LOS ANGELES – The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued P. Kay Metal a US patent covering its chemical dross elimination and reduction formula, as used in the soldering process.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil turned in a strong November quarter as all its business segments grew sequentially and profitability improved.

MILTON, NY – Sono-Tek Corp. purchased the Milton Industrial Park here.

The 3.13 acre parcel of land is comprised of five buildings of office/industrial space with 50,000 ft² of gross leasable floor area.

At the present time, the park is 74% leased. Sono-Tek currently occupies approximately 19,000 ft². 

The acquisition was financed with a cash down payment of $400,000 and the balance of $2,100,000 in seller financing to be repaid over 20 years.

The purchase was driven by business growth over the past two years, and the anticipated continuation of this growth in 2011, requiring more space for operations.

The firm had sales of $7.3 million for the nine months ending Nov. 30. Sono-Tek’s sales goal for the current fiscal year is $10 million, an increase of 38% year-over-year.

SAN DIEGO -- A former Flextronics manager accused of insider trading has been denied bond after prosecutors asserted he is a flight risk.

MINNEAPOLIS – Dave Hillman was awarded Best of Conference at the recent SMTA International for his Pb-Free symposium presentation “NASA DoD -55° to +125°C Thermal Cycle Test Results.” 

Hillman, an engineer at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, IA, received a $1,000 award.

Also winning $1,000 awards were Pradeep Lall, Rahul Vaidya, Vikrant More, Auburn University; and Kai Goebel, NASA Ames Research Center, for Best of Proceedings. The authors wrote “Interrogation of Damage-State in Lead-Free Electronics under Sequential Exposure to Thermal Aging and Thermal Cycling.”

Craig Hamilton, John McMahon, Jose Traya, Wang Yong Kang, and Khoo Kok Wei, Celestica; and Matthew Kelly and Marie Cole, IBM, also received $1000 for submitting the Best International Paper, “High Complexity Lead-Free Wave and Rework: the Effects of Material, Process and Board Design on Barrel Fill.”

BEIJING – China's machinery and electronics exports will be up 30% year-over-year in 2010, pushing the country to the top of the world's export ranks, say published reports.

In the first 11 months of the year, China exported $842.7 billion worth of machinery and electronics products, up 32.7% year-over-year, according to the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products. 

In that period, the total value of imports and exports of machinery and electronics products was $1.4 trillion, up 34.3% compared to the prior year period.

November exports set an all-time high, increasing 34.9% year-over-year to $153.3 billion, and imports rose 37.7% to $130.4 billion.

NEWARK, NY -- IEC Electronics has acquired Southern California Braiding, a privately held manufacturer of wire and cable products for the military and defense market.

WASHINGTON – The Securities and Exchange Commission voted yesterday to propose new regulations implementing a recent law requiring specific disclosures concerning products that may contain so-called conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries.

WASHINGTON – The National Institute of Standards and Technology today said it would provide more than $22 million in funding for nine research projects targeting innovative manufacturing technologies.

The awards will be matched by other funding sources and are expected to result in an estimated $46 million in new advanced manufacturing research over the next three years.

Among the recipients are Kent Displays, Sinmat and Polyera Corp.

Kent Displays proposes to develop a suite of processes for high-volume production of flexible, low-power displays. If successful, the project will result in the first US facility for commercial-scale manufacturing of high-res digital displays of any type, the firm says.

The displays will be made from thin flexible plastic films. Kent Displays plans to introduce its low-power, high-res Reflex displays for use on credit cards; as electronic paper for broad-scale applications, such as advertising; in low-cost writing tablets, and for other mass-market offerings.

The firm aims to increase production capabilities and lower costs for Reflex flexible displays by developing seven new manufacturing processes.

Sinmat plans to develop commercial-scale methods for making super hard, low-defect substrate materials and engineering the surfaces of these platforms to eliminate roughness and optimize properties for particular applications.

Sinmat’s surface-engineered super hard substrates are also designed to reduce defect density and enhance light reflection.

Success could pave the way for silicon-on-diamond substrates to meet the need to rapidly dissipate heat on ICs, the firm says.

The company proposes to refine and scale up its chemical mechanical polishing techniques for engineering the surfaces of gallium nitride, silicon carbide, diamond, and other extremely hard materials.

Polyera said it has developed semiconductor materials with the potential to reach 10% power-conversation efficiencies, the level needed to enable solar modules competitive with other technologies on a cost-per-watt basis.

The firm proposes to develop synthetic methods to enable large-scale manufacturing of these materials.

The project will develop and evaluate synthetic routes for making the fundamental building block. It also will examine the potential of a new polymerization method to better control the photoactive layer polymer architecture at the nanoscale.

Polyera will work with third parties to scale-up the process first to pilot levels and then to commercial-scale volumes.

WESTLAKE, OH -- Nordson's electronics manufacturing and inspection equipment segment reported big gains in the fourth quarter ended Oct. 31.