Fab News

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Dow Chemical has reported that in a continuing attempt to offset increasing costs for energy and raw materials, it will raise the prices of its products again by as much as 25%.

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SANTA ANA, CA - TTM Technologies has announced that it has received an $8 million contract of from BAE Systems for the production of PCBs and PCB assemblies used in the Thermal Weapons Systems Program.

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BILLERICA, MA – Orbotech, Inc. has announced that ITL Circuits Inc. of Ontario, Canada has purchased a Newprint Maxi inkjet legend printer for its bare printed circuit board operation.

"Moving…to Orbotech’s inkjet printer has been an excellent decision for us. Because of its ability to simultaneously print legend, serial numbers and date codes… we have been able to eliminate several process steps, improve quality and reduce costs," explained George Papas, engineering manager at ITL Circuits.

Adi Kahn, president of Orbotech said, "We are very pleased that ITL has upgraded its legend printing process with our solution… The immediate benefits in operational efficiency and quality will surely make an important contribution to successfully meeting the company’s production goals."
AURORA, CO - Advanced Circuits has announced a $1 million capital investment in new equipment to increase capabilities and provide redundancy in PCB fabrication.

"Our goal with this investment is to maintain 100% redundancy…to maintain the customer excellence we are known for." said John Yacoub, CEO of Advanced Circuits.

The new equipment includes ENIG and ENIS automated plating lines, a Polar TDR machine, a Burkle 6 Vacuum Press, an Orbotech Ink Jet Printer, an Accusystems AS 150 JE, an ACS TruCure oven, and an Excellon 689 Drill.
HERRENBERG, GERMANY -- HMS-Höllmüller and Uyemura (UIC) have formed an alliance to jointly market and sell desmear/electroless copper/copper plating packages in Japan as well as in other parts of Asia. UIC installed a HMS´s PTH and plating technology line (ComPlate PTH/ComPlate Cu G4) in the UIC Osaka facility. The equipment and chemistry combo are being used for customer qualifications.

“HMS and UIC had already successfully formed an alliance for a specific customer for horizontal reel-to-reel applications with electroless nickel, electrolytic nickel, electrolytic gold systems, so that it was a natural decision to extend this concept to other regions”, says Joe Kresky, managing director of HMS.
HAMPSTEAD, NH and SHENZHEN, CHINA – P.D. Circuits has completed "phase two" of its development of its PCB supply chain operations in China.

The company reports that it has doubled its engineering staff in South China, increased its manufacturing sources, added inspection capabilities, and expanded its office in Shenzhen. The company has also certified five employees to IPC 600G, and increased its training program and its inspections of the company’s PCB manufacturing partners.

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