READY FOR THE NEW YEAR

Installation work will soon be underway at ELNA PCB in Penang, Malaysia on the company’s new Gate-type U-shaped PAL Desmear/PTH line.

ELNA PCB (M) Sdn Bhd, one of the companies in the Japanese ELNA group, was established in Malaysia in November 1994. At that time the demand was for single-sided and double-sided PCBs and these still remain an ELNA speciality. Increasingly however, like companies all over the world, ELNA has seen a growing demand amongst its customers for multi-layer boards. It was this trend that led the Malaysian-based company to order a line with the Desmear process. “Before making the decision to choose a PAL line, we conducted a survey of machine fabricators,” explains Mr Elanko of ELNA. “The result showed us that PAL was the best choice. We already have a PAL PTH/Panel Plate line so know the quality of work we can expect from a PAL machine.”

Because of space constraints, ELNA opted for their new machine to be designed as a U-shaped vertical line (Desmear-PTH-Panel plating) and a plating rack (jig) – the latter to cope with their somewhat unusual work size (15 at present). “We are very much looking forward to the new machine being in full production by early 2002,” says Mr Elanko.

Established in 1994, ELNA’s main products are single-sided PCBs (including Carbon PCBs), double-sided PCBs (including screen Carbon paste technology and hot air levelling). They are able to produce 50,000 sq m of single-sided boards each month and 15,000 sq m of double-sided (a figure that will rise to 30,000 sq m) by the end of this year; and by next year they will be able to produce 5,000 sq m of multi-layer boards. Their impressive customer list includes Denso, JVC, Kenwood, Matsushita, NEC, Pioneer, Sanyo, Sony TKR and Yamaha.

M-Flex Opt for PAL

Installation of a PAL Compal Pattern plate line has just been completed at M-Flex in Singapore and tests are being run prior to the machine being in full production at the beginning of November.

“We chose a PAL line because of PAL’s reputation for technology innovation,” explains Ronnie Chin, M-Flex’s R&D Manager. “Capacity, expansion and new product introductions were behind our decision to order a new Pattern plate line and it is for those new products that we believe PAL’s line is particularly well suited. We are certainly pleased with the results of the early tests we have been running.”

M-Flex Singapore, the one-stop manufacturer of printed circuit boards, was incorporated in 1989 and now employs some 320 people in Singapore from where it offers a range of services to its customers including application engineering, circuit design and layout routing, manufacture of prototype samples, turnkey assembly services, and in-house 3rd party product reliability testing.

The company has direct sales and marketing support in US, Europe, Korea, Malaysia (where it has another factory employing over 250 people), Australia and Israel and a commitment to develop and implement new technologies and products, which are customer focused, and application centred. The new PAL line will help them achieve this key objective.

NUMBER TWO FOR ZETEX

Zetex (Cheng Du) Electronics Ltd in Western China make semiconductor SMDs in large scale for resale to Zetex UK, an investor in the joint venture.

They have two Compal Rack Solder plating machines. Their second line was successfully installed in May this year. Their first machine was installed in April 1995. “The quality of plating on that machine is fine and Zetex qualified the line that same year,” explains Mr. Tu Zhi Jian of Zetex. “The thickness and quality of plating certainly met all our customers’ requirements, which is why we chose PAL to supply our second Rack Solder line.”