PCB Chat

Four manufacturer's representatives share their experience in supporting their customer's needs. They share how sales and support has changed over the years and review the "new normal". Mike Konrad's guests are: David Leventhal Restronics dleventhal@restronics.com Joan Carrol-Kennedy Restronics jcarroll@restronics.com Murray Percival Jr. Murray Percival mapercival@murraypercival.com Todd Wittmer Wittco Sales toddwittmer@wittcosales.com

Concept to Creation host Mike Konrad says, while I am the host of this podcast, interviewing entrepreneurs within the electronics assembly industry, several people have asked about my story of entrepreneurship. I was recently interviewed by Dr. Mike Stull from California State University San Bernardino where he is school director, professor, department chair and program director of the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship. Dr. Stull recently had me on his hot-seat program, where we discussed the founding of my company and the nearly 30-year journey since day one of my company. This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.  

Amit Dror is cofounder of Nano Dimension and customer success officer. Amit served as Nano Dimension’s chief executive from 2014 to 2019. Nano Dimension has produced a product which, arguably can be best described as a true disruptive force within the electronic assembly space. We’re all experienced with inkjet printers. Ink jet nozzles travel from left to right back and forth over a sheet of paper. When the printing process has been completed, out shoots a sheet of paper with text or images deposited on the paper’s surface. Now, imagine a different type of printer. Instead of four-color ink cartridges there are two basic inks, one a dielectric ink and the other a silver-based conductive ink. The print heads travel back and forth and, when the printing process is finished, out pops a multilayer circuit board complete with vias, through-holes, ground planes, and conductive traces, and markings, ready for component placement and reflow. Need another board, just press print. This technology gives new meaning to "printed circuit board." This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.

Merger and acquisition activity took a bit of a breather last summer as Covid protocols kicked in, but has really heated up since calendar flipped to 2021. Our guest is Bruce Mahler is Vice president and general manager at Ohmega and Ticer Technologies. Both are recent additions to Quantic Electronics, a newly formed umbrella company focusing on electronics components and materials. We break down what that means for printed circuit board engineers today on this episode of PCB Chat.   This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.

  Welcome to episode number 5 of the Concept to Creation Podcast. I’m so glad you’re here. Today, my guests are Robert Boguski and Regina Lathrop. They are the husband-wife team behind Datest, a Fremont California based company which provides advanced, integrated PCBA testing and inspection services, serving the CM and EMS industries as well as the OEM community since 1984. Robert and Regina purchased Datest in 2005 with business partners then bought out those partners in 2009. I think in many ways, purchasing a company is perhaps even more challenging than starting one from scratch. Rob and Regina describe their early venture as a rehabilitation project.   This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.      

IMI Inc., a printed circuit board fabricator in Haverhill, MA, celebrated its 50th anniversary in May. CEO and president Peter Bigelow joins Mike Buetow to discuss the company's golden anniversary, its focus on niche PTFE boards, and how manufacturing in the US might attract new talent for future prosperity.   This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.

Mike Konrad a guest on the Pick-Place Podcast with Chris Denney (Worthington Assembly) and Melissa Hough (CircuitHub). This is the second of a two-part interview. This episode gets us into the nitty gritty details of how to implement a proper circuit board cleaning process. In the first part of this conversation (RM 68) we delve into the history of board cleaning, the electronics the industry's transition to primarily using no-clean flux, and why more and more companies are reintroducing board cleaning back into their assembly process.   This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.  

Dr. Mike Bixenman and Tom Forsythe talk about the founding of Kyzen Corporation, a multinational chemical manufacturer for the electronics cleaning and metal cleaning industry. They discuss the early days and challenges they faced along the way. They even disclose the "secret" meaning of an early ad campaign featuring the  cryptic message "2LG2Q"!   This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.

Each year CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY publishes its rankings of the 50 largest EMS/ODM companies. Editor in chief Mike Buetow offers a recap of the Year of Covid, and provides insights on a few under-the-radar trends that could have seismic effects down the road.   This podcast is brought to you by Turnkey PRO from Sierra Circuits. What if you could source your components, upload your specs and receive an instant quote in less than 15 minutes? What if your designs could be fabricated, assembled and delivered to your door in five days with a guarantee of zero defects? Then try Turnkey PRO by Sierra Circuits for your next design, and use promo code PCBCHAT to receive $200 off your next order.  

Mike Konrad joins Chris Denney (Worthington Assembly) and Melissa Hough (CircuitHub) on the Pick-Place Podcast . This is the first of a two-part interview.   In this episode we are joined by Mike Konrad to chat about board cleaning best practices. Mike founded  Aqueous Technologies in 1992 in response to the Montreal Protocol and the resulting international treaty banning most popular cleaning/defluxing solvents. Their board cleaning equipment assists manufacturers with increasing product reliability while saving both water and energy, reducing the industry's environmental impact.   In addition to being the President of Aqueous Technologies, he is also a fellow podcaster and runs the Reliability Matters Podcast, which discusses reliability of circuit assemblies, reliability "best practices" and success stories.   In the first part of this conversation we delve into the history of board cleaning, the electronics the industry's transition to primarily using no-clean flux, and why more and more companies are reintroducing board cleaning back into their assembly process.   If you want to listen to us get into the nitty-gritty details of how to implement a proper circuit board cleaning process, make sure to listen to the second half of this episode. Chris Denney may be reached at cdenney@worthingtonassembly.com Melissa Hough may be reached at melissa@circuithub.com