News
CSA International (CSA, Northbrook, IL) and Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) have adopted an expanded Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and completed the first phase of a mutual acceptance program for electrical components, the first milestones of an agreement the two testing organizations signed Nov. 10, 2003.
That agreement, which is designed to assist manufacturers in getting their products to Canadian and U.S. markets more quickly, without redundant testing, was the result of several months of negotiation between UL and CSA, with support from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Electro-Federation Canada and major electrical manufacturers.
The expanded MoU covers 50 additional component and 11 additional end-products categories as well as all of the 13 product categories covered in the original 1996 MoU, allowing manufacturers to obtain both UL and CSA certification and listing with a single product test conducted by either company.
With the completion of the first phase of the component agreement, CSA and UL now accept several component categories for use in low voltage distribution and industrial control equipment. As many as 52 additional component categories and 11 additional end-product categories are being considered under the agreement.
A complete listing of components and end-products covered by the expanded MoU and the component acceptance agreement is available at: www.csa-international.org/components and www.ul.com/components.
CSA is a provider of product testing and certification services for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, gas and a variety of other products. UL is an independent, not-for-profit product safety certification organization that has been testing products for more than 110 years.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Siemens VDO Automotive has completed the acquisition of Chrysler Group's Huntsville Electronics operations, advancing Siemens VDO Automotive to a top-three spot in the global automotive electronics supplier industry.
"Today is a great day for the future of Siemens VDO Automotive and the community of Huntsville," said Siemens VDO Automotive AG Group president and chief executive officer (CEO) Wolfgang Dehen during a company event unveiling the new monument sign. "Huntsville Electronics brings us additional capacity, capability and expertise to grow our core competencies in areas such as powertrain electronics, vehicle instrumentation and driver information."
This transition of ownership enables the manufacture of electronics to remain in the Huntsville, AL, community. The company plans to make the location one of its global electronics manufacturing and engineering centers of expertise.
As a subsidiary of Siemens VDO Automotive, the Huntsville plants will have access to a range of business opportunities within the rapidly growing global $125-billion automotive electronics market.
With the completion of the acquisition, Siemens VDO Automotive has complete access to Huntsville Electronics, including two facilities comprising 1.1 million sq. ft. of space and approximately 2,000 employees. Huntsville Electronics generated approximately $1 billion in annual sales last year.
Siemens VDO Automotive is a tier-one supplier of automotive electronic/electrical systems and components with applications covering gasoline and diesel powertrain technologies, safety and chassis systems, body electronics, plus interior products including infotainment systems.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
During a reception at Apex 2004, Soldertec Global awarded its Lead-Free Solder Co-operation Award to global solder materials manufacturer Indium Corp. and its customer Motorola.
The award recognizes the collaboration between the two companies. Indium's vice president of technology, Ning-Cheng Lee, and Motorola's Dr. Edwin Bradley and Dr. Vahid Goudarzi have developed a lead-free assembly process and solder paste that has been used to assemble more than 8 million cellular phones world-wide. The team shared their process details with the global electronics assembly industry.
The result of this co-operation is the Pb-Free Quickstart process, offering yields and benefits which are equal or better than similar processes using lead-bearing solders Benefits include a wide process window, component-friendly profiles and no requirement for nitrogen-reflow.
Several hundred process, quality and production engineers have been trained on the successful implementation of the process.
The Soldertec Global Lead-Free award, established in 1999, has been awarded to industrial consortiums, material suppliers and lead-free users from North America, Europe and Asia.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Foresite (Kokomo, IN) has licensed FinePoint to launch the newly developed C3. The C3 was designed by Foresite to create a method of localized extraction and cleanliness monitoring on electronic assemblies.
Focusing on a 0.1 in² area of a circuit board, the machine uses a steaming mechanism to extract a residue sample. The sample is collected in a disposable test cell and analyzed on the manufacturing floor. A 'clean' or 'dirty' reading is immediately seen, and samples that warrant further analysis can be sent to a lab for ion chromatography analysis.
Foresite president Terry Munson said, "Foresite saw a critical need for cleanliness monitoring on the manufacturing floor. FinePoint has dedicated itself to surface matter cleanliness and is well positioned to bring the C3 to market. Foresite will continue to develop surface matter solutions and provide process consulting for electronic assemblers."
Foresite Inc. (formerly CSL) is a process consulting house and analytical laboratory dedicated to solving reliability issues for electronic assemblies. With over 12 years of experience in the industry, Foresite specializes in failure analysis, process qualification and cleanliness investigation.
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.
JPSA Laser (Hollis, NH) has announced the availability of UV laser refurbishment services for UV Excimer lasers. Refurbishing lasers saves customers money since the cost to replace UV lasers can be quite high. Additionally, refurbished lasers perform better than the product's original factory specifications through upgrades, modifications, better quality parts and designs used in the refurbishment engineering process.
"We can refurbish the complete laser if needed," said company president Jeffrey P. Sercel. "Our refurbishment includes everything that can go wrong with the laser, so the result is that the entire laser is like new. We also refurbish and replace modules such as tubes, valve banks, vacuum systems and pulse forming networks. JPSA stocks many different types of electrodes and top quality parts. We have a cleanroom facility to assemble laser tubes and we have ceramics manufacturing capabilities to make replacement parts. "
"Turnaround time for laser systems can vary based upon the extent of the refurbishment and the number of available in-stock parts," Sercel continued. "For example, tubes for some models are in stock for JIT tube exchanges. Refurbished lasers are leak-checked for 24 hours and burned in for 24 to 48 hours, over the course of a week in final test. A laser final test report is documented. Gas lifetime, power, energy and beam quality are verified."
Depending on customer requirements, lasers can be modified to meet expanding production needs.
"We modify lasers for better pulse-to-pulse, average power and better beam quality," Sercel said. "We have modified lasers for more than double the standard performance in certain cases."
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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