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News

HIALEAH, FL -- Simclar Inc., a electronics contract manufacturer, reported September quarter revenue of $16.6 million, up 25.4% from last year. Net income fell to $242,000 versus $486,000 a year ago.

Excluding the May 1, 2005 acquisition of Simclar (North America), revenue for the quarter would have been $14.9 million, up 11.9%, and net income would have been $353,000.

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Raven Industries reported sales rose 11% to a record $54.1 million over the year-ago period and net income rose 32% to a record $6.9 million for its third quarter ended OCt. 31.

The company took a $820,000 after-tax writeoff of an acquisition in the prior year; excluding that, the net income grew 14%.

For the quarter, electronic systems sales were down 2% percent to $13.7 million. The division posted operating income of $1.9 million, up 18% from a year ago. Customers requested early delivery of product in the second quarter, which reduced third quarter shipments.

For the first nine months of the year, sales totaled $42.3 million, up 21% from the last year while operating income more than doubled, to $6.9 million.

NEW YORK -- End-market inventories of semiconductors remained low and stable in the September quarter, but distributors' inventories increased 8%, or $127 million, and 3 days from June.

SG Cowen said that inventories at buyers of semiconductors appear low and stable. Inventories at 49 major semiconductor customers fell in both dollar terms and days on a seqential basis, the firm said.

Portsmouth, RI – International Manufacturing Services (IMS) has appointed W. Howard Associates to represent its products in Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

W. Howard Assoc., founded in 1983, is a manufacturers representative focused on RF/microwave, interconnect devices and sensor products.

IMS manufactures quality thick film chip resistors, both standard and custom, for applications ranging from automotive sensors to high frequency microwave and medical equipment.

Binghamton, NY -- DEK has published its latest findings on screen printing with Pb-free pastes, focusing on the implications for stencil design rules. The results underline the importance of using an enclosed head and nickel stencils to maximize quality and yield.

The report reveals how aperture dimensions must increase to ensure adequate wetting forces and prevent tombstoning as paste-to-pad and component-to-pad offsets occur. Such offsets are unavoidable, implying that manufacturers must re-optimize stencils for Pb-free printing to ensure yield rates comparable to Pb-rich processes. According to the report, this issue is more prevalent with smaller components (0402s and below).

By testing 67 new aperture characteristics, including varying dimensions, aspect ratio, shape and stencil thickness, DEK identified the necessary changes in aperture characteristics. According to the team leader and author of the report, Clive Ashmore, the main concern is to ensure a higher volume of paste to compensate for the lower wetting forces exerted by Pb-free pastes. When placing small chip devices such as passive components, these wetting forces help retain the component during reflow. Slight misalignment between the component, solder deposit and paste leads to imbalance in wetting forces, which increases the risk of tombstoning.

Ashmore, Global Applied Process Engineering Group Manager at DEK Printing Machines, said, “A perfectly centred screen printing process will perform well whether Pb-rich or Pb-free paste is used. But such processes can only be sustained under laboratory conditions, which obviously cannot be provided in a production context. Assemblers must, therefore, take steps to ensure their stencils are optimised for Pb-free printing. Our findings show that continuing to use legacy stencils that meet the Pb-rich design rules will result in significantly higher numbers of defects.”

Understanding Stencil Requirements for a Lead-Free Mass Imaging Process is available at dek.com.

SAN JOSE -- North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.1 billion in orders in October on a three-month average basis. The book-to-bill ratio was 0.95, according to SEMI.

A book-to-bill of 0.95 means that $95 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month worldwide bookings average was up 12% over revised September levels and 20% below October 2004.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in October 2005 was $1.16 billion, up 6% from revised September figures but down 19% from last year.

The numbers also include revised August bookings.

"Bookings and billings for North American based semiconductor equipment providers have been stable for the past six months," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. "It is encouraging to see the recent improvement in bookings as the industry continues to ramp 300 mm production and is beginning to invest in 65 nanometer technology."

WEST CHICAGO -- Price erosion of surface mount connectors during the past five years has been significant and painful, says Bishop and Associates.

The research firm cites as the main reason the migration of manufacturing to China. "There is no doubt that connector prices have been significantly influenced by the lower costs [of China]. The lower prices are a function of the lower manufacturing costs."

Once the manufacturing migration to China has “run its course” and China prices are fully implemented, connector prices will stabilize, Bishop said. "In effect, the China influence on lower prices is a one-time occurrence. That is, once China pricing is in the marketplace, connector prices stabilize and stop declining. Once the lower costs are passed along, it’s over. There is no more to give the OEMs."

Prices have begun to level, Bishop wrote. "We have already started to achieve connector price stability. Feedback from the industry suggests that the 7-10% price erosion of the past few years has slowed to the historical norm of 3-4% price erosion."

Bermuda-based Tyco International plans to close 16 of its electronics manufacturing factories in North American and Europe and may even spin off some businesses. The conglomerate will take a restructuring charge of up to $175 million, $60 million in fiscal 2006.

SAN JOSE -- "It is extremely unlikely for us to ever do a large acquisition. My view is, most all of them fail." -- Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, August 2005

"Extremely unlikely" just happened. Cisco agreed Friday to buy Scientific-Atlanta Inc. in a $6.9 billion deal that would create a one-stop shop for sending TV over the Internet.

CHICAGO - Newark InOne provides a complimentary re-reeling service for thousands of surface-mount diodes, transistors and surface-mount ICs and optoelectronic components. Benefiting design engineers and small production manufacturers, this value-added semiconductor service is an extension of the company’s free re-reeling program for surface-mount passive components, launched in late 2004.

For product on cut tape orders longer than 18", Newark InOne automatically applies a leader, trailer and re-spool on each reel according to Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA) standards, which assures that the reel can be properly machine-fed.

For details, visit: newarkinone.com/reels

Hauppauge, NY -- Jaco Electronics, distributor of electronic components, reported increased operating profit and lowered net losses for its fiscal 2006 first quarter, compared to the same quarter last year. During the quarter, Jaco reduced SG&A by 21% year-on-year, which contributed to the operating profit.

ROUND ROCK, TX - In commemoration of America Recycles Day, Dell recognized its employees and partners for helping the company exceed environmental responsibility goals and create new recycling initiatives.

In the past year, Dell exceeded its recycled paper content goal and collected more than 175 tons of unwanted computers around the world. In 2005, the company accelerated efforts to recycle, reuse or resell non-hazardous wastes from manufacturing and other operations.

"Part of being a great global company is being environmentally responsible," said Tod Arbogast, Dell's sustainable business manager. "America Recycles Day provides an opportunity for us to recognize our employees, suppliers and stakeholders who have helped Dell increase usage of recycled paper, offer communities no-cost options for recycling computers and increase the volume of waste material we recycle in our own operations."

Dell’s Forest Products Stewardship Model documents its paper-usage practices and its paper sourcing and recycling goals. One year into the program, Dell has exceeded its initial target by achieving 90% recycled paper content in the company's small and medium business catalog, using Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper sources for the majority of the catalog. Dell increased its use of post-consumer recycled content for catalog inserts to almost 15% and achieved about 30% post-consumer recycled content for office paper.

Dell conducted computer recycling events earlier this year in Bracknell (UK), Munich, Sydney, Winston-Salem (NC), Nashville and Oklahoma City. Dell employee volunteers helped collect more than 175 tons of unwanted computers.

Dell expanded its partnership with Goodwill Industries by establishing an ongoing computer drop-off program for donation and recycling in the San Francisco Bay area and in Michigan.

In the first half of 2005, Dell recycled, reused or resold more than 45,000 tons of cardboard, plastics, pallets, paper and related materials generated in its manufacturing and other operations. The volume of recycled, reused or resold material represents more than 90% of the total nonhazardous waste generated at facilities in the first half of the year, exceeding last year’s 85% recycle/reuse rate.