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.

The company recently checked into the new 41,000 sq. ft. factory, consolidating two plants in Manchester, NH, and Lawrence, MA. The new site employs about 100 workers, officials said.

Among those welcoming Suntron CEO Ed Wheeler to town were Massachusetts Lt. Governor Tim Murray, US Rep. Niki Tsongas, Mayor William Manzi III and others. Wheeler addressed the company employees, visiting dignitaries and local press, saying that while “a lot of competitors are leaving the area,” he believes “there’s a lot of customers here to serve.”

Inside, the facility, billed by the electronics manufacturer as "state of the art," was a bit long in the tooth insofar as equipment was concerned. The three SMT lines featured Speedline Ultraprint printers, two Siemens and four Mydata 15E placement machines and Heller 1800W reflow ovens. AOI is performed on an Agilent SP50, and x-ray on a new Dage XD7500VR. A pair of Electrovert Econopak wave machines occupied one corner. Because of the range and mix of customers, parts are kitted. The plant mostly uses no-clean, but some cleaning is performed using alcohol and a Trek aqueous cleaner. New to the site is a PVA automated conformal coater. One interesting site was a portable Class 10,000 cleanroom.

According to vice president of sales Roger White, Suntron Northeast has between 28 and 32 customers on average, and its top seven customers make up about 60% of the site’s sales. The plant builds for military, aerospace (it has AS9100 certification), medical, networking, semiconductor and industrial applications, among others.