Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

VELDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS – Assembléon has established a direct sales and service presence in Germany.

Beginning in February, Assembléon staff will handle sales and service. Until Jan. 31, GPS Technologies will provide service to customers.

“The local presence with our direct sales and service force in Germany, Austria and Switzerland enables us to offer Assembléon’s complete product range, including the X-Series, M-Series, and the flagship A-Series Pick & Place platform … This is a significant step forward in our ability to service customers in this country, and underlines the importance of these customers for Assembléon,“ comments Harm van Leeuwen, director regional center Europe.

EDINA, MN – SMTA requests papers for SMTA International, taking place Aug. 17 - 21 in Orlando.

The deadline for abstracts is Jan. 7.

For more information, visit http://www.smta.org/smtai/call_for_papers.cfm.

In addition, the association requests papers for SMTA China Shanghai (Nepcon China), Shenzhen (Nepcon South China), and Tianjin (Bohai Electronics Week).

The abstract deadline for Shanghai (in conjunction with Nepcon China) is Jan. 8.

For more information visit http://www.smta.org/education/education.cfm#call.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The 5th annual Medical Electronics Symposium will be held Jan. 29-31 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, the SMTA says.

The keynote presentation, titled The Imminent Revolution of Medical Electronics, will be given by Celeste Null, director of biomedical engineering, Intel Corp. on Jan. 30.

The technical program will consist of six sessions and a plenary session.

The symposium will feature topics concerning patient care and technology, eco-compliance, reliability, optimizing component selection, ultra small SiP for medical applications, and benefits of lean flow manufacturing.

Two tutorials on automatic test equipment will be offered Jan. 31. The morning tutorial will cover Strategies for Comprehensive and Cost Effective Automatic Testing for Medical Electronics; the afternoon tutorial will continue with Utilizing DFT and BIST to Complement Automatic Testing of Medical Electronics.

The Medical Electronics Symposium, previously held in Minneapolis, will be co-located with the Medical Device and Manufacturing Expo West.

For details and to register, visit http://www.smta.org/education/symposia/symposia.cfm or contact Melissa Serres, melissa@smta.org.

ALPHARETTA, GA – Exerra Inc. has appointed four manufacturing representatives in North America for eP30 series printers.

B. R. Peterson and Assoc. represents Exerra products in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Electronic Assembly Products covers Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

Southwest Systems Technology represents Exerra throughout Texas and Mexico.

Techsystems Intl. covers Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego County and Tijuana.

Exerra offers the eP30 series of inline printers and the eP20 series of standalone printers.

AUSTIN, TX – Twenty-three percent of the 20.1 million LCD TV units shipped in the third quarter were made by contractors such as TPV, Jabil, AmTRAN, Quanta, Proview, Vestel and Wistron, says the latest report by research firm DisplaySearch.

Many LCD TV OEMs – including Grundig, HP, Polaroid, Vizio, ViewSonic and Westinghouse – outsourced 100% of their manufacturing.

Philips outsourced more than 60% of its LCD TVs shipped in the quarter. Some intend to increase their outsourcing share for certain regions and products as the market expands, while other brands intend to bring more volume in-house as they expand into new regions, according to DisplaySearch.

More than two million LCD monitor panels shipped in the third quarter were used for LCD TVs, a significant leap from 900,000 in the prior quarter.

LCD TVs under 26" will increasingly use LCD monitor panels, says the firm.

Some 23.7 million LCD TV modules were shipped from TFT LCD makers, while LCD TV manufacturers shipped 20.1 million units, the report adds. These variances reportedly were a result of supply chain, assembly lead-time, buffer stocks and channel inventory.

TPV led the TV set subcontract manufacturing market with a 19.9% share, followed by Proview, Jabil and AmTRAN.

The main customer for TPV is Philips, and the main customer for AmTRAN is Vizio; the main customer of Proview is Polaroid, and the main customer of Jabil is Philips, says DisplaySearch.

Philips was the top customer of LG.Philips LCD; Samsung LCD TV was the top customer of CMO and CPT. Sony was the top customer of AUO and Samsung (including S-LCD).

In addition, each of the top-five suppliers looked to their top-five customers for at least 50% of their volume, with the exception of CMO, concludes the report.

ARLINGTON, VA – Electronic component orders dipped slightly in November for the second month in a row, according to the Electronic Components Association. The 12-month average, which compares order growth to the previous year, was level.

SAN JOSE – Gartner Inc. lowered its 2007 semiconductor forecast to 2.9%, down from 3.9%.

The research firm also tempered its estimates for 2008, saying growth will hit 6.2%, versus earlier predictions of 8.2%. However, Gartner raised its 2009 forecast to 8.5% growth, up from 6.1%.

ATLANTA – UP Media Group, parent company of Circuits Assembly and Printed Circuit Design & Fab, announced today that support for Virtual PCB, the industry's first virtual trade show and conference for the PCB design, fabrication and assembly markets, continues to grow, as leading industry suppliers sign on to exhibit at the Feb. 12-13 event.

SAN JOSE –Flextronics sees weaknesses in the industrial, automotive and telecommunications sectors, but consumer electronics remains strong, chief executive Michael McNamara says.

“We are not seeing any slowdown in mobile phones or consumer electronics ... things you think might be affected by a recession,” McNamara said in published remarks.

According to McNamara, the weaknesses are "minor"; he expects the company's business segments to post double-digit growth next year, according to published reports.

MINNEAPOLIS – HEI Inc. has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to voluntarily deregister its common stock.

The EMS company is eligible to deregister because it has fewer than 300 shareholders.

HEI expects deregistration to take effect after 90 days, if the SEC approves the company's application. As a result, HEI's obligation to file certain reports and forms with the SEC, including Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K, will be immediately suspended.

The company believes the administrative and other economies and savings associated with de-registration are in the best interest of its shareholders. In addition, HEI says it would not be able to maintain NASDAQ listing for multiple reasons.

“HEI believes that deregistering is in the best interest of increasing long-term stockholder value. This action should result in accounting, legal and administrative expense reductions and allow HEI management to focus its attention, efforts and resources on HEI's operations and revenue growth," CEO Mark Thomas said.

HEI’s securities will no longer be eligible for quotation on NASDAQ; however, the company's securities may be eligible for quotation on the Pink Sheets by broker-dealers.

HEI designs, develops and manufactures microelectronics, subsystems, systems, connectivity and software solutions for OEMs engaged for the medical equipment and medical device, hearing, communications, and industrial markets.

TEMPE, AZ – New orders for manufactured goods were up slightly in November, and production grew 2.3 points to 51.9%. The new orders index stood at 52.6%, above the 50% threshold, signaling expansion, the ISM trade group reported Tuesday.

NAMPA, ID – PC vendor MPC Corp. has signed a services agreement with Flextronics Computing, a segment of EMS provider Flextronics.

Under the terms of the agreement, Flextronics Computing will provide MPC with supply chain consulting services and materials procurement services for its U.S.-based PC business. Financial terms were not disclosed.