Nolan’s Notes: Finding Your Sweet Spot
Standard of Excellence: Delivering Excellence—A Daily Goal
Knocking Down the Bone Pile: Tin Whisker Mitigation in Aerospace Applications, Part 3
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
May 6, 2022 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
We just went from freezing mornings to summer—just like that. What happened to spring? And, of course, things are definitely heating up in our industry!
This week, we have some M&A news from Summit Interconnect, and a variety of columns. Chris Bonsell discusses the lack of preventive maintenance planning in PCB manufacturing, and Kelly Dack lays out some solder mask guidelines for PCB designers. Duane Benson helps make sense of the quoting process in a time of 50-week lead times, and Dan Beaulieu has a great review of a book about how shareholder policies have caused many of the problems we see in corporations today.
Stay cool!
Summit Interconnect Acquires Royal Circuit Solutions and Affiliates
Published May 4
Summit Interconnect continues to grow its operations with the acquisition of Royal Circuits and Advanced Assembly. This expands the company’s flex, rigid-flex, DFA and prototype SMT assembly, and also allow the combined entity to integrate and automate many of its engineering and production capabilities.
The Chemical Connection: The Case for Preventive Maintenance
Published May 4
If you ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you’ll like this column. You can either perform preventive maintenance on your capital equipment, or you can wait for it to break down and worry about it then. According to columnist Chris Bonsell, most board shops prefer the latter, much to their detriment. Check it out.
Target Condition: Mandatory Masking Guidelines
Published May 4
Leave it to columnist Kelly Dack to slide a reference to a children’s bedtime story into an article on solder mask guidelines for PCB designers. As Kelly points out, your goal is to reach the Goldilocks Zone for mask clearance, where everything is just right. There’s a lot of good information here.
Finding Solutions in the Quoting Process
Published May 3
The supply chain situation has improved somewhat, but we’re still seeing 50-week lead times for some components. So, how does anyone put together an accurate quote in times like these? Duane Benson offers a few tips, and he explains how software tools can make things a little easier during the quoting process.
Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: A One-Legged Stool—How Shareholder Primacy Has Broken Business
Published May 6
This sounds like a book I need to read. As Dan Beaulieu says, this book discusses the idea that “the shareholders’ economics philosophy expounded by Milton Friedman so many decades ago is basically the root of most of what is wrong with our companies and our economy today.” If, like me, you let your retirement planner worry about this sort of thing, this book should be on your must-read list.
Share on:
Suggested Items
Driving Innovation: Direct Imaging vs. Conventional Exposure
07/01/2025 | Simon Khesin -- Column: Driving InnovationMy first camera used Kodak film. I even experimented with developing photos in the bathroom, though I usually dropped the film off at a Kodak center and received the prints two weeks later, only to discover that some images were out of focus or poorly framed. Today, every smartphone contains a high-quality camera capable of producing stunning images instantly.
Hands-On Demos Now Available for Apollo Seiko’s EF and AF Selective Soldering Lines
06/30/2025 | Apollo SeikoApollo Seiko, a leading innovator in soldering technology, is excited to spotlight its expanded lineup of EF and AF Series Selective Soldering Systems, now available for live demonstrations in its newly dedicated demo room.
Indium Corporation Expert to Present on Automotive and Industrial Solder Bonding Solutions at Global Electronics Association Workshop
06/26/2025 | IndiumIndium Corporation Principal Engineer, Advanced Materials, Andy Mackie, Ph.D., MSc, will deliver a technical presentation on innovative solder bonding solutions for automotive and industrial applications at the Global Electronics A
Fresh PCB Concepts: Assembly Challenges with Micro Components and Standard Solder Mask Practices
06/26/2025 | Team NCAB -- Column: Fresh PCB ConceptsMicro components have redefined what is possible in PCB design. With package sizes like 01005 and 0201 becoming more common in high-density layouts, designers are now expected to pack more performance into smaller spaces than ever before. While these advancements support miniaturization and functionality, they introduce new assembly challenges, particularly with traditional solder mask and legend application processes.
Knocking Down the Bone Pile: Tin Whisker Mitigation in Aerospace Applications, Part 3
06/25/2025 | Nash Bell -- Column: Knocking Down the Bone PileTin whiskers are slender, hair-like metallic growths that can develop on the surface of tin-plated electronic components. Typically measuring a few micrometers in diameter and growing several millimeters in length, they form through an electrochemical process influenced by environmental factors such as temperature variations, mechanical or compressive stress, and the aging of solder alloys.