News
Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL, Northbrook, IL) and CSA International (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) have signed agreements to establish a collaborative process leading to the mutual acceptance of certain components and to expand the certification organizations' 1996 data exchange Memorandum of Understanding.
Loring Knoblauch, president and chief executive officer of UL and Robert Griffin, president and CEO of CSA Group, signed the two documents in November 2003, during the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference, in Washington, D.C.
The agreements are the result of several months of negotiation between UL and CSA, with support from NEMA, Electro-Federation Canada (EFC) and major electrical customers. CSA and UL signed an agreement to develop a mutual component acceptance program that will eventually provide for the acceptance of components used in end products submitted to UL or CSA for certification/listing. Under the terms of the agreement, each organization will accept the other organization's certification/listing of components in end-products provided that each organization can apply their existing component acceptance procedures to the components certified by the other organization, and only after equivalence of follow-up programs has been evaluated and confirmed.
The agreement will initially be limited to Low Voltage Distribution and Industrial Control Equipment and will be re-assessed over an 18-month period. The expanded Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) goes beyond the 13 product categories described in the 1996 MoU and will ultimately include all electrical end-product categories and standards for which UL and CSA are accredited by both the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC). Under the expanded MoU, manufacturers of electrical end products will be able to obtain both CSA and UL certification/listing on the basis of a single product test program carried out by one of the two organizations.
According to Knoblauch, the expanded MoU and proposed component-acceptance program are part of UL's ongoing effort to streamline the certification process for customers who seek both U.S. and Canadian market access.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Polyclad Laminates (Londonderry, NH), a Cookson Electronics company, recently named Curt Mitchell Applications Engineer, GETEK® products. In this new position, Mitchell will be responsible for providing technical assistance and field application support to all Polyclad sales divisions, particularly in regard to providing customer service and support to GETEK® product lines.
Prior to joining Polyclad, Mitchell worked with GE Electromaterials as a global applications and training leader. He spent 13 years specializing in the GETEK® and GETEK® II product line while at GE. Polyclad Laminates, Inc. acquired certain rights to manufacture, distribute and sell these copper clad laminate and prepreg materials in September 2003.
Mitchell received a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Ohio University. He is a member of the IPC Process Effects Handbook Committee and the American Chemical Society. He will be based out of Cambridge, Ohio.
UP Media Group Inc. (Atlanta, GA) today announced the winners of the 2004 Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Providers and Electronics Assembly Equipment, Materials and Software Suppliers. Circuits Assembly magazine recognized the companies that received the highest customer service ratings, as judged by their own customers, during a ceremony at APEX 2004 in Anaheim, CA.
Participating EMS companies' customers rated each company on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability/timely delivery; manufacturing quality; responsiveness to requests and changes; technology; and value for the price. Overall winners in the EMS category were Plexus Corp. (Neenah, WI) in the large-company category (revenues over $500 million); Sparton Electronics (Jackson, MI) in the medium-company category (revenues between $100 and $500 million); and Masstech EMS (Woburn, MA) in the small-company category (revenues less than $100 million).
Circuits Assembly also gave awards to the small and medium EMS companies with the highest scores in each of the five individual service categories. The overall EMS winners were excluded from winning individual categories. In the small-company category, Key Electronics (New Albany, IN) won for dependability/timely delivery and tied with Able Electronics (Hayward, CA) for responsiveness. Able Electronics also tied for the manufacturing quality award with Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC (Springfield, MA). Nu Visions Manufacturing won the value award and tied with Elcoteq—Dallas NPI (Dallas, TX) in the technology category. In the medium-company category, Creation Technologies (Burnaby, Canada) had the highest scores for dependability/timely delivery, manufacturing quality, responsiveness and technology, while Reptron Manufacturing Services (Tampa, FL) won in the value category.
For the equipment, materials and software suppliers awards, companies were rated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability; ease of use; responsiveness; technology; and value for price. Aegis Industrial Software Corp. (Horsham, PA) received top honors in the manufacturing software category, and Agile Software Corp. (San Jose, CA) won the supply chain management software category.
Electronics assembly equipment award winners were: Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA) for dispensing; Assembléon (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) for pick-and-place; Petroferm Inc. (Fernandina Beach, FL) for cleaning; DEK (Flemington, NJ) for screen printing; and FEINFOCUS USA (Stamford, CT) for test and inspection. EFD Inc. (Lincoln, RI) won the electronics assembly materials suppliers award in the solder paste category.
A donation of $5,000 was made on the participants' behalf to the Surface Mount Technology Association's (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) Charles Hutchins Educational Grant. Part of each participant's entry fee was included in the donation.
