Fab News

GLEN ARM, MD - Armistead Technologies specializes in the manufacturing of reverse engineered printed circuit boards (PCBs), with the capability to integrate additional features and updated components into fabricated boards to extend the lifecycle of a product.

Over the past 19 years, John Armistead says he has seen many changes. "Technology has actually made things harder," he says. "Some chips now have software on-board, and from a reverse engineering standpoint it's very difficult to extract that software from the chip."

"With today's complex circuit boards, it's a lot more cost-effective for an engineering manager to outsource the job of reverse engineering a PCB to us rather than take one of his engineers off projects," Armistead says. "And, because we're reverse engineering specialists, we can get the job done a lot quicker, too."

Armistead says he looks forward to many more years of serving the electronics industry with innovative, accurate reverse engineering services. "Whenever anyone needs a U.S.-based firm to handle a PCB reverse engineering project," Armistead says, "we'll be here."
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- With legal action pending, the Swedish government lifted its national ban on the use of the flame retardant Deca-BDE in textiles, furniture and some electronic cables. The Swedish government ban was inconsistent with the latest findings of a 10-year EU risk assessment of Deca-BDE. The 10-year risk assessment failed to identify any significant risks to justify restrictions on the flame retardant. The Swedish government’s limited ban went into effect in late 2006 and had no scientific basis and was therefore subject to a legal challenge by EU authorities.

"The EU has established that Deca-BDE is safe for continued use in all its applications, so there is no scientific basis whatsoever for any national or EU-wide restriction on Deca-BDE" said Veronique Steukers, chair of the European Brominated Flame Retardant Industry Panel (EBFRIP). The "EBFRIP firmly believes that Deca-BDE meets the criteria for an exemption from RoHS and that it should therefore either be exempted or deleted from the RoHS Directive. We are working with the European Commission to ensure that this restriction is lifted."

The Swedish Government's press release can be found at: http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/10626/a/104665.
RICHARDSON, TX - Titan Global Holdings has announced that Titan PCB East Inc., a company subsidiary, has reached a definitive agreement with a management led buy-out team Time Sensitive Circuits (TSC) to acquire all of the assets of Titan PCB East.

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BANNOCKBURN, IL - The IPC has invited industry researchers, academics and technical experts to submit abstracts for the 2009 IPC Apex Expo to be held at Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention Center, Las Vegas, from March 29 to April 2, 2009.

A 300-word abstract summarizing original and previously unpublished work must be submitted by July 18, 2008.  The submission should describe significant results from experiments, highlight new techniques, discuss new trends, and contain a summary of appropriate test results in the final paper.

To submit an abstract or proposal, visit GoIPCShows.org/CFP.
THE US and EUROPE - The Huntsman Corp., Dow Chemical, Dupont and Rohm & Haas have all announced plans to increase prices or add surcharges, as much as 25%, because of increasing energy and raw-material costs.

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ORADEA, ROMANIA – Connectronics Romania has opened a 16,000 square meter factory with capacity for more than 1,000 employees.

The company originally began its manufacturing in Romania in December 2002 with seven employees in a rented space of less than 1,000 square meters, and the recent move to the 16,000 square meter facility is the fourth for the company in six years.

The factory in Romania will produce printed circuit boards and wiring harnesses for the automotive and telecommunications sectors. The Connect Systems group currently has eight factories in Europe.

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