Tech Articles

Christopher Associates is a pioneering supplier and distributor to the electronics and chemical processing industries. Established in 1977 in a two-room office, the company expanded quickly as sales increased by focusing on technical service and an international product mix. By 1984, it had grown to become one of the leading suppliers to the printed circuit industry. Today, its customer base includes more than 1,200 companies worldwide in the printed circuit fabrication and assembly industries. The company prides itself on working with its long-term equipment partners to deliver world-class technology. Here we catch up with President Matthew Holzmann to see what Christopher Associates are doing...

As demand for increasing quality, lifetime and environmental resilience is placed on electronics PCBs in greater volume and wider applications, conformal coating is now typically a standard process rather than an exotic special treatment. It must therefore deliver its full protection potential without compromising mainstream PCB assembly throughput or quality. Andy Bonner of YESTech Europe looks at how techniques drawn from AOI/AXI inspection experience, coupled with automated selective coating, ensure that this happens.

Conformal coatings are designed to protect printed circuit boards and related equipment from their environment. These coatings ‘conform’ to the contours of the board allowing for excellent protection and coverage, ultimately extending the working life of the PCB. The ideal conformal coating will have performance requirements that include good electrical properties, low moisture permeability, good chemical resistance and mechanical durability. The use of conformal coatings is important in automotive under-bonnet applications, particularly in safety critical areas, such as military, aerospace and industrial applications. Due to the wide range of possible applications, good thermal properties are also important, with flexibility retained at low temperatures and a high retention of mechanical properties at elevated temperatures.

2010 will definitely be another year full of new challenges. According to CEO Günter Lauber the global SIPLACE team is well prepared to look positive into the future. In this interview CEO Günter Lauber answers some of the most important questions regarding the future of Siemens Electronics Assembly Systems.

One of the most highly anticipated shows to ever grace South Africa’s electronics industry is now just weeks away. Promising to focus the attention of the global electronics industry on all things South African, March 9th – 10th will see electronics professionals from around the world assemble at Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre. Promising a wealth of business, networking and educational opportunities, the inaugural NEW SA exhibition will feature industry-leading exhibitors, trade associations, technical seminar programmes and much, much more!

As a company at the leading edge of manufacturing excellence and one that prides itself on deploying the latest tools and techniques in its manufacturing processes, it was important for DEK to select the correct Manufacturing Enterprise Tool when looking to replace our written work instructions with an electronic version.

It is widely known that the use of conformal coatings in the electronics manufacturing process helps eliminate airborne contaminants such as dust and moisture as well as creating an effective barrier against chemical ingress. However, there are other sources of contamination that can adversely affect performance reliability, most notably ionic and non-ionic contamination.

A MY500 solder-jet printer from MYDATA is helping Thales, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-end electronic systems based in the Netherlands, to meet its requirements for rapid prototype production and for achieving first–time right soldering on boards that incorporate “difficult” components.

MIRTEC, “The Global Leader in Inspection Technology”, announces the opening of a dedicated manufacturing facility in Europe to further strengthen business and support in the territory. Based in Plymouth, UK, Mirtec will manufacture their complete range of Automatic Optical Inspection and Solder Paste Inspection systems at this new facility. When some competitors were struggling in 2009 Mirtec continued to grow at unprecedented rate with multi-million dollar contracts being secured and major product releases confirming their position as the industries number one inspection company. The end of 2009 was very successful and the orders are coming in already for 2010 so the new facility will be a big advantage to the European sector.

This week ElectronicsProductionWorld.com catches up with R. Erik Miller, the Asia Pacific Manager from Kyzen Corporation to find out about their new facility in Penang.

An interview with Oliver Wehner, BTU Europe

AOI systems are an essential element in the PCB production process in order to guarantee a reliable quality assurance. The user can choose from a variety of system options which are characterised by diverse performance parameters so that a broad spectrum of quality demands can be satisfied. For optimal fault detection with independence of the PCB layout and the assembly parameters a high-end angled-view inspection is indispensable.

Why does it take half a day to cook a Thanksgiving turkey? The answer is simple ― you have 20 lb of bird that simply cannot just be nuked in a microwave like last night’s dinner. If not properly thawed, prepared and monitored, you either have an overcooked, dried-out bird or worse: Salmonella. Strangely enough, as you will see in a moment, PCBs are not that much different.

The Productronica exhibition in Munich, always a wealth scale for the electronics industry, was 20 percent smaller than 2007. However, the Swiss company Essemtec seems not to be concerned by the general trend: Its booth was double the size of previous years.

Process Sciences Inc. (PSI) runs Metris x-ray inspection to trace connectivity issues in electronic circuitry that otherwise remain hidden for the eye. Using intuitive real-time x-ray imaging, PSI collaborates with OEMs and contract assemblers nationwide to reveal and resolve weak points in their PCB manufacturing processes.

Founded in 1984, Datest Corporation identified a lack of professional outsourcing support in the circuit test industry. Originally partnered with a CRM company, Datest opened its doors and began to perform steadily, ultimately becoming one of the most trusted testing houses in the industry. While new and different technologies emerge, Datest is here to take on the challenge of learning and supporting these new processes and today offers the testing platforms of the three major ATE manufacturers, as well as flying probe testing.

Production equipment developers and suppliers rely on customer feedback to make their equipment better, more efficient, and better suited to meeting the challenges of advancing technology and serving a broader range of applications. This is particularly true of selective soldering equipment, which was originally developed to do what neither hand soldering nor wave soldering could do – automate the soldering process for individual components or groups of components. Thus, selective soldering emerged to fill a need, and that technology continues to develop with the advice and valuable input from users who are actually engaged in day to day production soldering operations using selective soldering equipment.

Conformal coating has provided benefits to industry for many years, either in the high reliability market sector or where products have to deal with extreme environmental conditions. In recent years, due to changes in technology and miniaturization, coatings are being used in different industries like telecommunications, automotive and consumer products. Mobile phones and other professional handheld products have benefited from the use of selective coating for environmental and robustness. The following are examples of good and defect coating processes and some of the problems experienced in industry.

When Pete walker arrived at Humminbird as the new electrical process and test engineering manager he was tasked with increasing production capacity and improving first pass yield of their SMT production. Humminbird, a division of the Marine Electronics Group of Johnson Outdoors, is a highly respected manufacturer of marine electronics for the consumer and professional fishing industry. Their brand is defined by the quality and reliability of their products and customer demand was at an all time high.

In the never-ending pursuit of greater efficiency and customer satisfaction, factories must have efficient access to manufacturing information, eliminate processing bottlenecks, get new products to the floor more quickly and respond to engineering changes rapidly. Increasingly, the manner in which a company handles its information sets one assembler apart from its competition.