SMT - Names in the News

Following are the new Websites, events, and personnel appointments from around the electronics industry's supply chain. News is featured from NEPCON China, Electronic Interconnect Technology (EI), DYMAX Corporation, LPKF, Aegis Software, Covenant Ultratech and CheckSum, Heraeus, Gene Weiner and HKPCA/IPC, Sunstone Circuits, Z-AXIS and YESTech, EI Microcircuits and IPC, Mouser Electronics and Walsin, Cobar Group, Applied Robotics, COMPONEX NEPCON, DfR Solutions, and Krayden.

In 2011, the NEPCON China Exhibition will be held at the Shanghai World Expo Venue (WEV), offering better infrastructure, meeting facilities, accessibility, and hotel support. NEPCON China Exhibition in Shanghai continues, with 2008 bringing 16,000 visitors over four days; 80% of the 2009 floor space is now sold. The new venue will be finalized by 2011. www.nepconchina.com.

Electronic Interconnect Technology (EI) launched a full-featured Website, www.eiconnect.com, as a resource for the PCB customer, offering online quotes and subsequent ordering; order tracking in real time; and quick order/bid placement. Customers are able to create private accounts with various benefits and an account history. The Website is designed to streamline the ordering and prototyping process and allow customers to track each job's progress. A comprehensive knowledge base of PCB design and ordering guidelines is also available, according to the company. Patel adds. The site also offers a six-step "Zoom Prototype" matrix feature that gives the customer the opportunity to specify and order prototypes, get instant quotes, calculate delivery, and track the order through the process.

DYMAX has introduced a new Website, www.dymax.com, focused on education with easier-to-find information including downloadable literature, selector guides, and product bulletins. A new FAQs page is searchable by market and provides product-specific answers to the most commonly asked questions pertaining to those markets. A new, informative glossary explains the acronyms and often-used terms that might be unfamiliar to some visitors. The improved navigation enables customers to easily find a product or application from the Adhesive Products, Applications, or Industries Served drop-down menus on the top navigation bar. There are also new sections on thermal interface materials and medical adhesives for bonding tube sets and fittings.

Aegis Software opened its new European headquarters, citing sales growth and increasingly frequent customer events and conferences in the region. Aegis Europe added space and resources, with facilities for customer support, training, a customer lounge, and sales and administrative offices. It also provides for an expanded sales and support staff, and for technology conferences to update European customers. The office is outside of Marlow, England, near to Heathrow Airport. www.aiscorp.com.

LPKF Laser & Electronics AG received the Cathay Pacific China Trader Award for Innovation & Technology. The award recognizes German corporations that demonstrate innovative technology and design as well as intercultural corporation of its German and Chinese employees. LPKF has been doing business in China for over 20 years and operates five offices there with almost 60 employees. By selling laser systems for stencil production LPKF has reduced market share of chemical etching from 100% to less than 30%. The installation of several hundred PCB prototyping systems has also made a considerable contribution for the reduction of environmental pollution by providing an alternative to the use of chemicals. The award was presented by Tony Tyler, chief executive of Cathay Pacific Airways in Frankfurt, Germany. www.lpkfusa.com.

CheckSum appointed Covenant UltraTech, a division of the Covenant Group, to sell, install and service CheckSum products in the Philippines. The distribution agreement covers all CheckSum products and services, including the high-speed MultiWriter ISP device programming system and the Analyst in-circuit test systems. Covenant UltraTech has already sold a CheckSum system to a global contract manufacturer based in the Philippines. www.checksum.com and www.covenantgroup.com.ph/ultratech_contact_us.htm.

Frank Murch and Roy Baumer joined the Assembly Materials Business Unit of the Heraeus Contact Materials Division (CMD). Murch has been appointed to the position of sales and marketing director, while Baumer has been selected to fill the position of operations manager. Murch previously served as Heraeus' international business manager and division manager for Japan before accepting a product manager position with Universal Instruments in 1995. He later directed technical service and marketing for Asymtek. He holds an MBA in marketing from California State University, a master's of science in software engineering from Penn State, and a bachelor's degree in physics and Japanese studies from the University of Colorado. Baumer, with over 20 years of manufacturing management experience, was previously with Hologic Inc. and has experience with operations and manufacturing plant management in the aerospace, plastics, and electronics industries. Baumer will be responsible for manufacturing and material efforts within the Assembly Materials Group. He has a degree in ceramic engineering from the University of Washington and is a member of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering. www.heraeus.com.

Gene Weiner, founding partner of the Quantum Solar Group Inc. and president of Weiner & Associates Inc. will present "PCBs: A 50 Year Retrospective & A Look Forward" on December 4 at the joint HKPCA and IPC meeting in Shenzhen, China. He will describe the major technical and business points that formed the industry's lifecycle and give his opinion on its future.