This is the twelfth year for the awards program sponsored by Circuits Assembly.
UP Media Group (UPMG) is a privately held company that specializes in magazine publishing and trade show and conference production. UPMG currently publishes two high-tech magazines: Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture (www.pcdandm.com) and Circuits Assembly. In addition, UPMG produces three annual conferences and trade shows for the design and manufacture industry—PCB Design Conference West (www.pcbwest.com) and HDI Expo (www.hdiexpo.com) in San Jose, CA, and PCB Design Conference East (www.pcbeast.com) in the Boston area. UPMG also hosts the PCB Design Conference Road Series (www.pcbshows.com) of courses in cities throughout the U.S.
Copyright 2004 UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The Lightning high-speed placement head from Universal Instruments Corp. (Binghamton, NY) has been selected for the Innovative Technology Showcase at IPC APEX, to be featured next week in Anaheim, CA. Choosing from technologies from all APEX exhibitors, IPC commended the new placement head's solution to the challenges of modern surface-mount assembly.
These challenges include accurately placing new package styles at full speed, including next generation chip-scale packages (CSPs) and sub-0201 passives. The placement head addresses the speed challenge through patented variable reluctance motor (VRM) technology. Developed for true rotary application, VRM enables the head to index its spindles within 55 ms. The head has 30 spindles, yielding high placement rates in a pick-and-place configuration.
The placement head also features dual on-the-head cameras, enabling accurate placement at full speed from sub-0201 components to CSPs, wafer-scale packages (WSPs), microBGAs and others up to 30 mm square.
The optional embedded process verification using the CyberOptics EPV™6 system, operating concurrently with placement, provides two images at every pick-and-place event for immediate process analysis and refinement.
The head is compatible with the company's AdVantis and dual-head Genesis modular placement platforms. It enables 30,000 cph placement rates in the AdVantis application. Genesis can perform at 54,000 cph high-speed placement when fitted with twin Lightning heads.
The Christopher Group (Santa Ana, CA) will be exhibiting the NSpec Fv 20 large format automatic optical inspection (AOI) system for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly applications at IPC APEX in Anaheim, CA, on Feb. 24-26.
The NSpec Fv series systems are used in 2-D solder paste, pre reflow and post reflow applications and can inspect panels up to 20 in. x 26 in.. Optional features include off line programming, off line verification/repair stations and line monitoring and control software. Bench top and in line systems are fully compatible, and all systems include an 18-month warranty.
Other systems to be exhibited include the SmartOptics S8M 3-D solder paste inspection system, HC 610 PCB hole inspection system, SynPower PCB measurement/inspection system and Koki solder pastes and wave soldering fluxes.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Transition Automation (North Billerica, MA) recently introduced the newest product in the Board-Lok tooling family: the Flex-Kit™ Board Support System. This product supports bare surface-mount boards when they are passed through the printing machine.
The system gives support over a range of board sizes from 2.5 in. to 17 in. wide. The kit is supplied with four sections that may be set side by side in various widths, which provides 15 possible combinations.
The system gives nearly full area support for varying product widths, which allows for better process parameters such as cycle speed and print accuracy.
Ergonomics and electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection are central to the product design. Support elements are lightweight, rugged and visible. Magnets and optional tooling pins secure the system into position. Each of the different sections of the system is able to nest within one another.
The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI, Herndon,VA), an industry-led consortium focused on strengthening the global electronics manufacturing supply chain, will kick off its 2004 roadmap March 24-25. NEMI member Sun Microsystems will host the meeting at their facility in Newark, CA.
"The kick-off meeting gives all of the committees and groups who are developing individual chapters of the roadmap a chance to meet together as a whole to discuss the ‘big picture' and coordinate on the issues that affect all aspects of the roadmap," said Jim Arnold, fellow of the technical staff for Motorola and NEMI's director of roadmapping. "It's a very useful and productive session that catalyzes the six-month process."
Every two years, NEMI maps the future manufacturing needs of the global electronics industry in order to identify the key technology and infrastructure developments required to assure leadership of the supply chain over the next decade. It helps companies anticipate shifts in product requirements and provides an early warning of changes in technology or infrastructure.
2004 marks the tenth anniversary of this highly successful initiative. The first roadmap was created in 1994 by the National Electronics Manufacturing Framework Committee, a group of 200 individuals from industry, government and academia who came together to study the challenges facing the nation in electronics manufacturing, and to develop technology roadmaps and policy options with which to address these challenges.
