News
SMT Resource Group LLC (Wake Forest, NC), a reseller and integrator of new and refurbished electronics assembly equipment, has purchased the manufacturing equipment from 3Com's plant in Ireland. SMT Resource assisted 3Com earlier in the asset disposition when their Singapore and Santa Clara, CA, plants closed and production was outsourced.
The agreement covers 50 surface-mount technology machines plus testers and supporting boxbuild equipment. Warehousing and shipping equipment is also available for sale. SMT Resource expects to sell most equipment by early summer. Earliest sales have been to established customers in Asia and North America, with some interest from Europe, especially for non-surface-mount technology equipment such as forklifts and storage racking.
SMT Resource has over 100 major pieces of equipment in inventory. Additionally, the company has sold 200 machines during the past 12 months. SMT Resource will sell, integrate and provide support and service for both new and refurbished electronics assembly equipment to achieve best in class selection for their customers.
SMT Spares specializes in spare parts not readily available from Panasonic and Fuji, especially for three- to ten-year-old machines. More spares are being added to the inventory weekly.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
National Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA) has announced that it will offer lead-free packages for its complete line of integrated circuit (IC) products by the end of 2004. The company also will significantly reduce bromine and antimony-based flame-retardants in an effort to make more environmentally neutral electronic components.
Today, approximately 90% of National's portfolio of 15,000 analog and mixed-signal ICs is available in lead-free package types. Lead was formerly used in the plating finish of copper leadframe-based packages. It was also used in the solder balls of array packages such as micro surface mount device (SMD), PBGA and FBGA packages. National will replace the lead in leadframe packages with a matte tin finish and in the solder balls with a tin-silver-copper alloy. Once this aggressive program is fully implemented, National expects to replace approximately five tons of lead used per year.
"Samsung is currently using about one-half dozen different lead-free ICs from National Semiconductor in its flat panel display (FPD) products which are sold worldwide," said Soo Kyung Yoo, vice president Quality Team, Display Device Center, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. "In addition, we have aggressive plans in place to adopt National's lead-free ICs for use in a wide variety of other Samsung products."
Packaging is a critical part of the semiconductor manufacturing process. National's advanced package technologies enable its customers to build cell phones, displays, computers and many other electronic products that are small, thin, lightweight and have long-lasting battery life.
www.national.com/packaging/leadfree/
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
ASAT Holdings Ltd (Hong Kong, China) and ASAT Inc., global providers of semiconductor package design, assembly and test, has announced that it has been recognized with the SigmaTel (Pleasanton, CA) 2003 Assembly and Test Supplier of the Year Award.
ASAT was recognized for providing outstanding performance, on-time delivery, superior quality and continued support of the development of all of SigmaTel's product lines. ASAT has been providing assembly, test and package design services to SigmaTel for more than three years.
"ASAT has had a positive impact on our ability to rapidly ramp our products into high volume and deploy them more efficiently," said Steve Beatty, vice president of operations at SigmaTel, Inc. "ASAT's focus on continuous improvement in all aspects of its business has allowed us to consistently deliver quality products to our customers."
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC (Springfield, MA), a provider of electronics manufacturing in the Northeast, has increased production capacity for producing printed circuit boards (PCB). Responding to increased demand for populated PC board products, Nu Visions purchased four additional lines of Juki Automation pick-and-place machines in late 2003. Recently, Nu Visions added another high-speed placement line composed of Juki's KE-2060 and the new FX-1 machines for a total of 19 machines configured in eight lines. Nu Visions is the first manufacturer in the Americas to purchase the new FX-1 model.
Nu Visions specializes in low-volume, medium-to-high mix PCB manufacturing, partnering with customers from product design and concept through volume manufacturing. Purchasing Juki's equipment allowed Nu Visions to retrofit existing lines with updated trolley feeders that increase the speed of feeding parts.
The new KE-2060 is a hybrid machine, combining a high-speed chip shooter that places a wide range of components at 12,500 CPH with a fine-pitch placement machine that places 1,850 fine-pitch components per hour. It is quickly programmable and has a dual component recognition system with both vision and laser technology.
The FX-1 is a high-speed placement machine capable of 25,000 components per hour. The design structure of a dual head on a single x beam design contributes to the overall placement speed of this machine; one head picks components while the other head places them.
Nu Visions aims to provide small company flexibility and responsiveness with large company technical depth and manufacturing capabilities. Its growth during the last four years has been largely due to their ability to provide better service and offer strong surface-mount technology assembly capabilities. Some of these capabilities include: single and double-sided component populated assemblies, selective wave soldering, placing fine-pitch quad flat packs (QFPs) and connectors, plastic, tape, and ceramic ball grid arrays (BGAs), micro BGAs, high pin count interconnects, and high I/O BGAs.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Pro-mation Inc. (Kenosha, WI), a manufacturer of printed circuit board (PCB) handling solutions, has completed a 24-month performance study on 20 select PCB handling products.
Gary Goldberg, president and chief executive officer of Pro-mation, will share this informative information with industry professionals who are interested in PCB handling equipment.
