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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

VOLUME - NUMBER

EPE Corp Partners with Nordson DAGE for Quality Inspection

By Tracey Bell
Privately held and veteran owned, EMS provider EPE Corporation has been in operation since 1965. For more than five decades and through three generations, the company's engineering expertise and dedication to quality and integrity have been its foundation. Based in Manchester, New Hampshire ...

German Engineering in Silicon Valley

By Karl Berger, Vice President Americas, Zollner Electronics
German Engineering in Silicon Valley may sound like a misnomer, but it is alive and thriving in Zollner's EMS facility there. Zollner, a large EMS company, is supporting some of the Valley's brightest innovations from conception to volume manufacturing and fulfillment.

Politics and the Supply Chain

By Philip Stoten (@philipstoten)
I recently took part in a survey on European electronics manufacturing and the first question I was asked was my impression of the likely impact of Brexit, the referendum decision by the U.K. to leave the European Union. This, along with my observations of the U.S. presidential race ...

Precision Motion Control with Piezoelectric Technology

By Birgit Bauer, Scott Jordan, and Stefan Vorndran, Physik Instrumente L.P.
In motion control systems with movement requirements of mere microns, piezoelectric motion control technology is unparalleled in its precision. The piezoelectric effect is found in materials such as quartz, and converts electrical energy into mechanical energy and vice versa. First ...

Reinventing the Spring-Loaded Probe Pin

By Jeff Elliott
For decades the spring-loaded probe, or pogo-style pin has delivered excellent mechanical and electrical performance in a highly-compliant contact. However, this often came at a high cost given that each pin is constructed of 3-4 discrete parts manufactured and assembled in a laborious ...

Samsung Lights Up Global Manufacturing Services' LED Production

By Jeren Holman, Design Technologist, Samsung C&T Automation
Situated in historic West Jefferson, North Carolina, Global Manufacturing Services (GMS) looks to the future when selecting new equipment for LED production. Small, but versatile, the company is going on its 30th year in business. Founded in 1987 by Arlie Keith and his daughter Andria ...

Sonobond: Eco-Friendly Assembly for Alternative Energy Storage

By Janet Devine, President, Sonobond Ultrasonics
Increased demand for affordable and efficient battery storage, as well as for rechargeable batteries, has stimulated manufacturers' interest in reliable, eco-friendly, high-conductivity ultrasonic assembly methods. A growing, worldwide need for batteries for renewable energy is allowing ...

Automation and the EMS Landscape

By Philip Stoten (@philipstoten)
Recent figures from the International Federation of Robotics show that the number of multipurpose robots deployed in China in 2014 was well below the world average, and a fraction of the numbers deployed in manufacturing in South Korea, Japan or Germany, who occupied the top three ...

Improving Adhesion of Coatings to PCBs Using Plasma Treatment

By Jeff Elliott
Exposure to water, dust, oil, chemicals, movement, and extreme temperature changes can damage circuitry. This problem is exacerbated for the multi-component printed circuit boards (PCBs) found in outdoor devices that must withstand a wide range of weather conditions for decades with ...

Product-Specific Drying and Curing Systems

By Dr. Hans Bell and Paul Wild, Rehm Thermal Systems GmbH
Horizontal dryers, vertical dryers, infrared dryers, ultraviolet dryers, and nitrogen dryers are just a few of the types of thermal systems used in the electronics industry. Such diversity makes it difficult to create a categorical system which represents the many variants. The generic ...

Redefining Benchtop ATE with Mixed-Signal IO Systems

By Peter van den Eijnden, Managing Director, JTAG Technologies
Many digital electronics designs now contain some form of JTAG/boundary-scan to aid structural board testing or in-system device programming. However, accessing the JTAG feature in a reliable and repeatable manner has always been somewhat neglected by boundary-scan technology and programmable ...

Scalable Automation a Path to Turnkey Success

By Stephen Maund, President and CEO, Demco Automation
The world of custom automation used in electronics and other industries is a game of which direction to proceed — user-operated benchtop stations, or full turnkey systems. By creating a scalable automation strategy from the beginning, equipment reuse, risk reduction, and incremental ...

The Internet of Things Remakes EMS Needs

By Vanessa Gentile, Marketing Manager, Asteelflash Group
The Internet of Things (IoT) is allowing vehicles, devices and even buildings to be embedded with electronics, sensors and network connections that allow inanimate objects to exchange data. The physical world is fast becoming an information system, linked by both hardwired and wireless ...

Are We Ready for Reshoring?

By Neil Adams, Circuit Check, Inc.
The long standing business model of manufacturing, "cheaper labor solves all bottom-line profit challenges," is now being challenged. Today, electronic product manufacturing planted directly in the local region of focus seems to be a more healthy business model. In a report by The Reshoring ...

Case Study: Schleuniger's Equipment Stands the Test of Time

By the Staff of Schleuniger, Inc.
Manufacturing Resource Group (MRG), founded in 1988 is an ISO9001- and ISO13485-certified custom cable assembly and box build company that serves a wide range of industries. With locations in Norwood, Massachusetts, and Tecate, Mexico, MRG has a wire department in each area that is ...

IoM Hits the Right Note in Silicon Valley

By Philip Stoten, Scoop (@philipstoten)
On May 12, in downtown San Jose, California — the heart of Silicon Valley — the inaugural IoM (Internet of Manufacturing) conference set out to explore the development of the Internet of Things in the electronics manufacturing industry.

LEDs Illuminate iTECH e-Services' Path to Success

By Tom Kuttii, Director of Sales, iTECH e-Services
A contract manufacturer headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, iTECH e-Services provides support to the electronic manufacturing industry by assisting clients through product development, prototyping, complete turnkey manufacturing, aftermarket care and worldwide deployment. Specifically ...

Lessons Learned on the Road to Becoming an Industry Veteran: An Interview with Rick Polansky of VirTex Enterprises, LP

By Gayle Paterson, Scoop (@PatersonGayle)
Rick Polansky has a tough job. As VirTex's recently-appointed senior vice president of business development and marketing, he has been given the task of growing the company's business, hitting the ground running in his new job. In this interview, he discusses changes in the electronics ...

VirTex: Responsive, Agile, Flexible Manufacturing

By Gayle Paterson, Scoop (@PatersonGayle)
Brad Heath first opened the doors of VirTex in 1999 to provide the equipment, processes and certifications of a large contract manufacturer along with the responsiveness, agility and flexibility of a local supplier. With headquarters in Austin, Texas, and manufacturing facilities in ...

Yamaha: Technology and Support for Spinnaker Contact Manufacturing

By Michael L. Martel
Spinnaker Contract Manufacturing Inc., a growing EMS provider in Tilton, New Hampshire, has faced many challenges over the years and has had to address them head-on with flexibility and creative solutions. The company has recently seen an upturn in demand for quick-turns for both production ...