Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

BANNOCKBURN, IL – Ramon Mendez and Brandon Gore won top honors for their papers at Apex this week, beating out more than 100 other paper submissions.

Mendez, a process development engineer at Celestica, and coauthors Mario Moreno, German Soto, Jessica Herrera and Craig Hamilton, won the International Best Paper for “Design for Manufacturability in Lead Free Wave Solder Process.”

EL SEGUNDO – Reductions in chip inventory levels often indicate a rise in global semiconductor sales, but an expected decline in surplus stockpiles during the last quarter is revealing troubling signs of market weakness, says iSuppli Corp.

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL – DEK USA named Brian Lau general manager – Americas, effective immediately. He was formerly Group Manager, SMT Sales at Panasonic.

Lau will be based in the Chicago suburbs and report to executive vice president John Hartner.

CUPERTINO – John Burke of RoHS USA will present an all-day workshop next month on designing and building environmentally sound electronics.

The workshop takes place May 8 at the University of Santa Cruz’s Cupertino campus.

The course will discuss environmentally friendly electronics, how to build them, and the legislation surrounding them.

Class fees will be donated to Greenpeace.

For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/347t4g.

LAS VEGAS – Traffic appeared a bit light on the first day of Apex Tuesday, then ticked up on Wednesday, as suppliers focused on the attendees who did show and the array of new machines on the floor.

LAS VEGAS – Henkel today acquired National Starch in an all-cash deal worth 3.8 billion euros. Alan Syzdek of National Starch was named corporate senior vice president and head of the division, while president Pat Trippel was offered another position within Henkel.

LAS VEGAS -- Circuits Assembly magazine announced the winners of its 2008 Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) providers and Electronics Assembly Equipment, Materials and Software suppliers. Circuits Assembly recognized the companies that received the highest customer service ratings, as judged by their own customers, during a ceremony at the IPC Apex trade show in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS -– Circuits Assembly magazine today announced the winners of its 2008 New Product Introduction Award for electronics assembly equipment, materials and software suppliers.

ATLANTA -- A shakeup at a major solder supplier could be in store this week, Circuits Assembly has learned.

A major solder vendor is determining the fate of its president, with a decision expected by April 3.

HIALEAH, FL -- Simclar reported fourth-quarter losses of $64,088, on sales of $34.7 million, reversing a profit of $949,000 on $33.2 million in revenue last year.

For the year, the EMS company reported profits fell 17% to $2.4 million, despite a $20.4 million jump in revenue, to $136.4 million.

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA — Selective soldering equipment maker RPS Automation LLC today reported "strong customer growth," including recent installations at Saturn Electronics & Engineering, Creation Technologies, EI Microcircuits, P3C, Circle Prime Manufacturing, Lectronix and Saline Lectronics.

Recent global customer wins came in Mexico, Canada, France, China and the Middle East, the company said.

“Last summer’s restructuring and addition of capital, management and investor support is really starting to
pay dividends,” stated Reed Gaither, CEO of RPS Automation.

ST. LOUIS -- Northrop Grumman awarded LaBarge Inc. a $3.5 million contract to continue to produce electronics equipment for the AN/AAQ-24(V) NEMESIS Directional Infrared Countermeasure (DIRCM) system. LaBarge has worked on the program for nearly a decade.

Production at LaBarge's Tulsa, OK., facility is expected to begin in April and continue through June, the EMS company said.