News
Advanced Circuits (Aurora, CO), a quick-turn printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer with real-time customer service, again experienced record growth in a down economy and an industry that has been declining for several years.
Although the PCB industry in the U.S. shrank 40% from 2001 through 2003, Advanced Circuits grew more than 15% each year during that time. Exceeding its goals for 2003, the company ended the year with more than $27.5 million in revenues.
"At a time when the U.S. PCB market is losing business to manufacturers overseas, we created a niche for ourselves in the prototype PCB market when we developed a system for building small quantity, quick-turn prototypes with a low premium price," said Ron Huston, president and chief executive officer of Advanced Circuits.
The company invested more than $5 million in capital into equipment and facilities in 2003, including a 62,000 sq. ft. office and manufacturing facility. Investments have already been planned for $500,000 worth of additional equipment in 2004. The company added 15 employees in 2003, bringing its total to 195, which includes three shifts in production and multiple shifts in other departments.
Advanced Circuits has gained an average of more than 200 new customers a month for the past three years. The company attributes its tremendous growth and customer retention to reliability and the customer-focused attitude of the entire staff. To time-pressed design engineers, the fact that Advanced Circuits delivers more than 99% of their boards on time or early is a significant quality in a manufacturer.
To ensure that this growth continues in years to come, a full-time professional marketing and training staff have been added to the Advanced Circuits team. Huston is also showing appreciation to the employees that made this success possible by treating the entire staff to an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas, NV, over Memorial Day weekend.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
In a drawing held during APEX 2004, Betatron Inc. (San Jose, CA), a contract assembler specializing in high-end prototype assembly, won the free use of Dage Precision Industries' (Fremont, CA) XD6500 digital x-ray system.
The winning entry was one of the more than 400 applications received during Dage's pre-APEX and APEX show promotion. Said winner, Mike Young, "I feel like the luckiest guy at the show! We've just received the latest and greatest x-ray inspection technology available today."
Dage Precision's managing director, Paul Walter, said, "With over 400 entries in this year's drawing and the sheer number of system demonstrations performed here at APEX, we're really pleased. Congratulations to Mike and to Betatron."
The integrated digital image acquisition technology, XiDAT, on the system's platform offers improved digital data processing, enhanced resolution, extensive grayscale definition and the Image Wizard software operating system. The x-ray system achieves high resolution and magnification levels through use of Dage's proprietary x-ray tube technology, focusing lens and optimized image chain.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Kester (Des Plaines, IL), Metcal (Menlo Park, CA) and KIC (San Diego, CA) will present a series of Lead-free Technology Seminars scheduled to take place throughout 2004. The next seminar will take place April 6-7 in the San Jose, CA area.
Kester, a supplier of solder and related materials and services to the electronics assembly, micro-component and industrial soldering industries, Metcal, a lead-free soldering solutions provider, and KIC, a provider of lead-free thermal process solutions, understand the challenges associated with the implementation of lead-free assembly. This implementation is rapidly progressing in Asia and throughout the WEEE Directive in Europe, mandating the elimination of lead in many electronics goods by 2006.
The conversion from a leaded process to a lead-free process is not a simple transition. A solid understanding of the alloys, fluxes, board and component finishes, and how they impact the process will be required. Another critical aspect of converting to lead free is the shrinking process window caused by the higher solder melting temperatures butting against the temperature tolerances of the most sensitive components. Learning how to manage this shrinking thermal process window will be an important topic discussed in the seminars.
From combined experiences, the companies have developed this series of seminars to assist North American assemblers with the implementation of lead-free technology. These non-commercial seminars include surface-mount technology, ball grid array (BGA), inspection and documentation. They also offer attendees the technical ability to switch to lead-free reliably, effectively and in time to meet their customers' expectations.
The upcoming seminar will take place at the Four Points Sheraton, 1250 Lakeside Dr., Sunnyvale, CA, 94085; (408) 738-4888, and will explain how to implement lead-free reliably. Additional topics will include alloy selection, flux selection, wave process, surface-mount assembly, inspection and documentation, BGA profiling and rework, reflow optimization and issues and answers. Attendees are encouraged to bring their boards for rework solutions.
To register for the Lead-free Solutions seminar, visit www.metcal.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Auburn University (Auburn, AL) is one of only three institutions to share in an $12 million grant from the Vodafone-US Foundation as part of an effort to advance education in wireless engineering technology.
