MERIDIAN, ID - Western Electronics has announced that it has introduced a conformal coating for PCBs. The company will offer conformal coating services out of its Westminster, Colorado operation.

The company reports that the conformal coat equipment and process completed customer qualification completed in February, and is now being introduced on a general availability basis to the market. Western Electronics will use acrylic resin materials for current customer requirements, and has the additional capability to apply urethane and silicone resins.

"We believe this additional service will complement our existing value-added service offering, and broadens our capability to support existing and new customers," said Rob Subia, President and CEO.

TAIWAN - PCB manufacturers have reported that sales to Motorola will remain unaffected in the short term, despite the US company's recent announcement of the possible sale of its cellphone division, according to industry sources.

In January and February, industry sources report that they actually received orders from Motorola for trial production of several new applications.

PCB maker Compeq Manufacturing, who sees about 40% of its revenues come from Motorola, suggested that should a sale occur, that it would not take place until later in the year, and that any orders placed with Taiwan's PCB makers in 2008 would likely be unaffected.

Compeq also stated that if a buyer was an existing client of a Taiwan's PCB manufacturer, then production orders would likely not be affected, since Taiwan leads worldwide in the PCB handset manufacturing segment.

Uncertainties remain for the long run. Sources note that if a Korean or Chinese company bought the handset division, Taiwan's PCB makers could lose business because of the tendency of Asian companies to source within their own countries, the observers noted.