Tyngsboro, Mass. — Transition Automation, Inc. releases a new Universal Permalex Holder and Blade Assembly to install on Ersa SMT Printers.

The Holder Assemblies include brass alloy alignment pins to improve the installation of the holders into the quick-release Ersa print head. These holders are Transition’s fourth generation, which include an extended aluminum support that eliminates the need for shim support. The holders also feature the company’s patent pending “Soft-Touch” articulating paste retainers to help keep the solder paste in the print area and reduce damage to stencils due to handling mishaps. These advanced holders offer benefits over OEM holder designs including lighter weight, available in any length, low front profile for better paste roll and color and angle options.

This item is available on the company’s web store at www.metalsqueegees.com and has the part number designation EA1-LxxW32T10-B-E where the letters xx denote the length of the blade and holder combination.

Transition Automation, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the manufacturing and distribution of Permalex® Edge Metal Squeegees, holder systems, and advanced SMT printing systems. Founded in 1989, Transition Automation, Inc. continues to advance the state of the art in surface mount solder paste printing by innovating the critical and high-cycle squeegee component of the SMT assembly process. Company headquarters are located at 5 Trader Circle, Building D, Tyngsboro, MA 01879 USA; Phone: 978-649-2400; Email: Sales@TransitionAutomation.com; Web: www.transitionautomation.com.

The upcoming SMTA China South Technology Conference will feature presentations by four Indium Corporation experts. The conference, which takes place November 30–December 1, is held in conjunction with NEPCON Asia 2022 at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Shenzhen, China.

Indium Corporation experts will share the following presentations:

• November 30
  • How to Solve LGA Voiding Through Process Optimization, presented by Regional Product Manager Wisdom Qu, 10:45–11:20
  • Fine Powder Investigation for Optimum Imperial 008004 SP Printing: Part I, presented by Area Technical Manager – East China Leon Rao, 14:20–14:55

• December 1
  • Ultra-Low-Residue Flux Application in RF Front End Packaging, presented by Senior Area Technical Manager – East China Leo Hu, 11:20–11:55
  • Ultrafine Solder Paste Dispensing for Heterogeneous Integration, presented by Area Technical Manager – East China Joey Qiao, 14:55–15:30

In addition to delivering her kickoff presentation, Indium Corporation Regional Product Manager Wisdom Qu will serve as conference chairwoman for the first day of the technical conference. The SMTA China South Technology Conference, held in conjunction with NEPCON Asia 2022, will address the industry’s most pressing issues in Advanced Packaging/Components, Assembly Business/Supply Chain, Emerging Technologies, Harsh Environment Applications, PCB Technology, Process Control, and Soldering Processes.

About Indium Corporation Indium Corporation is a premier materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil®. Founded in 1934, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the US.

For more information about Indium Corporation, visit www.indium.com or email jhuang@indium.com. You can also follow our experts, From One Engineer To Another® (#FOETA), at www.linkedin.com/company/indium-corporation/ or @IndiumCorp.

As part of its electric vehicle (EV) focused series of webinars, Driving e-Mobility: Rel-ion™ Technical Webinars, Indium Corporation’s David Sbiroli, principal engineer, will share how to optimize two of the most important areas of the SMT assembly process—printing and reflow.

To obtain a high yield process with a low defect rate, both the printing and reflow process must be fully understood and fine-tuned to work with the materials being used for assembly. In Best Practices for SMT Assembly & Root Cause Analysis, Sbiroli will discuss:

• Printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) material’s selection and optimization (solder paste and board design)

• Proper storage and handling techniques

• Stencil selection

• Stencil printer setup

• Common solder paste printing defects and how to overcome

• Designing a reflow profile for low voiding and high reliability

• Understanding and mitigation of common reflow-related defects, including voiding, head-in-pillow (HIP), non-wet opens (NWO), graping, and tombstoning

A question-and-answer session will be held at the end of the presentation; bring your SMT process challenges to discuss with the presenter.

This session of Driving e-Mobility: Rel-ion™ Technical Webinar series is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 12 with two opportunities to participate: the first at 8:30 a.m. Germany/12 p.m. India/2:30 p.m. China and Malaysia, and the second at 10 a.m. San Francisco/1 p.m. New York/6 p.m. London/7 p.m. Germany.

The Driving e-Mobility: Rel-ion™ Technical Webinars series features global industry technical experts in advanced materials and the automotive market, with all sessions moderated by Brian O’Leary, Indium Corporation’s global head of e-Mobility and infrastructure. This series of webinars is intended specifically for those involved in the field of e-Mobility, whether new to the industry or with several years of experience, as the EV industry undergoes rapid growth and evolution.

