Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

PHOENIX -- Finetech GmbH and Co. KG, a German manufacturer of rework and bonding equipment, will host two Lead-Free Rework workshops in China. The first workshop is scheduled for Sept. 16 in Shanghai, and the second will take place Sept. 19 in Beijing.

Both workshops will follow the same schedule, and include presentations by Olaf Schiema, Dominik Horn and Daniel Schultze on requirements for a repair station, the lead-free evaluation kit, lead-free soldering connections, rework of small passives and automatic repair systems.

User reports and discussion time will be available.

To register for the Shanghai workshop, email Allen Zeng: allan.z@shanghai-atlantic.com.
To register for the Beijing workshop, email James Wang: jameswang@micropowergroup.com.

Fullerton, CA -- Veris Manufacturing has acquired CYR Industrial in Rosarito, Mexico. The 60,000 sq. ft. facility is near the company headquarters, where development and engineering services are based.

Designed to support both low- and high-volume manufacturing, the Rosarito facility’s capabilities include: Panasonic surface-mount Lines; JukiFlex lines; a Universal Radial and Axial insertionlLine; five, seven and 12 zone ovens; Gen-Rad in-circuit testers; Air-Vac BGA rework; and CR Technology AOI machines.

HERNDON, VA — A set of recommendations issued today call for continued availability of tin-lead compatible components for products exempted from European restrictions. The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative today said the measures are necessary in order to safeguard the dependability of high-reliability products as the supply chain converts to lead-free components and materials.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – The July 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards rose 4.7% year-on-year, and bookings rose 4.1%, according to the latest poll of North American PCB fabricators.

A large percentage of the production includes boards built offshore and distributed by North American vendors. According to IPC, 32% of the shipments reported were produced offshore, up from 26% in June.

The domestic book-to-bill ratio rose 0.03 points to 1.16. The ratio is based on data collected by IPC from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.

The ratio for rigid PCBs was down 0.02 to 0.99, while that of flexible circuits rose 0.20 points to 1.71.

Rigid board shipments, estimated by IPC to make up more than 75% of all domestic PCBs, were down 2.7% in July vs. a year ago. Bookings fell 11.9% during the month.

Flex sales rose 32.7% and bookings jumped 53.3%. Value-added services made up 56% of the shipment value of flex circuits.

“July is historically a slower month than June for PCB sales,” IPC said in a statement. “Yet the book-to-bill ratios for flexible circuits and combined PCBs continued to rise in July, due to the spike in flexible circuit bookings in June and the trend for flexible circuit bookings to outpace shipments substantially, which continued in July.”

Year-to-date, rigid shipments are down 6.4% and bookings are off 3.8%. Flex bookings are up 16.1% and shipments are up 25.6%. Shipments of all boards are down 0.2% and bookings are up 0.1%.

Sequentially, combined shipments were down 16.4 over June, while bookings fell 27%. Rigid shipments were down 19.4% and bookings were off 19%. Flex shipments fell 6.7% and bookings were down 37.9% over June.

Sixty-eight percent of PCB shipments reported was domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 81% of rigid PCB and 32% of flexible circuit shipments in July, IPC said.

In a statement, IPC cautioned that month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects.

ST. LOUIS -- La Barge Inc.'s fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 14% but the provider of electronics manufacturing services said first-quarter results will be hurt by customer-requested shipment delays. 2005 results were aided by strong demand from defense customers.

SPOKANE, WA -- Key Tronic Corp. said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose to $2.8 million, up from $265,000 a year ago. The electronic manufacturing services firm said revenue grew 20% to $53.2 million for the quarter ended July 2.

TEMPE, AZ -- Three-Five Systems has signed definitive agreement to sell the assets of its electronic manufacturing services subsidiary's operations in Redmond, WA.

Catalyst Manufacturing Services will purchase the subsidiary, TFS Electronic Manufacturing Services Inc., in a deal worth about $6.6 million. Catalyst will pay $3.6 million in cash and assume certain liabilities of TFS EMS.

TAMPA -- Reptron Electronics today reported financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, and said it would lay off 10 to 12% of its workforce in an attempt to cut costs..

ARLINGTON, WA -- CheckSum, a supplier of low-cost in-circuit test systems, has opened an sales and support office in Shanghai.

John VanNewkirk, president and chief executive, said the company has more than 500 installations in China since first selling there in the 1990s.

The facility will be headed by Tony Tan, field product specialist, a veteran of Teradyne and Landrex Technologies.

PITTSBURGH -- Valor Computerized Systems' manufacturing data sets will be integrated with a startup EDA firm's component placement software in a move that could help speed electronics design.

DesignAdvance Systems, a provider of electronic design automation and CAD design-synthesis software, said its CircuitSpace component placement software will be used with Valor's manufacturing data, merging Valor's DfM capabilities with DesignAdvance's design and electrical rules checks, known as CircuitSpace.

"It is a logical next step for us to use manufacturing data sets to improve the manufacturing results of a CircuitSpace PCB design," said Randy Eager, CEO of DesignAdvance. "Valor's PCB manufacturers' data sets allows companies to calibrate their placement data with manufacturing equipment and processes."

Julian Coates, Valor vice president, corporate marketing, said, "By facilitating the use of PCB designers' production constraint data within CircuitSpace, our mutual customers are now able to consider DfM information while automating the placement of components on a PCB. This will have many positive effects including the reduction in design time and a reduction in the number of spins or design prototypes, which delay the release of new products."

BOSTON, MA – A recent run up in bookings for SMT process equipment is showing no signs of abating, and suppliers say signs point to organic growth in the industry.

Speedline Technologies today reported that second quarter bookings rose 44% sequentially and in July reached their highest level since 2000. At the end of July, backlogs had climbed 68% versus the end of the first quarter.

Thief River Falls, MN - - Micrel Inc. has signed a distribution agreement with Digi-Key Corp. for its line of advanced mixed-signal, analog and power semiconductors; high performance communication, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs.

Micrel provides power and mixed-signal analog, RF transceivers and transmitters, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions. Its product line of more than 4,500 IC solutions will be made available through Digi-Key.