News

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

The monthly order index compiled by the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA, Arlington, VA) continued its steady upward climb in June for the eleventh consecutive month.

"Nothing astronomical is happening," said Bob Willis, ECA president. "Just a nice steady climb over an extended period, which everyone in the industry will take after about a year of no movement and the downward plunge in 2001."

According to the ECA, executives from leading manufacturers say that market growth is not being driven by any single product area, but by steady gains for a range of goods, including digital cameras, flat panel displays, DVDs and car cockpit electronics. Most expect the trend to continue through this year and into next.

The ECA represents manufacturers and producers of passive and active electronic components, component arrays and assemblies and materials and support services. It is a sector of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), comprising more than 2,100 members that reportedly represent 80% of the $430 billion U.S. electronics industry.

www.ec-central.org

UP Media Group Inc. (Atlanta, GA) and PCB Design Conference West are calling for abstracts for PCB West 2005, which will be held March 7 - 11, 2005, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Sponsored by respected industry trade magazines Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture and Circuits Assembly, PCB West annually provides attendees and vendors with a conference and exhibition for the design and manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs), high density interconnect (HDI) and other advanced circuits.

Papers and/or presentations are being sought for the technical conference, based on the following course durations: 30-minute paper sessions, one-hour lectures or panel sessions, two-hour workshops and half-day (3.5 hour) seminars. Papers and/or presentations also are sought for a professional development curriculum of one-day and two-day technical tutorials.

Papers and presentations are sought for, but not limited to, the following topics:

- High speed, high frequency and signal integrity

- Impedance and crosstalk control

- EMI/EMC analysis

- Thermal analysis

- Lead-free processes (especially how they affect design and manufacture)

- RF and microwave

- Packaging and components

- Area arrays

- FPGA design and implementation

- Embedded passives and active devices

- Flexible circuitry

- HDI design and technologies

- PCB design/layout techniques

- Component library creation and management

- Design for manufacture, test and assembly

- Design (including analog, digital and power supplies)

- PCB fabrication

- Soldering

- Surface finishes

- Industry forecasts

- Business and design/supply chain issues

To be considered as a speaker/presenter for PCB West 2005, email to Conference Chair Andy Shaughnessy, ashaughnessy@upmediagroup.com, by August 30, 2004. Your submission should include: a suggested course title, a suggested course length, a short description of your target audience, a detailed 100- to 300-word abstract and a speaker bio.

If selected for PCB West, final papers and/or presentations will be due in early December 2004.

www.pcbwest.com

Vitronics Soltec (Oosterhout, the Netherlands) has announced the schedule for their third annual European seminar tour, "Lead-Free Soldering: How Ready Are You . . . Really?" With the July 1, 2006 deadline for conversion to lead-free soldering rapidly approaching in Europe, this tour is designed to help electronics assemblers accelerate their conversion efforts to be ready and compliant on time.

The 2004 tour is based on Vitronics Soltec's "5 Steps to Lead-Free Soldering" program, includes the company's latest findings and addresses the lead-free process for all three automated soldering processes: reflow, wave and selective soldering.

In the morning sessions, highlights of the "5 Steps" program will be covered, including backward and forward compatibility within lead-free processing, effect of cooling rate on solder joint structure, compatibility of equipment materials with new alloys and many case studies illustrating challenges, pitfalls and success stories drawn from real life.

Other sessions include Success Factors for Lead-Free Wave Soldering, Conversion to Lead-Free Selective Soldering, High Speed Lead-Free Reflow Soldering, Lead-Free Cause and Effects, 5 Steps User Information and an interactive session whereby detailed presentations will be given on topics chosen by the attendees.

The seminar schedule is as follows:

September 2004

07 - UK, Manchester

09 - Ireland, Limerick

14 - Portugal, Porto

15 - Spain, Terrassa

16 - France, Rennes

21 - Hungary, Szekesfehervar

22 - Austria, Vienna

23 - Slovenia, Kranj

28 - Germany, Hannover

29 - Germany, Würzburg

30 - Switzerland, Zürich

October 2004

11 - Italy, Padova

12 - Italy, Bergamo

13 - Italy, Fiuggi

14 - France, Archamps

19 - Poland, Gdansk

20 - Denmark, Arhus

21 - Sweden, Stockholm

26 - Finland, Espoo

28 - Benelux, Oosterhout

29 - Benelux, Oosterhout

November 2004

02 - Turkey, Istanbul

04 - Czech Republic, Brno

For more information or to register online, visit www.vitronics-soltec.com.

The impact of lead-free solders on printed circuit board (PCB) design will be the cornerstone of the keynote address at PCB Design Conference East 2004 in Manchester, NH. In his keynote on October 5, Joe Fjelstad will cover materials, feature design and finishes likely to be impacted by the switch to lead-free boards

Fjelstad is the well-known cofounder of SiliconPipe, a Silicon Valley IP firm dedicated to extending the limits of copper-based circuit technology.

"While some PCB designers believe the move to lead-free will have no effect on the way they design boards, others predict that lead-free will affect the designer's job at every level," said Fjelstad. "As a concerned designer, what can you do to ensure that your designs will be sufficiently robust to survive lead-free assembly and the operational environment for which the design was intended?"

Fjelstad has more than 30 years of international experience in electronic interconnection and packaging technology. Before founding SiliconPipe, Fjelstad was the first fellow of Tessera, the chip packaging firm. He is author or editor of several books and numerous articles on electronics manufacturing. Fjelstad is also a prodigious inventor, with more than 150 U.S. patents issued or pending.

"We are thrilled that Joe Fjelstad will deliver the keynote address at PCB East 2004," said UP Media Group (Atlanta, GA) president Pete Waddell. "His experience and knowledge make him the perfect person to deliver a keynote that complements this year's conference theme: ‘Education for Your Most Pressing PCB Design Challenges, Including Lead-Free, Embedded Components, High Speed and PCB Design Fundamentals.' "

A number of conference courses also focus on lead-free, currently the hottest issue in PCB design, manufacture and assembly.

The keynote address is free for all conference and exhibition-only registrants; however, space is limited. Interested parties are urged to register for the keynote online at www.pcbeast.com.