Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

Kester, a business unit of Northrop Grumman Corp., has been sold to American Capital Strategies Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.

At a press conference on Tuesday during APEX, Dave Torp, Kester's vice president of marketing and business development, announced that the company has just one announcement to make at the show this year--they have been acquired. The acquisition allows Kester to break from the defense arena and return to their roots of supplying to the assembly, component, electrical and industrial marketplace.

According to Torp, the acquisition allows Kester more freedom. "We have increased flexibility and agility within the marketplace, and can generate more buiness, especially in foreign entities," he siad. "With them [American Capital], we are free to market globally, manufacture and support customers, especially in China."

Kester was sold to American Capital "lock, stock and barrel," said Torp. He added that Kester's management team remains intact.

Torp also said that Kester comprises a large portion of American Capital's holding portfolio, allowing Kester to keep up with this constantly changing industry and new technologies. Kester also has implemented a "phase-gate system" which will allow them to accelerate new product development from years to months.

American Capital's investment takes the form of a revolving credit facility, senior term loans, senior and junior subordinated debt and preferred common equity. Post-closing, American Capital will own 84% of Kester on a fully diluted basis. The remaining ownership in the acquiring company represents amounts under the employee options program, as well as equity co-investors.

www.kester.com

Tyco Electronics (Willow Grove, PA), a business segment of Tyco International Ltd., is highlighting the Kanetic product line at the APEX show taking place Feb. 24-26 in Anaheim, CA.

Tyco Electronics signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Kanetic that resulted in Tyco assuming all responsibility for the manufacture, sales and support of the Kanetic product line. This agreement provides customers Kanetic's product offerings along with Tyco's financial strength and worldwide sales and service capability.

The product line features an adjustable length edge belt workstation, magazine unloader, an inline board destacker, inverter, and magazine loader. All products have adjustable length, dual speed adjustment, thin board capabilities, a control board and flow reversibility.

Tyco Electronics Automation Group (TEAG), a business unit of Tyco Electronics, is a supplier of automated equipment that is used in the manufacturing of printed circuit board assemblies and systems.

http://automation.tycoelectronics.com

Valor Computerized Systems (Yavne, Israel), a provider of software solutions for the electronics design and manufacturing industry, announced that the agreement with Denmark-based TraceXpert A/S, a provider of real-time production monitoring, machine-control and traceability solutions, has now been executed.

The completion of all legal and financial aspects of the agreement, first announced in December 2003, signals that Valor-Denmark is now fully open for business: to deliver the TraceXpert Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to the global electronics industry. The TraceXpert product delivers productivity-maximization, exact traceability and shop-floor parts-management solution. It includes real-time data-rich interfaces to surface-mount assembly lines from machine vendors such as Siemens, Universal and Fuji, and a major expansion program is to be implemented immediately, to substantially increase the machine-types coverage offered to the market.

Valor-Denmark A/S is a joint venture company, 50% owned by Valor and 50% owned by the shareholders of the predecessor-company, TraceXpert A/S. All intellectual property, management and employees of TraceXpert A/S will be transferred into Valor-Denmark, and Valor Ltd., Israel, will make a $4 million investment into the newly formed business in order to facilitate an immediate ramp-up in the rate of development of the TraceXpert solution. After 3 years of operations, Valor Ltd., Israel, will have first option to purchase all shares in Valor-Denmark.

www.valor.com

UP Media Group Inc. (Atlanta, GA) today announced the winners of the 2004 Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Providers and Electronics Assembly Equipment, Materials and Software Suppliers. Circuits Assembly magazine recognized the companies that received the highest customer service ratings, as judged by their own customers, during a ceremony at APEX 2004 in Anaheim, CA.

Participating EMS companies' customers rated each company on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability/timely delivery; manufacturing quality; responsiveness to requests and changes; technology; and value for the price. Overall winners in the EMS category were Plexus Corp. (Neenah, WI) in the large-company category (revenues over $500 million); Sparton Electronics (Jackson, MI) in the medium-company category (revenues between $100 and $500 million); and Masstech EMS (Woburn, MA) in the small-company category (revenues less than $100 million).

The large, medium and small EMS company winners.

Circuits Assembly also gave awards to the small and medium EMS companies with the highest scores in each of the five individual service categories. The overall EMS winners were excluded from winning individual categories. In the small-company category, Key Electronics (New Albany, IN) won for dependability/timely delivery and tied with Able Electronics (Hayward, CA) for responsiveness. Able Electronics also tied for the manufacturing quality award with Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC (Springfield, MA). Nu Visions Manufacturing won the value award and tied with Elcoteq—Dallas NPI (Dallas, TX) in the technology category. In the medium-company category, Creation Technologies (Burnaby, Canada) had the highest scores for dependability/timely delivery, manufacturing quality, responsiveness and technology, while Reptron Manufacturing Services (Tampa, FL) won in the value category.

Lisa Hamburg Bastin (right), Circuits Assembly, presents Gary Tanel (middle), Elcoteq—Dallas NPI, and Stephen Pudles (left), Nu Visions Manufacturing, awards for the highest technology ratings in the small EMS company category.

For the equipment, materials and software suppliers awards, companies were rated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability; ease of use; responsiveness; technology; and value for price. Aegis Industrial Software Corp. (Horsham, PA) received top honors in the manufacturing software category, and Agile Software Corp. (San Jose, CA) won the supply chain management software category.

Electronics assembly equipment award winners were: Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA) for dispensing; Assembléon (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) for pick-and-place; Petroferm Inc. (Fernandina Beach, FL) for cleaning; DEK (Flemington, NJ) for screen printing; and FEINFOCUS USA (Stamford, CT) for test and inspection. EFD Inc. (Lincoln, RI) won the electronics assembly materials suppliers award in the solder paste category.

The electronics assembly equipment, materials and software supplier winners gather with their awards.

A donation of $5,000 was made on the participants' behalf to the Surface Mount Technology Association's (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) Charles Hutchins Educational Grant. Part of each participant's entry fee was included in the donation.

This is the twelfth year for the awards program sponsored by Circuits Assembly.

JoAnn Stromberg (left), SMTA, accepts the Circuits Assembly donation of $5,000 for the Charles Hutchins educational grant from Lisa Hamburg Bastin (right).

UP Media Group (UPMG) is a privately held company that specializes in magazine publishing and trade show and conference production. UPMG currently publishes two high-tech magazines: Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture (www.pcdandm.com) and Circuits Assembly. In addition, UPMG produces three annual conferences and trade shows for the design and manufacture industry—PCB Design Conference West (www.pcbwest.com) and HDI Expo (www.hdiexpo.com) in San Jose, CA, and PCB Design Conference East (www.pcbeast.com) in the Boston area. UPMG also hosts the PCB Design Conference Road Series (www.pcbshows.com) of courses in cities throughout the U.S.

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL, Northbrook, IL) and CSA International (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) have signed agreements to establish a collaborative process leading to the mutual acceptance of certain components and to expand the certification organizations' 1996 data exchange Memorandum of Understanding.

Loring Knoblauch, president and chief executive officer of UL and Robert Griffin, president and CEO of CSA Group, signed the two documents in November 2003, during the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference, in Washington, D.C.

The agreements are the result of several months of negotiation between UL and CSA, with support from NEMA, Electro-Federation Canada (EFC) and major electrical customers. CSA and UL signed an agreement to develop a mutual component acceptance program that will eventually provide for the acceptance of components used in end products submitted to UL or CSA for certification/listing. Under the terms of the agreement, each organization will accept the other organization's certification/listing of components in end-products provided that each organization can apply their existing component acceptance procedures to the components certified by the other organization, and only after equivalence of follow-up programs has been evaluated and confirmed.

The agreement will initially be limited to Low Voltage Distribution and Industrial Control Equipment and will be re-assessed over an 18-month period. The expanded Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) goes beyond the 13 product categories described in the 1996 MoU and will ultimately include all electrical end-product categories and standards for which UL and CSA are accredited by both the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC). Under the expanded MoU, manufacturers of electrical end products will be able to obtain both CSA and UL certification/listing on the basis of a single product test program carried out by one of the two organizations.

According to Knoblauch, the expanded MoU and proposed component-acceptance program are part of UL's ongoing effort to streamline the certification process for customers who seek both U.S. and Canadian market access.

www.ul.com

www.csa-international.org

Polyclad Laminates (Londonderry, NH), a Cookson Electronics company, recently named Curt Mitchell Applications Engineer, GETEK® products. In this new position, Mitchell will be responsible for providing technical assistance and field application support to all Polyclad sales divisions, particularly in regard to providing customer service and support to GETEK® product lines.

Prior to joining Polyclad, Mitchell worked with GE Electromaterials as a global applications and training leader. He spent 13 years specializing in the GETEK® and GETEK® II product line while at GE. Polyclad Laminates, Inc. acquired certain rights to manufacture, distribute and sell these copper clad laminate and prepreg materials in September 2003.

Mitchell received a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Ohio University. He is a member of the IPC Process Effects Handbook Committee and the American Chemical Society. He will be based out of Cambridge, Ohio.

www.cooksonelectronics.com