Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

MfgQuote (www.mfgquote.com) is an online sourcing solution for custom manufactured parts and engineered components. Buyers, engineers and purchasing professionals submit and distribute request for quotes (RFQs) through the secure online system.

Suppliers have the opportunity to match their expertise, equipment and capacity to the buyers who need their services. The site gives them the tools to identify and build relationships with the right customers for their business with complete confidentiality.

The service is free to buyers (engineers, inventors and students), with suppliers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) paying a subscription fee for the opportunity to sell to the buyers.

Cognex Corp (www.cognex.com) is hosting a seminar, Understanding and Applying Machine Vision Sensors, throughout North America this fall. Attendees will find out how machine vision sensors work, learn how applications can be set up quickly and easily, see live vision sensor demonstrations and learn how to reduce production costs.

All seminar participants will receive VisionGuide, which includes free In-Sight Explorer trial software.

The scheduled dates are:

ALABAMA

Huntsville, AL - Nov 17

Auburn, AL - Dec 1

ARIZONA

Phoenix, AZ - Oct 26

Tucson, AZ -Oct 28

ARKANSAS

Fayetteville, AR - Oct 28

CALIFORNIA

Emeryville, CA - Aug 5

San Diego, CA - Aug 10

San Jose, CA - Aug 18

Los Angeles, CA - Aug 19

Petaluma, CA - Sept 22

Fresno, CA - Oct 7

Santa Ana, CA - Nov 3

COLORADO

Denver, CO - Sept 28

CONNECTICUT

Hartford, CT - Nov 11

FLORIDA

Tampa, FL - Sept 21

GEORGIA

Augusta, GA - Sept 23

College Park, GA - Oct 12

IDAHO

Boise, ID - Sept 16

ILLINOIS

Burr Ridge, IL - Aug 18

Mount Vernon, IL - Aug 25

Tinley Park, IL - Sept 2

Deerfield, IL - Sept 21

Glendale Heights, IL - Oct 26

Peoria, IL - Nov 4

Elgin, IL - Nov 16

INDIANA

Evansville, IN - Nov 30

Indianapolis, IN - Dec 1

IOWA

Des Moines, IA - Aug 17

Cedar Rapids, IA - Aug 31

KANSAS

Topeka, KS - Sept 7

Wichita, KS - Oct 13

KENTUCKY

Louisville, KY - Oct 14

Bowling Green, KY - Dec 16

MARYLAND

Hunt Valley, MD - Sept 29

MASSACHUSETTS

Woburn, MA - Sept 15

Natick, MA - Nov 3

MICHIGAN

Adrian, MI - Aug 4

Dearborn, MI - Aug 5

Sterling Heights, MI - Aug 12

Saginaw, MI - Aug 24

Grand Rapids, MI - Sept 7

Cadillac, MI - Sept 15

Ypsilanti, MI - Sept 16

Battle Creek, MI - Oct 6

Pontiac, MI - Oct 12

Livonia, MI - Nov 18

MINNESOTA

Minneapolis, MN - Sept 9

Rochester, MN - Nov 2

NEBRASKA

Lincoln, NE - Oct 5

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Lebanon, NH - Sept 22

NEW JERSEY

Mahwah, NJ - Oct 13

Somerset, NJ - Oct 20

Mt. Laurel, NJ - Nov 10

Parsippany, NJ - Nov 30

NEW YORK

Albany, NY - Oct 27

NORTH CAROLINA

Winston-Salem, NC - Sept 16

Charlotte, NC - Oct 7

OHIO

Defiance, OH - Aug 3

Mansfield, OH - Aug 26

Toledo, OH - Oct 14

Dayton, OH - Oct 19

Akron, OH - Oct 21

Cincinnati, OH - Nov 4

Independence, OH - Nov 16

OREGON

Portland, OR - Aug 26

PENNSYLVANIA

Mars, PA - Aug 17

State College, PA - Aug 18

King of Prussia, PA - Sept 1

Canonsburg, PA - Sept 28

RHODE ISLAND

Providence, RI - Sept 8

SOUTH CAROLINA

Greenville, SC - Nov 2

SOUTH DAKOTA

Sioux Falls, SD - Aug 3

TENNESSEE

Nashville, TN - Sept 2

Jackson, TN - Sept 14

Cleveland, TN - Sept 30

Oak Ridge, TN - Nov 10

Clarksville, TN - Dec 2

TEXAS

Austin, TX - Aug 12

Dallas, TX - Oct 19

UTAH

Salt Lake City, UT - Sept 30

VIRGINIA

Fredericksburg, VA - Oct 21

Williamsburg, VA - Nov 17

Harrisonburg, VA - Dec 14

WASHINGTON

Spokane, WA - Sept 14

WISCONSIN

Menomonee Falls, WI - Aug 25

Wausau, WI - Sept 1

Racine, WI - Sept 23

Eau Claire, WI - Oct 5

Green Bay, WI - Nov 18

CANADA

Vancouver - Canada - Aug 24

Oshawa - Canada - Aug 31

Kingston - Canada - Sept 29

Mississauga - Canada - Oct 6