For more information about the study, contact Goldberg: gary_goldberg@pro-mation-inc.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Hardmeier Electronics, a major contract manufacturer in Switzerland, has replaced its complete surface-mount assembly line with the new Ultraflex line from ESSEMTEC. The line is capable of running larger batches in inline mode, but runs different boards simultaneously.
Hardmeier specializes in the assembly of small- to mid-size batches, so the new machines provide them with the possibility to run large series with high speed on some days, while on other days several small batches can be produced simultaneously.
The feeder concept with bar code scanning ensures placement quality and enables product changeovers while the machine is placing boards. The FLX1020-V holds up to 200 feeders and minimizes the need for feeder changes. Laser and vision centering gives customers the possibility to place nearly all available components from 0201s up to quad flat packs (QFPs), ball grid arrays (BGAs), microBGAs and connectors. The integrated software optimizes the feeder set up to eliminate unnecessary changeovers in production. The integrated dispensing system dispenses directly on the same line adhesives or solder paste for prototypes or smaller batches.
In combination with specialized loader/unloader systems, a FIFO Buffer, inspection conveyor and full convection oven for lead-free production, the installation is a fully automatic solution for low-to mid-size volumes.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
IPC (Northbrook, IL) has selected Speedline's (Franklin, MA) patent-pending MPM Gel-Flex conformal board support system for this year's Innovative Technology Showcase (ITS). The 2004 ITS highlighted new and emerging technologies from all segments of the electronics interconnection supply chain, including assembly, printed circuit board fabrication and design. After a rigorous evaluation, the ITS Review Board selected Speedline's board support system as one of the industry's cutting-edge technologies. The showcase was held on Feb.24-26, during APEX, in Anaheim, CA.
The board support system is a cost-effective answer to the challenge of supporting the circuit board during the stencil printing process. Consisting of electrostatic discharge (ESD)-safe polyurethane elastomer gel enclosed within a durable membrane shell and mounted to a magnetic base, Gel-Flex tooling is a true conformal board-support system. The compressible gel material provides gentle compliance to delicate bottom-side components and leads while providing firm support for the entire board surface.
Since product setup takes literally seconds to complete, and product changeovers are as simple as relocating the support bars, downtime associated with board support changes is dramatically reduced with the system. Compared to other more expensive options, such as dedicated workholder and fixed-grid pin support tooling, the system is considerably less expensive to purchase and operate.
Speedline Technologies provides single-source process knowledge, solutions and service to the PCB assembly and semiconductor packaging industries. The company sells five brands - ACCEL microelectronics cleaning, CAMALOT dispensing systems, ELECTROVERT wave soldering, reflow soldering and cleaning equipment, MPM stencil and screen printing systems, and PROTECT global services, support and training solutions.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Aqueous Technologies Corp. (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) has announced the introduction of a series of evaporators: Model AQ-7, Model AQ-12 and Model AQ-12G.
The evaporators are available in either a natural gas or propane-heated configuration, or as an electric model. Typical applications include minimizing wastewater from machining operations, parts washing equipment, compressor condensate, mop water, die cast solutions and many other water-based wastestreams.
Installation of the series is simple. Model AQ-7 requires an electrical service and a 6 in. vent stack. Model AQ-12 requires an electrical connection and a 10 in. diameter vent stack. Model AQ-12G requires a 110 VAC electrical connection, a ¾ in. standard pressure gas line and a 10 in. exhaust stack. The units can be filled using three different methods: plumbing the feed source into the supplied coupling on top of the unit; removing the lid and manually fill the unit; or using the optional 70 GPM self-priming fill pump.
After an initial heat up time of approximately one hour, the units will evaporate at rates between 5-7 GPH or 12-17 GPH, depending on the model.
The evaporators will shut down automatically via a low-level control. A secondary high-temperature shutoff is also provided. When a cycle is completed, the waste material can be drained via a 2 in. drain opening, vacuumed out of the unit via the removable lid with a wet/dry vacuum or pump, or, for solid materials, scooped out. To facilitate cleanout, the interior tank of the AQ-12G is sloped toward a 2 in. outlet. Additionally, its u-shaped burner tube is located around the perimeter of the process tank, allowing access between the tubes.
Each evaporator in the series features a heavy-duty 12-gauge tank, covers and stack. Additionally, the series offers adjustable burners (NG or Propane) with electronic ignition, flame rectification system and, on the AQ-12G only, an air-pressure sensor. Automatic shutoffs, two-switch on/off operation, removable lid for fast and easy cleanout, fully insulated tanks, power exhaust for outdoor venting and polyurethane finish also come standard.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
National Physical Laboratory has completed a three-year project investigating the impact of thermal cycling regimes on the shear strength of lead-free solder joints.
The project undertook a comparison of accelerated test regimes for accessing the reliability of solder joints, in particular those made using lead-free solders. Samples were subjected to six different cycling regimes to investigate the effect of thermal excursions, ramp rates and temperature dwells. The most damage to joints per cycle was found to be caused by thermal cycling between 55-125°C, with a 10°C/min ramp rate and 5 minute dwells.