Sunstone Circuits hired Diane M. Economaki as director of marketing. Economaki, who has been working in a similar capacity for Wacom Technology Corporation since 2005, will oversee Sunstone's global marketing and eCommerce activities; support Sunstone industry events; manage media relations and partner relations; and is charged with expanding the company's market presence and sales momentum globally. Economaki previously served with Rodale Press Inc. as well. www.sunstone.com.

Design and manufacturing provider Z-AXIS installed a YESTech AOI system at its N.Y. facility. The YESTech YTV B3 system handles PCB assemblies up to 18 × 20" with components as small as 01005. It identifies defects such as missing, wrong or misaligned components; bent leads and defective solder connections. It can be quickly re-programmed to handle new PCB designs, supporting Z-AXIS strengths in fast change-over for low- to mid-volume production runs. www.yestechinc.com, www.z-axis.net.

IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries awarded certification to electronics assembly manufacturer EI Microcircuits Inc. (Minn.), under IPC's Certification for RoHS Lead-free Electronics Assembly Process Capability Program. Implementation of RoHS lead-free requirements impacts the entire electronics assembly process from materials management to process engineering to test and inspection. The certification process helps companies implement best practices and process efficiencies and use objective feedback from a qualified outside auditor. The IPC program provides EMS and OEM facilities with tools to benchmark existing lead-free processes and assess their abilities to meet the requirements of the RoHS Directive. The audit questions are designed to get a company to think critically about its lead-free processes and make sure they are operating at an optimum level. www.ipc.org/lfcert.

This month, Cobar Europe (Cobar BV) marked the 25^th anniversary of its founding in Breda, Holland, in 1983. Cobar Europe is part of the Cobar Group, which includes Cobar Europe BV in Breda, Holland; Cobar Solder Products Inc. in Londonderry, N.H.; and several joint ventures and licensed manufacturing partnerships globally. The Cobar Group is part of the Balver Zinn family of companies. Cobar BV was accredited to ISO 9001 in 1994 and to ISO 14001 in 1997, and was accredited to NATO's AQAP-110. Cobar Europe BV and Cobar Solder Products Inc. was first accredited to the ISO/TS 16949 Quality Management Standard in 2005 and again in 2008. In early 2004, Cobar Europe established a North American headquarters: Cobar Solder Products in Londonderry. The Cobar Group was acquired by Balver Zinn in 2007. www.cobar.com and www.balverzinn.com.

Applied Robotics Inc. promoted senior sales manager Steve Listing to automotive account manager and senior regional sales manager Bill Nizolek to business development manager. Listing will take on the North American Transplant business along with the responsibility of the BMW, Nissan, Freightliner, Ford, GM, and Chrysler plants outside Michigan. He will also be responsible for the company's plasma and torch protection business. Nizolek will be responsible for discovery, cultivation, and management of any new tooling development opportunities. Nizolek will also continue to be the main sales representative for Applied Robotics Inc. distributor Braas, and will continue to foster relationships with the robot industry in North America. www.arobotics.com.

ELCINA Electronic Industries Association of India, will collaborate with Reed Exhibitions India, the organizers of COMPONEX NEPCON, with a three-year agreement to support the electronic components, materials, and production equipment business-to-business exhibition. The exhibition aims to address the growing electronics sector, located in the National Capital Region of India. A recent report by Goldman Sachs states that the Indian economy will grow at about 8% until 2020; with this growth rate, India would become the second biggest economy in the world by 2050, next only to China. Similarly, a recent report by Gartner says that electronic equipment production in India is bound to reach $32 billion by 2011, compared to $14 billion in 2006. Gartner also says that semiconductor consumption in India will more than double, from $2.8 billion in 2006 to $7.2 billion in 2011.

DfR Solutions hired Randy Schueller, Ph.D., as head of the newly established Minneapolis office. He also will help customers understand the proliferation of component packaging options, such as stacked-die, system-in-package (SiP), and package-on-package (PoP) design and reliability assurance. He previously served in posts for component engineering, lead-free transition, and packaging at such companies as 3M, Extreme Devices, and Dell. He currently holds 15 patents and has authored and presented over 30 papers within the electronics industry. www.dfrsolutions.com.

Krayden Inc. introduced a new family of products for the LED marketplace along with partner Dow Corning. The family of products developed by Dow Corning will be replacing organics materials with profitability benefits. The materials suit integration and final assembly solutions, targeting increased brightness, longer lifetime, lower cost, and compatibility with lead-free processing. New products include gels and encapsulants, conformal coatings, and adhesives. They offer thermal stability, low moisture uptake, tunable modulus, low ionic content, excellent optical properties, adhesion to various substrates, no byproducts, and minimal shrinkage. www.krayden.com.

Mouser Electronics Inc. signed a global distribution agreement with Walsin, a supplier of passive components. Mouser's Walsin product portfolio includes RF high-frequency components including antennae, band pass filters, baluns, balance filters, common mode filters, and diplexers. www.mouser.com and www.passivecomponent.com.

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