Cambridge - Canada - Oct 27

London - Canada - Nov 9

Chatham - Canada - Nov 23

Windsor - Canada - Dec 15

MEXICO

Juarez - Mexico - Dec 14

Reynosa - Mexico - Dec 16

PUERTO RICO

San Juan - Puerto Rico - Nov 9

Arecibo - Puerto Rico - Nov 11

To register, visit:

http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=cognex%2C18305%2Cb19Stk4q%2C20643%2Cb3kghhW

Singapore -- Flextronics, the world's largest EMS provider, reported net sales rose 25% to $3.88 billion for its recently ended first quarter.

Net income rose 283% to $78.3 million, excluding restructuring and other charges. GAAP net income was $74.3 million, up from a loss of $289.7 million a year ago. Cash flow from operations was $166 million.

Gross and operating margins were up 110 basis points.

Michael Marks, chief executive, said in a statement, "The improvement in margins was driven by effective management of our operations, which included aggressive restructuring in prior periods as well as continuous cost reductions. Additionally, a healthier demand environment not only improves our factory utilization and increases overhead absorption, but also provides an opportunity for us to improve our pricing."

According to one analyst, sales from Sony Ericsson increased roughly 40% sequentially to 15% of total revenue in the quarter. Sales to other customers dropped about 2% sequentially, said Deustche Bank. Communications infrastructure sales were down moderately, DB said.

Inventories rose by four days, to 34 days.

Flextronics guided for September earnings of 15 to 18 cents and December earnings of 21 to 24 cents.

Yet Flextronics should benefit from greater outsourcing of handsets. "Anecdotes from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Intel, AMD [and] Philips suggest that handset demand in 2Q was healthy," wrote analyst Chris Whitmore of Deustche Bank. "We expect further commoditization of the handset market to force more outsourcing, benefiting ODMs like Flextronics."

The Surface Mount Technology Association (www.smta.org) is again co-locating its annual conference, SMTA International, with the Assembly Tech Expo (ATExpo) show this fall at the Donald Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, from Sept. 26-30.

Dr. Paul T. Vianco of Sandia National Labs has organized a Lead-Free Soldering Symposium that will take place on Thursday, Sept. 30, and will consist of four 90-minute paper sessions on lead-free and tin whiskers consortia activities, materials issues in lead-free soldering, lead-free soldering processes and lead-free soldering reliability. Dial-in options will be available for the symposium during the conference.

In consideration of the current demand for information on lead-free technology, it was decided that the symposium would be an appropriate first attempt at mixing the traditional conference format with an online, dial-in format. Dial-in attendees will receive the technical papers and auxiliary presentation files in advance of the symposium. They will have access to the real-time audio portion by telephone line to follow along as the event takes place.

The dial-in format gives would-be attendees, such as students who might not otherwise be able to attend the conference, an option for taking part.

The cost to dial-in is $195/$255 for SMTA members/non-members. A one-year individual SMTA membership is included in the non-member price.

For more information, visit: www.smta.org/education/presentations/presentations.cfm#smtai_lead-free

Elcoteq Network Corp. (www.elcoteq.com), a global provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS) for the communications technology industry, has announced its plan to build a new plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. Construction of the 14,700 m² (158,000 sq. ft.) plant is expected to begin in the final quarter of 2004, with operations beginning in the fall of 2005.

