44 The PCB Design Magazine • September 2017
It's Only Common Sense:
Getting to No
Does this sound familiar to you? There is a poten-
tial customer you have been chasing for a long
time. Now, this guy seems to be a pretty good
guy because he is always willing to see you, always
happy to have a cup of joe with you, and more
than happy to go out to lunch with you, especially
if you go to his favorite sushi place.
Catching up with Prototron Circuits'
Tucson GM Kim O'Neil
This has been an exciting year for Prototron, which
has achieved Mil-PRF-31032 and gone into the
flex business. Most recently, Prototron received
word that they had achieved their AS9100 Rev D,
which made me want to check in with Kim O'Neil
and find out more.
AT&S Concludes Q1 2017/18 with
Significant Revenue Growth and
Improved Earnings
After more than one year of production at the
plants in Chongqing, China, which initially had a
significant influence on the profitability of AT&S, a
clear upward trend is showing and, consequently,
a positive development of revenue and earnings
compared with the previous year.
TTM Technologies to Exhibit at the Electric
& Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo
TTM Technologies, Inc. will be exhibiting at the
Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo North
America 2017 at Booth 1013. The expo runs Sep-
tember 12–14. Technical experts will be available
at the booth to answer printed circuit board de-
sign, manufacturing, and assembly-related ques-
tions.
IPC Reports Strong PCB Order
Growth in June
IPC—Association Connecting Electronics Indus-
tries has posted the June 2017 findings from its
monthly North American PCB statistical program.
Strong PCB order growth moved the book-to-
bill ratio up to 1.08 in June, while sales remained
sluggish.
Victory Giant Technology: The Qualified
Forerunner of PCB Smart Factories
The topic of the July issue of PCB007's China On-
line Magazine is "Automatic PCB Factories," focus-
ing on the pressures of cost, delivery time and pro-
cess, and the irreversible trend toward automated
PCB factories. Centering on this theme, we inter-
viewed Andy Zhou, COO of Victory Giant Technol-
ogy (HuiZhou) Co. Ltd.
Catching up with American Standard
Circuits' Joe Nickerson
Dan Beaulieu had the chance recently to sit down
with Camtech Technologies founder and President
Joe Nickerson, now the newly appointed American
Standard Circuits' VP of sales, to discuss Camtech
Technologies and his new role with American Stan-
dard Circuits. It was an interesting talk.
EPTE Newsletter: M-Tech 2017
Tokyo Big Sight hosted the Mechanical Compo-
nent & Materials Technology Expo (M-Tech) on
June 21. The three-day show included the 21
st
De-
sign Engineering & Manufacturing Solutions Expo
(DMS), the 25th 3D Virtual Reality Expo (IVR) and
the Medical Device Development Expo (MEDIX).
Punching Out! Mid-2017 Report on the
State of the N.A. PCB M&A Market
One of the most popular questions we receive con-
cerns the market for M&A. Here is our take on the
current market for PCB shops in North America.
In general, the PCB market in North America is
not growing, which means that to grow, shops ei-
ther must take market share from others, or grow
through acquisitions.
IPC: Department of Labor Releases RFI to
Seek Information on Overtime Regulations
This week, the Department of Labor (DOL) released
a request for information (RFI) to gather additional
feedback from the public on the overtime regula-
tions, which define and delimit exemptions from
the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage and
overtime requirements for certain executive, ad-
ministrative, professional, outside sales and other
employees.
PCB007
Highlights
