Last fall, Electrolube named Brian Moylan general manager of North American operations.

SMYRNA, GA – Korea’s RoHS/WEEE/ELV and its impact the electronics industry is the focus of a March 6 Webinar from Design Chain Associates and Eco-Frontier Co.

The new regulations incorporate elements of several EU directives including RoHS, WEEE, ELV and EuP. On top of its extraordinary breadth is a potentially short timeline and details that were just published at the end of 2007.

The one-hour Webinar will cover:
· Overview of Korea RoHS/WEEE/ELV.
· Detailed description of the requirements of the law.
· Provisions of Korea RoHS/WEEE/ELV.
· Documentation requirements.
· Recommended approaches to compliance.

Presenters include Michael Kirschner, president and managing partner of Design Chain Associates, and Junsik Youn, associate and overseas marketing manager of Eco-Frontier Co.

For more information visit pcbshows.com/webinars.

VANVCOUVER – Design software vendor Capilano Computing and PCB supplier Pad2Pad.com are jointly offering free packages for schematic capture and trace layout.

The packages permit circuits to be designed in the DesignWorks Express environment and then exported to the Pad2Pad.com automatic trace router. The design package reportedly handles up to 500 netlist nodes.

A professional version is available for complex circuits, advanced tools and optional digital simulation.

Links and free download instructions are available at www.capilano.com and www.pad2pad.com.

LAS VEGAS -- Norbert Socolowski, longtime Alpha Metals chemist and inventor, died Feb. 15 in Las Vegas. He was 85.

Socolowski was the first president of the SMTA, and received that organization's Founder's Award in 1998. He was a key member and former chairmen of numerous industry standards task groups, including ones for solder and flux.

OWEGO, NY – The Advanced Research in Electronics Assembly Consortium will gather Feb. 27-28 to review this year’s research plan and to review results of recent investigations.

Attendees from more than 30 companies and institutions are expected to attend the two-day workshop in Owego for an in-depth look at process and reliability-related research in electronics assembly.

During the workshop, Unovis researchers will review their 2007 findings pertaining to the consortium’s research tracks. Progress reports will highlight development in the consortium’s lead-free studies. Reliability issues pertaining to surface finishes, underfilling and repair will also be discussed. Also, recent investigations on TSV stacking will be presented.

WESTLAKE, OH – Nordson Corp., producer of precision dispensing equipment, reported record first quarter sales of $245 million, up 20% year-over-year.

REDMOND, WA – Data I/O Corp., provider of manual and automated device programming systems, announced fourth-quarter 2007 revenues of $7.7 million, up 5.2% sequentially.

Net income was $1,090,000, down 32% sequentially. For the year, revenues were $26.8 million, down 7% from 2006.

"During the fourth quarter, we again experienced large orders from automotive customers, as well as strong wireless customer business," said Fred Hume, president and CEO. "We were very pleased to announce and ship our new Flash Media Duplication system during the quarter."

"We are pleased that our restructuring actions taken in the first half of 2007 were successful in adjusting the expense structure to increase profitability as demonstrated by our third and fourth quarter's results," said Hume.

THE WOODLANDS, TX – Chemical maker Huntsman Corp. said fourth-quarter earnings were $2.2 million, down 97% year-over-year.

Earnings plunged on costs related to several business sales, the company said.

One-time charges included a $143.4 million pretax loss on the sale of Huntsman's U.S. base chemicals business, a $4 million pretax loss on the sale of its U.S. polymers business, and $5.4 million pretax gain on the sale of its European petrochemicals business. In the year-ago period, the company took a $21.6 million pretax loss related to the sale of its European petrochemicals business.

Revenue rose to $2.5 billion, an increase of 17% year-over-year. Huntsman said higher prices and volumes in its polyurethanes, performance products and pigments segments drove sales.

For the full year, the company posted a loss of $172.2 million compared with a year-ago profit of $229.8 million. Revenue rose 11% to $9.65 billion.

SAN JOSE – North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.12 billion in orders in January and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.89, according to SEMI.

BRUSSELS – In the wake of a recent successful discovery of a counterfeit component ring, EU and U.S. officials said today they would crack down on further counterfeiting.

China will be a focus of the operation, officials said.

The announcement stems from recent operations at major airports during which some 360,000 counterfeit parts, representing more than 40 brands, were uncovered. The seized parts were valued at more than $1.3 billion.

"Traffickers and counterfeiters have become much more sophisticated.… They are no longer confining themselves to trafficking in some of the traditional goods we used to see them in, such as footwear or handbags," U.S. Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner Dan Baldwin said, according to published reports.

"There are increasing numbers with high-tech goods, goods that impact our critical infrastructure," he added.

The U.S. and EU said they would cooperate with importers to discover how fakes enter the market, and would initiate investigations, focusing on China, a large hub for counterfeit components.

Some of the fakes found, however, came from Taiwan and Hong Kong, most arriving by plane through couriers, according to John Pulford, a European Commission official.

The customs operation took place in German airports, France's Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, London’s Heathrow, and many hubs in the U.S.

WASHINGTON – The United States Patent and Trademark Office has assigned a patent to Sono-Tek Corp. covering the creation of thin organic films on complicated substrates using ultrasonic nozzles in combination with a vacuum system.

The patent covers a process for coating 3-D substrates with thin organic films and products. Applications include coating of implantable medical devices such as drug-coated cardiac stents, diabetes monitors, and other geometries.

Sono-Tek, a developer of ultrasonic spray technology, markets the invention under the name MediSonic.