Registration for this webinar can be completed at indium.com/corporate/media-center/webinars/rel-ion.php. If you are interested in a session specifically tailored to your company’s needs, please contact O’Leary at boleary@indium.com.

Sbiroli is a Principal Engineer at Indium Corporation. In this role, he characterizes soldering materials critical performance attributes and assists in the development of new materials and the accelerated test methods to augment critical performance. He is also the Technical Manager of Global Accounts. As such, he is responsible for the coordination, business maintenance, and resource deployment of technical services and onsite support to Indium Corporation’s global customer base with a focus on key automotive customers. David joined Indium Corporation in 1993. He has more than 25 years of hands-on experience in the selection and applications of printed circuit board assembly materials and SMT process optimization, defect reduction, and troubleshooting on hundreds of Indium Corporation customers’ SMT and electronic assembly production lines. He has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology from the State University of New York Institute of Technology. He achieved one of the highest scores on the SMTA Process Engineer certification exam and is certified as an IPC Specialist for IPC-A-600 and IPC-A-610D. Sbiroli actively participates in the development of industry standards with the IPC and received the IPC’s Distinguished Committee Service award for his work on the J-STD-004B (Requirements for Soldering Fluxes) standards.

O’Leary is responsible for promoting Indium Corporation’s full range of products and services for e-Mobility, which include electric cars, trucks, and charging stations. He has more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and channel management in the electronics industry. He currently serves as the chair of the IPC EV (Electric Vehicle) Quality & Reliability Advisory Group. In addition to regular technical conference participation, Brian co-hosts a free monthly webcast—EV InSIDER Live—with Loren McDonald of EVAdoption and a high-profile industry stakeholder as a guest. In the webcast, they discuss current pressing issues and hot topics in the rapidly evolving electric vehicle landscape.

About Indium Corporation

Indium Corporation® is a premier materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil®. Founded in 1934, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.

For more information about Indium Corporation, visit www.indium.com or email jhuang@indium.com. You can also follow our experts, From One Engineer To Another® (#FOETA), at www.linkedin.com/company/indium-corporation/ or @IndiumCorp.

Laser cutting is one of the most innovative and advanced methods for separating PCBs today and is changing the way electronics components are being manufactured. Although relatively new to the UK and Ireland, Altus Group, a leading distributor of capital equipment, has been introducing LPKF’s systems to the electronics industry and is seeing growing interest in the process.

With traditional depaneling methods, assembled PCBs are cut out of the panel using a mechanical separation process. The laser depaneling process from LPKF, however, uses a focused laser beam that ablates the material layer by layer. This offers several advantages over conventional mechanical cutting processes including stress-free processing, high quality edge quality and design and flexibility freedom. These are important factors in electronics manufacturing as assemblies become smaller and more complex to produce, and increasingly cost and labour intensive.

Joe Booth Altus CEO said: “Working with LPKF is great because they are by far the best at what they do. This is reflected in their success across Europe. They produce highly capable, well-engineered systems that perform exactly how you would expect a top piece of German engineering to operate.

“We have hit the ground running and the appetite for laser depaneling is growing in the UK and Ireland. Companies care about very accurate break out, with limited stress on their products. In addition, they also buy into the flexibility, as a CEM, to break out flexi-rigid, rigid, ceramic or metal alloy assemblies with a single machine, with some movement on throughput. Laser depaneling is an extremely sellable process due to its unique and highly flexible capabilities. It can be the difference between a CEM winning a project or not.

“LPKF has shown great faith in our partnership by exclusively working with Altus to promote their depaneling solutions. We hope to repay that confidence by growing future business together. I can only imagine that there will be many more LPKF units in the industry as they get budgeted for equipment road maps in the next years. “

Vitalij Wottschel, LPKF Sales Manager added: “Altus is an ideal partner for LPKF as they have an outstanding reputation for customer support. This is an important attribute for us and one which we value highly.

“The UK and Ireland has a great product market fit. With high cost of labour and high value production, but with a higher mix, lower volume scenario, that puts quality above throughput. These are the priciniples which make laser depaneling so attractive.

“With our superior technology, great range of products, and Altus‘ knowledge of the local market and customer base, we have already seen some great success. As the advantages of laser based depaneling becomes more understood and widespread, the momentum and interest in our products are increasing. I cannot wait to see our customer pool grow even further in the region.“

www.altusgroup.co.uk