When operating at capacity, the plant is expected to employ about 1,500 people. The company's current manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg employs 170 people.

"From 2005 on we will need more production capacity for mobile phones and communications network equipment. This investment program will safeguard our service capability to European customers," said Jukka Jäämaa, executive vice president.

The investment in land and construction will total approximately $18.6 million. The machinery and equipment needed will be determined by the type of products, production volumes and timing of product programs.

Globaltronics, Asia's longest established electronics manufacturing exhibition and conference, will be held again in Singapore from Sept. 7-10. The conference has expanded in scope to cover the four key trends and drivers for the electronics manufacturing industry - wireless, displays, miniaturisation and semiconductor.

32% of research participants, which included buyers and sellers from the electronics manufacturing industry, indicated a preference for Singapore if they were to attend only one major show per year. Singapore's votes were higher than China (18%) and almost three times the votes for Taiwan (11%).

Ng Chuan Yong, vice president, Reed Exhibitions Pte. Ltd., said, "Singapore continues to be an industry hub, known for its quality and high-end manufacturing capabilities. In addition, countries in Southeast Asia are known for being technology savvy and many electronics players leverage the presence of early technology adopters within these markets to test products before global rollout. Singapore is well connected to the whole region to take advantage of this."

Singapore currently manufactures 50% of the world's hard disk drives and has more than 15 established wafer fabrication plants and 30 integrated circuit design houses.

Ng added, "Our research shows that electronics continues to be a significant contributor to the region's GDP. Prior to 2002 and 2003, there were concerns of a migration of electronics manufacturing to China. However, confidence in the region was shaken following SARS and the various bird-flu outbreaks, which had the effect of reminding companies of the old adage ‘not to put all your eggs in the same basket,' and the result has seen the emergence of companies adopting a dual-hub manufacturing strategy."

New to Globaltronics is DESIGNtech Asia, a platform featuring electronic design automation tools and methodologies and design software. It was created to cater to the growing Asia Pacific electronic design automation market (EDM), which is worth $363 million and has grown 23% and 10% in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

Other additions to the exhibition include OPTOelectronics Asia, a showcase of photonics related to the electronics industry; an innovation gallery featuring nanotechnology and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS); and a Contract Manufacturers Hall of Fame, a display of Asia contract manufacturers' capabilities.

Activities such as the technology conference, senior executives summit and e-supply chain conference will continue to be features of this year's GlobalTRONICS.

www.globaltronics.com.sg

Specialty Coating Systems (SCS, Indianapolis, IN), a Cookson Electronics Company, has introduced Parylene HTSM conformal coating for the automotive, industrial, military and electronics industries. The coating provides protection to parts and electronic components that operate in harsh environments where temperature, chemical, electrical, moisture and UV stability challenges exist.

The coating meets the specifications of component manufacturers with long-term thermal stability up to 350ºC, with intermittent exposures up to 450ºC. It also offers UV stability, crevice penetration, a low dielectric constant and a low dissipation factor.

It is applied at room temperature via a vapor deposition polymerization process, resulting in a pinhole-free, protective coating. The coating is inert, solvent and catalyst free, does not out-gas, and in ultra-thin coatings results in little dimensional or mass change to the coated component.

www.scscookson.com

Universal Instruments (Binghamton, NY) is bolstering its high-speed chip placement offering with the introduction of the Quadris placement machine. The placer sets out to satisfy the demands of manufacturers who need very high placement rates, high productivity and reliable performance in placing small passives, larger leaded and area array packages or non-standard components.

The hybrid four-beam surface-mount placement system incorporates the advantages of turret-style and overhead gantry technologies. With dual-drive linear motors, it achieves 62,000 cph placement speed within a small footprint.

Reliable operation is achieved via proven turret technology. The machine places small surface-mount device passives and 0201s, while also addressing advanced packages including chip-scale packages (CSPs), ball grid arrays (BGAs), quad flat packs (QFP) and non-standard components with edge length up to 20 mm.

The machine features automatic placement height optimization through on-the-head CCD linear sensors. Patented 12-spindle direct-drive heads have on-the-fly gang recognition. A board transfer system automatically centers the printed circuit board between feeder banks for optimal balancing across the beams. Bank feeder change and splicing capabilities facilitate rapid replenishment and product changeovers.

www.uic.com

DVT Corp. (Duluth, GA) has entered into an agreement to acquire MTI Machine Vision LLC (Providence, RI), a company known for its semiconductor wafer reading algorithms. Under the agreement, DVT is acquiring the rights to MTI's machine vision software products and intellectual property, as well as other related assets.

Bob Steinke, DVT Chairman and CEO, said, "We see this acquisition as an opportunity to combine MTI's algorithm library with DVT's range of smart camera-based, general purpose vision systems."

MTI founders, Drs. Stuart Geman and Donald McClure, noted that MTI's machine vision customers can expect a seamless transition after the acquisition is completed. "The Providence facility will house a DVT technology group dedicated to the development of advanced algorithms and software product development that will benefit both customer bases."

"The acquisition of MTI's machine vision business allows DVT to begin deployment of easy-to-use, smart-camera products featuring MTI software," McClure added.

DVT expects that the first products to benefit from this venture will include semiconductor wafer reading OCR, barcode and 2-D identification algorithms as well as alignment and defect detection software. MTI's solutions for recognizing degraded images and identifying patterns have been adopted by many vision and inspection original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and MTI's success in the semiconductor wafer industry will allow DVT broader access to another machine vision market.

www.dvtsensors.com

Enthone Inc. (West Haven, CT) has appointed Aaron Storms as managing director of Enthone Latin America. Storms' primary focus will be on developing Enthone's Central and South American businesses, with a special emphasis on the Brazilian market. He will also be responsible for the management of Enthone's Mexico business operations and will be based at the comany's Mexico City facility.

Storms joins Enthone from Crompton Corp., a global specialty chemical company, where he held the dual role of general manager of Mexico and human rescources director for Latin America. Storms previously spent 23 years with Hewlett-Packard, specializing in finance, quality assurance, customer service and human resources.

Enthone, a business of Cookson Electronics, is a supplier of high performance specialty chemicals and coatings used in the electronics and surface finishing industries. Enthone manufactures, markets and distributes its functional, decorative and electronic processes that are used in printed wiring board, semiconductor, automotive, aerospace, jewelry, and hardware and plumbing applications.

www.cooksonelectronics.com

Production Solutions Inc. (Poway, CA), a provider of substrate support tooling systems, has appointed of Protec Sales as a manufacturer's representative serving Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Protec Sales, founded in 2003 by Greg Buffaloe, focuses on technical sales and application engineering for its customer base. It is this capability that allows Protec to create and maintain long-term relationships with its large and diverse client base.

Production Solutions manufactures and distributes the Red-E-Set support system for printed circuit board screen printers, dispensing systems and surface-mount pick-and-place equipment.

www.production-solutions.com

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL, Northbrook, IL) and CSA International (Toronto, Ontario, Canda) announced the further expansion of a 1996 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) allowing the free exchange and acceptance of data between the two product testing organizations.

The companies also implemented the second phase of a three-phase, 18-month pilot agreement allowing the mutual acceptance of certain components used in low voltage distribution equipment and industrial control equipment. As part of the second round of negotiations, both parties agreed that a total of at least four follow-up inspections of manufacturers' facilities are necessary for acceptance of components under this agreement.

The agreements, designed to assist manufacturers in getting their products to the Canadian and U.S. markets more quickly, are the result of several months of negotiation between the companies, with support from National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Electro-Federation Canada (EFC) and major electrical manufacturers.

Based upon a request from NEMA, UL and CSA International have expanded the scope of the MoU to include transfer type switches. Work is also under way to expand the MoU to include the acceptance of high-current capacity short-circuit follow-up test (re-testing) reports conducted on circuit breakers and series-rated circuit breakers. The target date for the completion of this work is Aug. 30, 2004.

Phase two of the components agreement now includes the end products and components from phase one, which have been certified in accordance with Canadian requirements. Phase two also includes the addition of transfer switches and power conversion equipment certified in accordance with Canadian and U.S. requirements.

A complete listing of components and end products covered by the agreements is available on the company Web sites.

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) is an independent, not-for-profit product safety certification organization that has been testing products for more than 110 years. CSA International is a provider of product testing and certification services for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, gas and a variety of other products.

www.ul.com

www.csa-international.org