Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Raven Industries today reported record sales and earnings for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2006. Net sales rose 22% to $204.5 million and net income climbed 36% to $24.3 million.

For the fourth quarter, net sales were up 24% to $54.4 million while net income jumped 50% to $5.5 million. Raven makes various end products and films, and performs electronics manufacturing services.

HERNDON, VA — iNEMI’s High-Reliability RoHS Task Force has published recommendations for Pb-free manufacturing of complex, thermally challenging electronic assemblies. The recommendations focus on thermal requirements for components, laminate and PWB materials, and equipment.

Most high-reliability products either have an exemption or are out of scope of the RoHS Directive, yet the companies that manufacture these products are evaluating the impact of Pb-free SAC solder assembly on the reliability of these more demanding applications. Complex high-reliability assemblies often feature broad component mixes and pose many thermal challenges. Pb-free assembly challenges are exacerbated by the variability of component mass, large size and high layer count of PWBs, the need to rework, and the high likelihood of mixed through-hole, surface-mount and back-side assembly.

“New soldering materials, maximum qualified component temperatures and primary attach and/or rework equipment all need to be addressed relative to reliability in the face of Pb-free assembly requirements,” said Joe Smetana, principal engineer, advanced technology, for Alcatel and co-chair of the iNEMI High-Reliability RoHS Task Force. “These recommendations were developed to communicate the needs of the high reliability segment to the supply chain and the relevant standards groups that must address these needs.”

The recommendations are available at inemi.org/cms/projects/ese/High_Rel_RoHS.html

Earnings reports are coming out this week for the mid-size EMS companies and the early results range from good to excellent.

View Mike Buetow's comments at http://circuitsassembly.com/blog/.

Teddington, UK -- David Hillman and Doug Pauls will present a class on “Crafting a Lead-Free Solder Process” at the National Physical Laboratory on June 21. The course covers the necessary elements to develop a robust, high-reliability, Pb-free manufacturing process.

Hillman is a metallurgical engineer in the Advanced Operations Engineering Department of Rockwell Collins. Pauls is a principal materials and process engineer, working on troubleshooting current manufacturing process and development of new materials and processes.

Topics will include: the metallurgy of Pb-free; finish on boards and components; effects on organic materials from higher reflow temperatures – laminates, solder masks, adhesives, fluxes, process aids; assembly equipment considerations; cleaning of Pb-free residues; testing for residues; reliability testing and case studies; process characterization and qualification; environmental waste stream considerations.

To sign up for the course, contact Roger Hughes, Roger.Hughes@npl.co.uk.

TORONTO -- A top executive at Celestica Inc. on Monday suggested to an investor conference that a large acquisition is possible in the company's future.

Celestica treasurer Paul Nicoletti said the EMS firm sees "pretty sizable" opportunities, telling the audience, "I would say right now the opportunities, call it organic-slash-acquisition, are as high now as they've been over the last couple of years."

ATLANTA -- In his blog today, Dr. Brian Toleno of Henkel reminds users to profile adhesives and underfills as they would solder pastes.

Click here to read: http://circuitsassembly.com/blog/?p=16

Westford, MA and Munich, Germany – Zuken and Lockheed Martin have signed a long-term contract for PCB design/ECAD (electronic computer aided design) tools. Zuken was also recently selected as the Preferred Supplier for ECAD by the PCB Design Solutions Engineering Process Improvement (EPI) Program's Electrical Subcouncil, which represents all of Lockheed Martin's businesses.

Zuken's scalable enterprise-wide PCB design solution, CR-5000, is at the core of the contract, along with Signal Integrity design tool suite, CR-5000 Lightning.

BRUSSELS – Valor Computerized Systems has implemented its DFM software at Siemens Bocholt in Germany, the company said today.

In a press release, Siemens said it chose the Valor tool for its extensive DfM analysis and checking capabilities. “We also wanted to improve data management and bidirectional communication with our bare board manufacturer.” The tool has cut setup time and costs and improved handling of manufacturing change orders.

Valor’s DFM software is based on Enterprise 3000 and simulates production from design through manufacture to assembly. Designs are optimized using a physical design model of the PCB assembly to reduce revision spins.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The SMTA and Auburn University seek abstracts for the Harsh Environment Electronics Workshop a two-day program that will focus on assemblies, semiconductor technology, substrates, connectors and lead-free products for use in automotive, space, military and avionics.

Abstracts of 200-300 words should focus on the latest developments, state-of-the-art technology and trends. The deadline is March 22.

The event will be held July 19-20 in Indianapolis.

Contact: conference coordinator Melissa Serres at melissa@smta.org.

UTICA, NY -- Indium Corp. vice president of technology Dr. Ning-Cheng Lee will emphasize reliability in a presentation to be delivered at the Intel Lead-Free Symposium in Scottsdale, AZ, next week.

Dr. Lee’s presentation will depict a supplier’s perspective on the impact and challenges for next-generation flux and paste in drop-critical applications.

Dr. Lee will look at flux and paste formulation directions, expected challenges, assembly implications and challenges, and the shift to using Pb-free fluxes.

Dr. Lee is a renowned expert on soldering and frequent lecturer.

The symposium takes place March 15-16.

YAVNE, ISRAEL – Valor Computerized Systems announced full support and integration of its Trilogy 5000 assembly line automation software with the SIPlace Pro interface used in Siemens' placement systems.

The integration is important because Siemens has close to a 30% market share worldwide in the component placement market.

The integration enables users to optimize their assembly lines, Valor said.

In a statement, Valor executive vice president for marketing and product management Julian Coates said, “The seamless integration between Valor’s Trilogy 5000 advanced assembly line engineering solution and the powerful SIPlace Pro open interface delivers tremendous cost savings to Siemens customers by generating the fastest route from data load to optimized machine program generation. Siemens customers will enjoy reduced NPI cycle time, increased shop floor productivity, and quicker machine programming and set-up times.”

The Valor tool improves CAD/BoM loading, stencil optimization, rotation neutralization, first-rate machine/line optimization and balancing and NPI debug time, among other features, Valor said.