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BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC published IPC-A-600H, Acceptability of Printed Boards, and IPC-6012C, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards.

IPC-A-600H features 95 new and updated photos and illustrations, for a total of 326. The standard offers expanded coverage on topics such as solder mask coverage, etchback, plated-hole wall integrity, via fill, and flexible circuits. It also addresses copper cap-plating of vias and copper-wrap plating.

Criterion for how much a flex circuit can be bent or folded is now available. The document addresses coverlays sometimes used to protect flex circuits.

IPC-6012C addresses determining how many boards and/or test coupons to check. A document used for specifying circuit boards, IPC-6012 details frequency of inspection, instructing how many panels must be examined within a production lot for a given performance class.

Before the completion of the latest revisions, the standards’ next series of enhancements were being planned, including finer geometries, high-density PCBs, the proximity of microvias and stacked microvias that go from one layer to another.

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- DfR Solutions and ARINC have created a partnership to provide reliability and DMSMS support to the commercial government and defense industries.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — IPC today released J-STD-001E, Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies, the culmination of a four-plus year effort to update the industry consensus soldering specification.

TEMPE, AZ – US manufacturing grew in March for the eighth consecutive month, with the PMI registering 59.6%, up 3.1 percentage points, says the Institute for Supply Management.

CHONGQING, CHINA – Hon Hai Group (Foxconn) will recruit more than 6,000 workers in the next six months here at its new PC manufacturing factory, according to published reports.

The firm also plans to expand the plant`s workforce to some 10,000 by 2011, all to accommodate a forecast annual output of more than 10 million notebook PCs.

The company also is pushing its suppliers to move into Chongqing, in an effort to vertically integrate a PC supply chain there. In the future, 80% of the facility’s bill of materials will be sourced locally, chairman Terry Gou said.

TAIPEI – Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn) said it agreed to buy 90.1% of Sony Corp.'s Slovakian LCD TV factory.

No financial terms were disclosed.

The firm said it would purchase the plant through its Singapore unit, Foxconn Singapore Pte.

NONTHABURI, THAILAND -- EMS firm SVI Public Co. reported 2009 revenue fell 9.2% to 6.47 billion baht. Net income fell 10% to 582 million baht.

ROSWELL, GA – Rehm Thermal Systems will begin offering product-specific process characterizations in the Americas, the company said today.

Its applications center here, opened last year, is designed for customers to perform reflow process characterizations on their own products, using Rehm’s condensation reflow soldering systems.

TORONTO -- Adeptron Technologies reported fourth-quarter sales fell 30% to $9.1 million, but the EMS company eked out a 2% gain in annual sales for fiscal 2009.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – Photo Stencil has expanded capacity and capability at its Penang, Malaysia, plant.

The company recently installed two laser cutting systems at its Malaysian facility, including a Tannlin T3 system and a Tannlin T6 fiber laser.

Photo Stencil maintains manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico and Malaysia.

MINNEAPOLIS – CyberOptics Corp. said its 3-D post-print inspection head SE500 sensor has been integrated into Milara’s TouchPrint Digital TD2929 inline printer.

The SE500 sensor is capable of scan speeds of greater than 80 cm²/sec., and is manufactured as an integrated assembly with no moving parts. The system features telecentric optics for X-Y measurement.

“We are not a 3-D post-print inspection company. We have our own flavor of texture-based 2-D post-print inspection, and have been constantly seeking an outside source to integrate a high-speed/stable 3-D option that is capable of generating viable results. CyberOptics combines not only accuracy, but speed that, in the realm of automation, is most difficult to attain,” said Stephen Brodeur, program director at Milara.