POWAY, CA – A pair of Production Solutions engineers have been awarded a US patent for a universal board support.

The universal board support, which the company markets under the name Red-E-Set VB, is for screen printers with vacuum box tooling. It was issued to Douglas Farlow and Thomas Gordon. The patent number is 7,311,302.

According to the patent filing, the application informs an improved substrate support system for clamping spring loaded pins that support substrates, such as printed circuit boards, which have even profiles and uneven profiles due to components being installed on one side during manufacturing operations to the opposite side of the substrate. The substrate support system can utilize a cam lever, a knob, or a draw latch to move a clamping plate between an aligned position and a clamping position.

VANCOUVER -- The number of mobile handset shipments is forecast to rise from 1.20 billion in 2009 to 1.43 billion in 2011, up 19.2%.

TAIPEI -- The latest accusations claiming worker abuses at Foxconn Technology Group China factories are false, the electronics manufacturer said today.

TAIWAN – Hon Hai Group (Foxconn) reported record sales of $8.18 billion for September on demand for consumer electronics such as iPads, iPhones and game consoles.

SHANGHAI – China state media are accusing Foxconn of forcing local staff to work excessive overtime, while exploiting interns, say published reports.

University researchers surveyed 1,736 workers at the EMS company’s factories in nine cities. They learned, per reports, that employees work an average 83.2 hours overtime monthly, more than twice the maximum 36 hours stipulated by Chinese law.

Survey results also showed workers claiming Foxconn cheated them out of overtime payments, while making interns work more than the legal eight-hour day.

The firm is also accused of providing insufficient checkups for exposure to harmful substances, reports say.

Foxconn, which has been under fire for low wages and the suicides of more than a dozen workers this year, has not publicly commented on the survey results.

VIENNA – The World Intellectual Property Organization has issued AT&S a pair of patents related to printed circuits.

HAVERHILL, MA -- The second EMS firm ribbon-cutting in one week took place in the north Boston suburbs as Stellar Manufacturing opened a plant in a business park here.

BRUSSELS -- While the rest of the world begins to roll out their own versions of the RoHS directive, the EU is backtracking on a list of proposed additions.

NEWARK, NY -- IEC Electronics has promoted Jeffrey T. Schlarbaum to president, one of two executive promotions the hard-charging EMS firm made this month.

LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES -- Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. today completed the previously announced acquisition of a majority stake in PSi Technologies Inc. (PSi).

WASHINGTON – Nations making up roughly half the world’s trade achieved consensus this month on almost all the major issues surrounding an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

METHUEN, MA – Rain drizzling on their heads, a small army of state and local politicians were on hand as EMS firm Suntron today officially opened its manufacturing plant here north of Boston.