Since that time, the roadmap has served as the foundation of all NEMI activities. NEMI uses the roadmap's forecasts to identify critical technology and infrastructure gaps, prioritize R&D needs to meet these gaps, and initiate activities to address industry needs.
NEMI is currently recruiting industry experts to participate in the 2004 roadmap (NEMI membership is not required for participation).
Anyone interested in getting involved with the NEMI roadmap should contact Chuck Richardson, NEMI staff manager of roadmapping, (256) 880-0922; email: Chuck.Richardson@NEMI.org.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Indium Corp. (Utica, NY), Speedline Technologies (Franklin, MA) and KIC (San Diego, CA) recently announced a cosponsored lead-free implementation workshop. The workshop, How To Implement Pb-Free At Your Factory, is a one-day seminar focused on how to implement a lead-free electronics assembly process. The seminar will be held March 16 at the Speedline facility in Foxboro, MA. The cost is $295 per person.
The seminar is scheduled to cover these topics:
- review of current legislation and practices in lead-free electronics assembly
- current alloys in use and why and how they were selected
- printed wiring board (PWB) finishes for lead-free assembly
- component concerns in lead-free assembly
- best practices in surface-mount processes for lead-free assembly: printing, placement, reflow, wave
- implementing the lead-free reflow process
- special considerations for large boards
- establishing a lead-free implementation plan.
The seminar will also include a special case study: Implementing Lead Free to Assemble Five Million Cell Phones: The Motorola Experience. This case study will cover:
- solder paste evaluation
- statistical analysis of process data
- process optimization
- analysis and corrective actions for failure modes such as tombstoning
- reliability analysis.
Other detailed information that will be presented includes:
- state of lead-free legislation, marketing, and implementation worldwide
- current alloy systems in use and why and how they were chosen
- which PWB finishes are preferred in lead-free assembly
- concerns with components and the status of lead-free components in the industry
- best practices for setting up your stencil printing, placement, inspection, reflow, and wave
- effect of lead-free manufacturing on the reflow process, achieving and maintaining the tight process window
- how to perform design of experiment (DOE) to optimize your lead-free process
- how to establish a statistical process control program.
Scheduled seminar speakers include Dr. Ronald C. Lasky, Marc Apell and Marybeth Allen.
Dr. Lasky is a senior technologist at Indium Corp. and a visiting professor at Dartmouth College. He has over 20 years experience in electronic and optoelectronic packaging at IBM, Universal Instruments, Cookson Electronics and Indium Corp. He has authored or edited five books on science, electronics and optoelectronics and numerous technical papers. He has also been an adjunct professor at several colleges and has taught over 20 different courses on topics ranging from electronics packaging, materials science, physics, mechanical engineering and science and religion. Dr. Lasky holds numerous patent disclosures and is the developer of several new concepts in surface-mount processing software relating to cost estimating, line balancing and process optimization. He is the co-creator of engineering certification exams in electronics assembly and was awarded the Surface Mount Technology Association's Founder's Award in 2003.
Apell is director of thermal and cleaning products for Speedline Technologies, where he is responsible for the ACCEL cleaning systems and ELECTROVERT cleaning, reflow and wave soldering systems. Apell was previously with Cookson Electronics since 1995 and has held the positions of material planner, master scheduler, inside sales manager and reflow product manager, interfacing between sales and operations to meet customer and operational demands. Apell holds a B.S. in operations management from DeVry University, Kansas City.
As the national sales manager for KIC, Allen has expertise in the management of the thermal process. She has 20 years of experience in the electronics assembly industry covering surface mount, thick film and packaging. Traveling throughout North America, she has the opportunity to work with various electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with commercial, medical and military products. As project manager she works with manufacturers of equipment and materials for board and package assembly for thermal processes. Allen is in charge of KIC's partner program. She is a past chapter president of SMTA and IMAPS and has authored various industry papers.
For more information, access www.indium.com/QuickStart or call (315) 381-7598.
Aegis Industrial Software Corp. (Philadelphia, PA), a supplier of manufacturing productivity systems for electronics assemblers, recently announced that Accutron Inc. (Windsor, CT), a contract electronics manufacturer, has implemented Aegis' new product introduction (NPI) and manufacturing execution system (MES) software. Accutron uses the software to expedite the introduction of new products, deliver paperless instructions to the floor and manage the quality and traceability of its automotive, medical and telecom assemblies.
"Aegis software complements our manufacturing process with a dynamic approach," commented Vijay Faldu, president of Accutron. "Their platform is extremely user friendly and very effective in product tracking throughout our facility. This software has allowed us to achieve an even higher level of process control, which ultimately translates into increased customer satisfaction."