In recognition of its quality programs in wireless engineering, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering received $3 million of the foundation's first multi-million dollar competitive grant program. In support of scholarships, fellowships and facilities, the grant is intended to enhance the pool of highly qualified students at the University's wireless engineering program.
The foundation's program¾which funds the Auburn scholarships over a five-year period¾provides both tuition and full support for undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships in wireless engineering. The grant also supports curriculum and research development in wireless engineering and provides for a pool of funds for interscholastic seminars, webcasts and symposiums.
The other universities selected by the foundation are the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"The competition for this award was very tough," said Engineering Dean Larry Benefield. "It included 14 of the nation's top 25 engineering schools. To be one of the three programs selected is testament to the strength of our wireless efforts."
Fifteen Auburn students have been named recipients of the grants. Vodafone scholars are involved in areas that address society's most critical needs through wireless technologies, including energy, transportation, health care, environment, disaster response, homeland security and education. Research is also being aimed at ways to help third world countries implement wireless solutions to their communication infrastructure needs.
The Auburn Engineering Vodafone-US Foundation 2003-2004 scholars include Mohamed Abdulmagid, Brian Holland, Michael Newlin and Victor Rundquist, seniors in electrical and computer engineering; Rachael Achorn, David Boyd and Ryan Northington, sophomores in computer science and software engineering; Jeremy Arnold, Kendra Cole and Brian Ginn, sophomores in electrical and computer engineering; and John Jansen, a junior in electrical and computer engineering.
The college's Vodafone fellows include Yawen Dai Barowski, a doctoral candidate in computer science and software engineering; Jun Pan and Xin Wang, doctoral candidates in electrical and computer engineering; and Ying Yang, a master's degree candidate in computer science and software engineering.
For more information on the grant program, visit www.eng.auburn.edu/center/wireless/vodafone/index.htm.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
SICK (Minneapolis, MN), a provider of factory automation solutions, has announced that its laser measurement system sensors (LMS) were used by several teams during the DARPA Grand Challenge. The sensor is one of the key components of the navigation system, helping to sense the terrain and obstacles in front of the unmanned vehicles.
Sponsored by the Department of Defense, the competition is designed to test state of the art autonomous vehicle technology. The race, which took place March 13, covered a rugged course between Barstow, CA, and Primm, NV. The team that completed the course the fastest within a specified time won $1 million.
"The LMS units play a key role in our terrain sensing capablities," said Chris Pederson, team leader for the A.I. Motorvators team. "The relialbility and quality are impressive and demonstrate the company's committment to producing components that have the performance and durability needed for autonomous ground vehicles."
"The SICK sensors are considered key to our ability to generate a simplified 3-D image of the immediate terrain in front of the vehicle," said Ivar Schoenmeyr, leader of the CyberRyder team.
SICK non-contact LMS sensors offer distance measurement and collision control throughout a scanning field up to 180 degrees. The sensors can also be used for monitoring open spaces for building security, object classification, determining the volume of objects and collision prevention for vehicles and cranes.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Orbotech Inc. (Billerica, MA), the North American subsidiary of Orbotech Ltd. (Yavne, Israel), has announced the successful installation of two Trion-2340HD automated optical inspection (AOI) systems and integrated ADVISOR process control software tools at Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC (Springfield, MA), a provider of electronics manufacturing services.
Barry Cohen, president and chief executive officer of Orbotech Inc., said, "Nu Visions has a progressive strategy of continual investment in upgrading and expanding its existing capabilities to better serve its customers needs for technology complexity and manufacturing flexibility. We are proud to be chosen by Nu Visions as their AOI supplier and are sure that our field-proven post-reflow inspection solution will provide them with outstanding results to meet their process improvement and total customer satisfaction goals."
Nu Visions Manufacturing provides original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with customized total manufacturing solutions, including circuit design, board design from schematics, mechanical and product design, sourcing and procurement, prototype and volume board assembly, system assembly, design and implementation of product testing, warranty and repair services. Since 1991, Nu Visions has been servicing OEMs in the defense, industrial and medical industries, presenting competitive outsourcing advantages, access to advanced manufacturing technologies, shortened product time-to-market, and effective asset utilization.
Orbotech provides yield-enhancing production support solutions for specialized applications in the supply chain of the electronics industry, principally for printed circuit boards (PCBs) and flat panel displays (FPDs). The company designs, develops, manufactures, markets and services automated optical inspection (AOI) systems for bare and assembled PCBs and for FPDs, and imaging solutions for PCB production.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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