The Show Must Go On.With the economic slump of the electronics industry, many companies scrambled to cut costs by reducing staff and spending less. TransTechnology Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) decided that the TransTec Roadshow 2001 must go on. Chris Fussner, president of the company, opened his 10th annual Roadshow July 23, 2001 at Singapore's Pinetree Town & Country Club with 151 attendees-nearly filling the club's Balmoral Hall. When asked why the company decided to continue with the show, Fussner said, "We do it every year-slow or fast. Our clients love it. It's a way to say thank you!" His attitude is positive considering his company once saw sales increases of 70 percent in 1999. Those sales increases did not survive in 2001 during the industry's scramble to cut back production or move to less expensive production regions. This year's show got under way with a talk on automated optical inspection Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) is an automated visual inspection of PCB(or LCD,transistor manufacture) where a camera autonomously scans the device under test for both catastrophic failure (eg. missing component) and quality defects (eg. given by Circuits Assembly columnist Phil Zarrow of ITM ITM See: In-the-money Consulting (Durham, NH). Parvundar Singh, general manager of EKRA's Asia/Pacific operations (Singapore), followed with his presentation, Printing Technology Overview: From Basics to PB-Free Solder Paste. Following the lunch break, Dave Heller of Heller Industries, Inc, (Florham Park) presented Advanced Topic In Lead-Free SMT (1) (Surface Mount Technology) See surface mount. (2) (Station ManagemenT) An FDDI network management protocol that provides direct management. Only one node requires the software. SMT - Station Management Reflow (1) The process of heating and melting the solder that has been screen printed onto a printed circuit board in order to bond chips and other components to the board. Surface mount chips (SMT) use the reflow method. Contrast with wave soldering. See also reflowable text. . Zarrow concluded the overall presentation with The Real Cost of Going Lead-Free, and, if any overall message dominated this show, it had to be that Asian companies must be prepared to deal with lead-free solder. Electronics manufacturing services Electronic manufacturing services (EMS) is term used for companies that design, test, manufacture, distribute and provide return/repair services for electronic component and assemblies for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). (EMS) providers will not be deciding whether or not to go lead-free-the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will give the EMS providers no choice, and companies that fail to play the game will lose out. After Singapore, the Roadshow moved on to Penang, Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; and Manila. Fussner declared the show a success, as attendance only dropped 10 percent from 2000. When asked if he was pleased with this year's results, he summed it up in a single word, "Absolutely!" http://www.circuitsassembly.com/ Copyright [copyright] 2001 CMP CMP (cytidine monophosphate): see cytosine. (1) (CMP Media LLC, Manhasset, NY, www.cmp.com) Part of United Business Media, CMP is a leading integrated media company that offers a wide variety of publications and services in the information Media LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion