Latest News
SAN JOSE – ASYS Group Americas has opened a sales and support center here. The center includes sales and service personnel, as well as spare parts stocking.
ASYS provides manufacturing equipment for the electronics and photovoltaics industry, and doubled its revenues in 2010.
The firm now has operating offices in Georgia, Massachusetts, Oregon, and California, along with support centers in Mexico and Brazil.
TAIPEI – Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, and Geely Automobile Holdings, China’s largest private auto maker, are in talks to develop green cars, according to published reports.
SAN JOSE -- Adeptron Technologies will close its plant here effective Jan. 31 and shift a portion of the production to their facilities in Markham and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
TAIPEI – Foxconn today said December non-consolidated revenues were up 5.6% sequentially to $8.37 billion, the second highest monthly sales in the EMS firm’s history.
Fourth-quarter sales were up 11.3% to $24.6 billion, on strong orders from Apple.
For 2010, the firm’s non-consolidated revenues were $78.9 billion, up 62.8% year-over-year.
In the first three months of 2011, the company expects revenues to fall less than the typical 20%, while 2011 full-year sales are forecast to be at least 15% higher year-over-year.
BOSTON -- The SMTA and IEEE will hold a joint meeting at Benchmark Electronics to reveal the latest results of multiple research studies investigating nano-solders and Pb-free electronics in high-rel products.
Read more ...
FRANKLIN, MA – The US Patent Trademark Office has awarded Speedline Technologies a patent for its dual head dispensing technology.
HONG KONG -- ASM Pacific Technology has completed its acquisition of Siemens AG’s SMT placement machine unit.
NEW YORK -- API Technologies, with help from a private equity firm, will acquire fellow EMS company SenDec in an all-stock transaction.
BUCKS, UK – On Feb. 1, The Smart Group will offer a one-hour webinar to summarize all recent changes made to RoHS and REACH, and to explain some of the issues delaying the amendment of the WEEE Directive.
The most significant impact of the changes will be bringing all ten EEE categories into scope, including medical devices and monitoring and control instruments. The creation of an additional “catch-all” category will include other EEE not mentioned elsewhere.
The WEEE Directive amendment process has stalled over some unresolved issues, but the REACH and CLP regulations continue to move forward with more SVHCs proposed; the first registration deadline passed on Nov. 30 has 4300 substances registered already. This important stage in the legislation will be covered by Smart Group technical committee members.
Topics will include: RoHS: Are you now in scope? When do you have to take action? RoHS: Are you dependent on existing exemptions that now have been revised? RoHS: What additional work will be needed now that CE marking is required? WEEE: What are the proposed changes and will the EU politicians ever agree on them? REACH: Can you rely on the availability of products and substances necessary for your products?
For more information, visit http://www.smartgroup.org/images/stories/events/RoHS2011.pdf or contact info@smartgroup.org.
BRIDGEWATER, MA -- Chase Corp., parent of Humiseal, reported November quarter net income rose 38% year-over-year to $2.93 million.
Washington, DC -- The 90-day moving average worldwide semiconductor sales in November slipped 0.9% sequentially to $26 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported today.
ARLINGTON, VA – A new report from the Consumer Electronics Association finds that industry-wide unit sales of US products registered with EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) grew 10% in 2009 to a total of 48.5 million products.
The CEA 2010 Sustainability Report, a compendium of 21 case studies from a variety of CE companies, also details noteworthy milestones in green design. One manufacturer conducted a comprehensive lifecycle analysis for every product it ships to determine where greenhouse gases are created. After discovering 97% of the emission derived from manufacturing and product use, the company focused on designing new products that use less material, smaller packaging, and are more energy-efficient and recyclable.
Also, many consumer electronics companies are switching to renewable materials, including bio-based plastics, or recyclable materials instead of clamshell packaging, and are looking to reduce the amount of packaging they use. For instance, one video service provider consolidated its shipments and decreased its use of cartons by more than one million in 2009, a 75% reduction from the previous year. In 2011, all of the providers’ products will be packed with 100% recyclable materials.
Furthermore, many manufacturers have set ambitious goals for reducing GHG at their facilities. Meanwhile, other companies have launched efforts to cut power consumption at their data centers.
According to the EPA, 27,000 CE product models currently meet Energy Star specifications. The average energy savings of Energy Star electronics devices range from 20% to 55%. One semiconductor design company created a chip that can reduce its GHG by up to 40% by combining the processing and graphics processing units and the Northbridge chipset onto a single chip.
The report also says the consumer electronics industry recycled 200 million lbs. in 2009, and industry supports more than 5,000 permanent collection sites nationwide. Some examples of these efforts include one CE retailer collecting 100 million lbs. at its 1,200 US locations and one computer manufacturer operating an eCycling program at more than 2,200 US Goodwill sites.
