76 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2019
Smart Factories Are Smart With Their
Components: Are You?
E
Have you ever been in a situation where your
production has stopped because you do not
have the correct component? How about a sig-
nificant unknown shortage in your stockroom
that cannot be explained by production or the
store's team? Maybe you have been in the dif-
ficult situation of trying to explain that the lead
time of a product has increased to your end
customer? Read on.
MIRTEC Partners with Southwest
Systems Technology
E
MIRTEC has appointed Southwest Systems
Technology Inc. as its manufacturers' repre-
sentative. With offices in Texas and Mexico,
Southwest Systems Technology will provide
sales and support for MIRTEC's award-winning
inspection systems in the states of Texas, Okla-
homa, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
KIC and Mentor Partner on Integrated
Thermal Process Technology for
Industry 4.0
E
KIC announces technology collaboration with
Mentor, a Siemens Business, leveraging KIC's
professional knowledge on thermal processes
and Mentor's comprehensive expertise on SMT
manufacturing towards Industry 4.0.
More Than Inspection: It's Process
Improvement
E
Barry Matties speaks with Brian D'Amico,
president of MIRTEC, about the current state
of machine-to-machine communication in the
industry, and how the inspection company is
interfacing with the different manufacturing
languages currently available to gather predic-
tive data and feedback from every inspection
step to eliminate future defects.
Rehm: From Challenges Come
Opportunities
E
Strong connections bridge even the widest dis-
tances—whether spatially or technically in the
case of the Hermes standard. By participating
in this initiative, Rehm Thermal Systems is al-
so contributing to making system networking
within SMT manufacturing easier, quicker and
more efficient in the future.
SMS Selects Metcal CV-500 System
E
Smart Made Simple's (SMS's) strategic capital
equipment partner Metcal has selected them
as the first company in the U.K. to trial the
New Metcal CV-500 system, the latest addition
to their connection Validation family of prod-
ucts.
EMS Installs Second MEK AOI Machine
E
Electronic Manufacturing Solutions (EMS)
Limited has installed a new MEK PowerSpec-
tor GTAz+GDAz 550BTL CE 9 camera inline
AOI machine.
IPC Commends Passage
of FIRST STEP Act
E
John Mitchell, president and CEO of IPC, is-
sued the following statement on the U.S. Sen-
ate's vote this week to enact a criminal justice
reform bill called the FIRST STEP Act.
Powerful Prototypes: Eight PCB
Assembly Tips for 2019
E
It's now 2019, and all I'll say on the coming year
is that we are in for a wild ride. The last few
years have been pretty crazy, and 2019 looks to
continue that trend but amped up. While pre-
dictions might be fun to muse upon, they really
won't help you get your job done. So, here's my
top eight pieces of PCB assembly advice for the
coming year to make up for that.