Similar degrees of damage in the lead-free solder joints were experienced from thermal shock regimes with ramp rates in excess of 50°C/min. However, these regimes, although faster to undertake, appeared to cause different crack propagation paths than observed with the thermal cycling regimes, although importantly still remaining within the solder.
Since this is a small difference, thermal shock testing may still be used to differentiate between, or enable ranking of, the effects of changes to materials or processes on the reliability of the solder joints. Hence, if a wide range of conditions are to be tested, a first sift can be completed using thermal shock, with the final work using more typical thermal cycling conditions. The difference between the SAC (95.5Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu) and SnAg (96.5Sn3.5Ag) solder alloy results across all types of cycles showed very little difference in rates of joint degradation.
Dr. Chris Hunt, one of the investigators, said, "One of the major findings to come out of this work is that the thermal shock cycles do produce a failure that is different to ordinary thermal cycles, but the failure is still in the solder, hence it gives us enough confidence to use it as a process to sort out reliability on a range of assemblies. It requires us to use the more usual thermal cycles which are slower ramp and dwell for final qualification, but the thermal shock is definitely a useful tool in getting through lots of different assemblies and evaluating & ranking reliability. The thermal shock cycle will typically be at least a third of the time, so you will get there more than three times quicker. So, if you are cycling, typically up to 2000 cycles, significant time can be saved—down from two months to two weeks."
For more information contact Dr. Chris Hunt: chris.hunt@npl.co.uk.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Aegis Industrial Software Corp. (Horsham, PA), a provider of manufacturing productivity software, has announced that the Key Electronics (New Albany, IN) has purchased the entire scope of Aegis software to support all factory information management from new product introduction (NPI) through manufacturing execution, quality, traceability and line monitoring. The electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provider has selected Aegis software to deliver efficient management of data from the factory office to the factory floor and from end-to-end of the product lifecycle.
Tom Hardy, Key Electronics president, said, "Our decision to partner with Aegis is the result of a deliberate effort to increase efficiencies and productivity for our customers as we grow as well as maintain aggressive quality levels....and demonstrates our commitment to leading edge technology, improved processes and total commitment to be the choice for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the high mix/low volume marketplace."
Jason Spera, chief executive officer of Aegis, said, "Key Electronics and Aegis are both recipients of our industry's Service Excellence Awards, sponsored by Circuits Assembly. By standardizing factory-wide on the entire Aegis system, Key Electronics has invested to even further enhance their quality and the service they provide their customers. Both companies share a common vision; a single software platform spanning NPI to MES to the real-time machine data, and out to management and customer portals delivers real business advantage."
The deployment of Aegis software at Key Electronics provides a single source for all NPI engineering operations, including bill of materials (BOM) validation and program generation cross-line, and a single-database solution for MES and factory execution analysis. Quality data collection, automated repair and product tracking is automated through interactive and visual Web interfaces throughout the factory floor. The system joins this information to real-time data streaming from machines across the entire line—not just surface-mount placement—for real process visibility and traceability.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Preco Electronics (Morton, IL), a provider of electronic manufacturing services, received ITM Process Certification for Class 2, Electronics Assembly.
ITM Consulting's (Durham, NH) principal consultants, Jim Hall and Phil Zarrow, conducted a series of operations and process audits and certified that the materials, equipment, processes and personnel comprising the Preco Electronics facility have met the standards set forth by ITM and represent best practices for the assembly of Class 2 electronic products. ITM determined that the printed circuit board (PCB) assembly operation within the Preco's Morton facility is capable of producing high-quality printed circuit assemblies in accordance with IPC-A-610, Class 2, Acceptability of Printed Circuit Boards.
Jim Lanigan, director of operations and engineering at Preco, said, "The significance of attaining ITM Certification is that it allows our customers to benefit from our sophisticated degree of technology for EMS products coupled with a high commitment to quality, all while enjoying the service level a world-class Tier 3 EMS provider can offer. The team at ITM conducted the audit and noted areas requiring enhancement or improvement. Our engineering, quality and production staff made the modifications and we attained certification."
ITM president, Phil Zarrow, said, "Preco's certification should help dispel the myth that only a Tier 1 EMS provider can have a world-class facility. Preco is the first North American EMS provider to receive ITM Assembly Process Certification."
PCB Assembly and PCB Fabrication Process Certifications are patent pending services provided exclusively through ITM Consulting.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Transition Automation Inc. (Billerica, MA) released a new Permalex squeegee holder and blade assembly for EKRA printers.
The new design is specially created for E1, E4, E5 and X5 models of EKRA printers. The holders are adjustable and feature Transition Automation's unique sliding paste retainers. These retainers allow one holder to accommodate many different blade lengths. The new holder design accepts Permalex bare-blade replacement stock, eliminating the need for additional holders.
Transition Automation is an international manufacturer for the electronics assembly industry, supplying two distinct product lines: tooling services and squeegee technology.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Press Releases
- ROCKA Solutions Continues Expansion in Brazil with New Location in Manaus
- Juki America Announces New Regional Sales Manager for the Southwest Territory
- WittcoSales Welcomes New Team Member to Enhance Customer Experience and Service
- Critical Manufacturing Partners with Loftware to Deliver Seamless MES and Labeling Integration