Wanting a single solution spanning the factory office and factory floor, Accutron deployed CircuitCAM, CheckPoint, FUSION iServer, iView, iTrac and iQ to meet the needs of their manufacturing process. These solutions drive computer-aided design (CAD) and bill of materials process, revision management, document delivery to the factory and product tracking and quality analysis in real-time.
KIC (San Diego, CA), a thermal process development and control software provider, has announced that its national sales manager, Marybeth Allen, will speak on the thermal process of low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) at the IMAPS Orange Chapter Dinner Meeting on Feb. 19, 2004.
The speech, "Hot Product In Control — LTCC's Thermal Process," will describe applications for the use of LTCC and explain how these applications are multiplying rapidly. Standard components and other modules for communications, biomedical and automotive are being manufactured in high volume. Most of the world's production is currently done in box furnaces, which could be a lengthy process, adding cost and limiting production throughput. An alternative is the production of these parts in conveyorized furnaces. Allen's speech will discuss the advantages and challenges of moving to a conveyorized firing process. It will also include furnace setup, optimization relative to tight process windows and continuous monitoring of the thermal process to eliminate defects.
Allen's expertise lies within the management of the thermal process. She has 20 years of experience in the electronics assembly industry covering surface mount, thick film and packaging. As Project Manager, she works with manufacturers of equipment and materials for board and package assembly for thermal processes. Additionally, she is a past chapter president of SMTA & IMAPS and has authored various industry papers.
For more information on the meeting, visit www.imaps.org/chapters/orange.htm.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
SofTech Inc. (Tewksbury, MA), a provider of design-through-manufacturing productivity solutions, and Cimmetry Systems (Cambrige, MA), a provider of visualization and collaboration solutions for the A/E/C, Engineering, Manufacturing and Electronics markets, have announced a partnership. SofTech will license Cimmetry's AutoVue visualization and collaboration technology for its ProductCenter product lifecycle management (PLM) solution.
Integration of the visualization technology will extend the collaboration capabilities of the PLM, enhancing the solution's document management, design integration, configuration control, change management and enterprise integration capabilities for optimizing product development. The PLM users will gain capabilities to view, markup and collaborate in real-time on native product data of virtually any type, including: 3-D CAD parts and assemblies, 2-D CAD drawings, EDA PCB/IC layouts and schematics, scanned and raster documents, vector files, office documents and graphics.
AutoVue allows users to view, markup and collaborate in real time on over 200 native formats including: CATIA, Pro/Engineer, Unigraphics, SolidWorks, Inventor, Solid Edge, JT, AutoCAD, MicroStation, Mechanical Desktop, Cadence Allegro, Mentor Board Station, Orcad, PADS, Microsoft Office, Visio, PDF and TIFF. It is available as a Windows desktop application or a thin-client server based solution.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Universal Instruments Corp. (UIC, Binghamton, NY) announced recently that it has established requisites for a long-term partnership with Shanghai, China-based DaimlerChryslerSIM Technology (DCSIM Tech.). DCSIM Tech. is a joint venture between DaimlerChrysler and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology.
According to UIC, the objective is to build local expertise in advanced electronics packaging. The two companies will invest in China's future in these technologies by training engineers, working with local suppliers, increasing local infrastructure and supporting local company projects for first- and second-level packaging.
"Our vision is to build an industry capable of servicing local Chinese component manufacturers and assemblers as well as export markets throughout Asia and worldwide," said Richard Boulanger of UIC's SMT Laboratory. "Both businesses will invest substantial resources to nurture local technical expertise and enhance the local infrastructure in Shanghai and Suzhou."
"Both companies are well positioned to develop China's high-tech electronics industry," stated Dr. Xiaoming Xie of DCSIM Tech. "As one of the major players on the local market for many years, I am pleased that this agreement has established long term objectives, as a high level of ongoing commitment is the only truly effective way to establish China as a global center of excellence."
Under the draft terms, UIC—with laboratories in Binghamton and Suzhou, China—will also help sponsor a student from DCSIM Tech. to join the electronics packaging program at Binghamton University. DCSIM Tech. will offer students and other resources such as failure analysis and reliability testing for specific Universal projects.
Press Releases
- NEOTech Significantly Improves Wire Bond Pull Test Process
- Sat Nusapersada Chooses Siemens' Process Preparation Software to Boost NPI and SMT Line Efficiency
- SIA Praises Finalization of CHIPS Investments for GlobalFoundries Manufacturing Projects
- KYZEN to Spotlight KYZEN E5631, AQUANOX A4618 and Process Control at SMTA Silicon Valley Expo and Tech Forum