BUFFALO GROVE, IL – Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America has moved into a new dedicated demonstration and training facility here in suburban Chicago.

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL – EMS firm SigmaTron International today reported first-quarter fiscal 2011 revenue of $38.1 million, up nearly 45% year-over-year.

For the period ended July 31, net income was $857,989. The contract electronics manufacturer reported a loss of $402,475 last year.

“Continuing our momentum from our last quarter, I am pleased to report a fourth consecutive profitable quarter with an increase in revenue and operating income over the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. Our results were driven by both increased revenue from existing customers and the addition of some new customers coming up to speed,” said president and CEO Gary R. Fairhead.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – The Electronic Components and Technology Conference is requesting abstracts on recent, unpublished work for its 61st annual event taking place May 31 - June 3.

Abstracts should represent new developments and knowledge in any of the following: advanced packaging; applied reliability; assembly and manufacturing technology; electronic components and RF; emerging technologies; interconnections; materials and processing; modeling and simulation, or optoelectronics. 

Presentation of papers in a poster format is encouraged.

For more information, contact Wolfgang Sauter at wsauter@us.ibm.com.

SCHAUMBURG, IL -- Just two years after it faced possible trading suspension because of noncompliance with certain New York Stock Exchange equity minimums, Sparton's roadmap calls for the company to reach $500 million in sales by 2015, almost three times the revenue from fiscal 2010.

ATLANTA – Beginning Sept. 14, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY seeks participants for its annual Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for EMS providers and electronics assembly equipment, material and software suppliers.

BANNOCKBURN, IL -- IPC today released the first industry-consensus guidelines on handling, packaging and storing printed wiring boards.

BERLIN – Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair, cofounder and CEO of MED-EL, will keynote the iNEMI workshop Challenges Facing Medical Electronics Packaging and Substrates. The event will take place here Sept. 16 and 17.

Dr. Hochmair will discuss the role played by cochlear implants and the challenges faced as these technologies are deployed globally.

E. Jan Vardaman, president and founder of TechSearch International, is slated as the dinner speaker on Sept. 17. She will discuss the future of medical electronics and the role packaging will play to help miniaturize medical devices for home and hospital applications.

The iNEMI workshop will explore the substrate, packaging and interconnect technology challenges and standardization gaps anticipated in the implantable and portable segments of the medical electronics industry. The goal is to identify the most critical needs, determine which needs are best solved through collaborative efforts, and then form action groups to initiate the required work.

The agenda also features speakers from Dyconex; Endicott Interconnect Technologies; IMEC; IZM; maris TechCon; Micro Systems Engineering; Philips Applied Technology; Reinhardt Microtech; Sanmina-SCI, and Valtronics.

To register, visit http://www.inemi.org/cms/calendar/Energy_WS_Oct2010.html.

MACAO -- Deswell Industries reported fiscal first-quarter net sales fell 5.9% to $9.7 million in the company's electronic and metallic segment.

SAN JOSE – Worldwide semiconductor equipment bookings were $11.68 billion in the second quarter, up 296% from a year ago and 24% from the first quarter.

SCHAUMBURG, IL -- Sparton Corp. swung to a fiscal fourth quarter net profit of $2.2 million, a considerable improvement over a loss of $8.8 million a year ago.

SAN JOSE -- Nearly a decade ago, the European Union enacted legislation to restrict the use of six hazardous substances – lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers – in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). Semiconductor and photovoltaic manufacturing equipment (SPME) were excluded from the directive by means of an exclusion for large scale stationary industrial tools (LSIT).

BANNOCKBURN, IL – Electronics manufacturers that send byproducts and waste for recycling are among the targets of a proposed rule from the EPA published Aug. 13, an industry trade group says.

The rule expands the reporting requirements under the Toxic Substances Control Act Inventory Update Reporting rule that requires manufacturers of chemical substances to report on the manufacturing, importation, processing, and use of those chemical substances.

The EPA estimates it will cost each facility $48,700 and take 792 hours to comply with the proposed rule. The comment period for the proposed rule ends Oct. 12.

In a statement today, IPC urged opposition of the EPA’s regulation of byproducts and waste under TSCA, as well as proposed changes to the reporting requirements.

The EPA says byproducts and waste sent for recycling are subject to IUR rule because they serve a commercial purpose as a feedstock to new products, IPC said.

Under the proposed rule, manufacturers would have to comply with existing TSCA IUR rule requirements for byproducts and waste sent for recycling, and with more burdensome reporting requirements, says IPC.

In the statement, IPC director of environmental programs and government relations Fern Abrams said the EPA rule considers F006 electroplating sludge – a listed hazardous waste under RCRA – as a new chemical if it is recycled.

Specifically, the proposed rule changes the definitions of manufacturer use and commercial use to include EPA’s interpretation that recycled byproducts must be reported under IUR; requires manufacturers to report if the production volume of a chemical substance meets or exceeds the 25,000 lb./yr. threshold during any calendar year since the last principal reporting year; increases mandated reporting to every four years (instead of five); requires more detailed manufacturing data, as well as processing and use data to be reported, and requires additional reporting for a variety of factors, including the number of workers likely to be exposed to the chemical and identifying consumer and commercial categories associated with the chemical substance.

The EPA’s proposed reporting requirements would apply to the 2011 submission reporting of 2010 manufacturing, processing and use information. Manufacturers should be collecting data now to submit next summer, even though the details on what data should be collected have not been communicated, IPC points out.