28 The PCB Design Magazine • June 2016
EPTE Newsletter: Many Plants in Japan
Shut Down After Earthquake
Large manufacturing companies including Sony,
Panasonic, Honda and Toyota suspended opera-
tions citing damage at their plants. The supply
chain disruptions could keep them idle for up to a
week. Toyota Motors was the hardest hit amongst
the large corporations.
Advanced Circuits Acquires Assets
of Micom Circuits
Advanced Circuits, North America's 3rd largest
printed circuit board fabricator, announced today
that it has entered into a definitive agreement to
acquire certain assets from Micom Circuits of New
Brighton, MN.
North American PCB Business Growth
Accelerates in March
Total North American PCB shipments in March
2016 came in at 10.3% above the same month
last year, bringing the year-to-date growth rate up
to 6.1% for the first quarter. Compared to the pre-
ceding month, March shipments were up 18.6%.
Teledyne Agrees to Divest Teledyne PCT
to Firan Technology Group
"The divestiture of Teledyne PCT is consistent with
Teledyne's ongoing evolution and focus on high-
technology, proprietary engineered products,"
said Robert Mehrabian, chairman, president and
CEO of Teledyne. "We will work closely with FTG
to facilitate a smooth transaction and transition of
the operations to FTG's U.S. operations, support-
ing the customers of Teledyne PCT."
A Conversation with Walt Custer:
Market Report
In a recent conversation, Walt Custer shared cur-
rent market data and industry trends, detailing
those market segments and regions that are cur-
rently seeing growth and those that are in de-
cline. Walt also offered his interpretation of the
data, which he uses to forecast the upcoming
month.
Happy's Essential Skills: Technical Writing
Technical writing is one of those topics that they
don't really talk about in college—at least not
where I went. Writing and English has never been a
strong like of mine compared to science and math.
So I did my required time in English and wrote my
lab reports the best I knew how.
Weiner's World
3D printing, China's SMT equipment and robotics
markets, IPC's mandate, counterfeiters, and Taiwan
PCB makers' shift to automotive electronics—Gene
Weiner talks about these things and more in this
new article.
'Can Do' in CAM Outsourcing:
A Case for Outsourcing CAM Engineering
In the West, outsourcing is sometimes considered
taboo and many believe it is one of the causes for
shifting our manufacturing base to the East—spe-
cifically China and other lower cost Asian coun-
tries. In this series of columns, I will make a case in
support of CAM outsourcing—especially for North
American and Western European PCB manufactur-
ers.
KCA Electronics and MEI Acquired by HCI;
Shane Whiteside Named President
and CEO
HCI Equity Partners (HCI), a middle market private
equity firm based in Washington D.C., announced
today that it has acquired both KCA Electronics in
Anaheim, CA and Marcel Electronics Internation-
al (MEI) located in Orange, CA in separate stock
transactions.
All About Flex: Imaging Methods for
Etch Resist, Part 1
Imaging is a major process step in creating a cop-
per circuit or flexible PCB. In single-sided circuit
fabrication, the imaging process creates the resist
pattern that protects the copper from the etchant.
It is critical that this pattern precisely define the cir-
cuit traces, as issues with imaging will transfer to
the subsequent processes.
PCB007
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