FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Josh Saunders

675 Trade Zone Blvd., Milpitas, CA, 95030

E-mail: josh.saunders@a-laser.com

Web site: www.fctassembly.com

June 2010

FCT Assembly to Hold Open House at California Facility

MILPITAS, Calif. —FCT Assembly announces that it will hold an Open House at its new facility in Milpitas, California from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on July 12, 2010. The new facility is located at 675 Trade Zone Blvd.

At the Open House, company representatives will walk attendees through a variety of processes, from CAD design though laser cutting, in a guided tour of the facility. Attendees will have the opportunity to view products from DEK, Advanced Tooling Design and FCT Assembly, including FCT Solder, Fine Line Stencil and A-Laser. Bob Dervaes, VP of Technology and Engineering for the Solder division, will hold a brief discussion and answer questions about the new facility.

“We are very excited to have settled into our permanent facility in Milpitas and look forward to the opportunities that are now available at this new location,” said Josh Saunders,.

FCT Assembly has numerous facilities in the United States, and is one of the electronics industry’s leading manufacturers of lead-free solder products, superior quality stencils, and precision laser cut parts. The new facility in California gives FCT Assembly the ability to respond the same day to many of its customers’ needs while maintaining ease of access to shipping for non-local customers.  Additionally, the increased square footage and building design will allow FCT to bring on new equipment and capabilities to meet growing demands for services.

For more information or to RSVP, e-mail Josh Saunders at josh.saunders@fctassembly.com.

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About FCT Assembly

FCT Assembly consists of three divisions: FCT Solder, Fine Line Stencil, and A-Laser. With numerous facilities in the United States, we are one of the electronics industry’s leading manufacturers of lead-free and leaded solder products, superior quality stencils, and precision cut parts.

At FCT Assembly, we set ourselves apart from our competitors by continuously studying new products and processes in order to uphold our reputation as a leader in technology. Our customers can always count on FCT Assembly to use the latest technology and to supply products with the highest quality.

For more information, visit www.fctassembly.com.

Laser cutting services facility

Our IR laser cutting services are ideal for a wide range of applications, but offer us some unique challenges.  When laser cutting metals, it is very important to identify more than just power and speed settings.  The path of the laser and order of the cuts can be critical to the success of each particular custom part.  Our laser operators have years of experience manipulating the settings and adjusting for detailed artwork, which helps us to stay ahead of the curve in the lase cutting services marketplace.  I believe we have some of the best laser cutting equipment available for high precision custom parts, but our technicians really make the difference.  They help us to make sure the tight tolerance and high quality work our customers expect get shipped out every time.

Today is the big day.  We are in the process of moving our laser cutting service to its permanent location in Milpitas, California. A big thank you to our production staff for the extra hours they have put in to ensure that our customers flow of work does not get interrupted.  We will use the weekend to test and calibrate the UV and IR laser systems, so that we can hit the ground running on Monday.  The new facility is fantastic and will be shown off next month when we have our Open House.  Details of the party will follow soon.  Our laser cutting services will certainly be enhanced by the new location.

It has been a very busy time for our laser cutting service.  We are finalizing the move into our permanent building in San Jose, getting through tradeshows, and working on too many new projects to count.  I’ve been amazed by the number of new UV laser friendly materials we are seeing in addition to the increased volume we are preparing for on the IR systems.  Nobody is taking it easy for the summer, that’s for certain.  The good news is that I am racking up the frequent flyer miles.  Our team is, as always, making all of the travel worth while by delivering outstanding parts for our newest opportunities and most loyal customers.  Our team and technology will keep us one of the premier laser cutting services in the United States.

Titanium is an interesting material to laser cut because of the thermal conductivity and reaction to oxygen.  Laser cutting services such as ours work with this material in thin foil form and need to be well versed in material handling just as much as cutting.  The benefit of laser cutting these materails is that you can limit material distortion, design much more intricate patterns, and achieve tighter tolerances than other cutting technologies.  We use pulsed lasers to decrease the heat affected zone to the smallest possible amount.  The UV laser technicians have designed tools specific to each metal type and thickness to give us the highest quality and longest lasting parts, because we understand the conditions these precision parts are used in.  Laser cutting services are all about equipment and experience and A-laser hase the best of both.

We will be showing our laser cutting services for the precision parts industry at Design 2 Parts Santa Clara next Wednesday and Thursday.  This is a great opportunity to show off some of the various materials we process and the detailed work we can provide.  Our laser cutting services focus on tight tolerance applications in the thinnest materials.  For instance, we have recently worked with .9 micron thick material.  The ability to handle such materials and achieve high quality cuts sets our laser cutting service apart from the others.  Please come visit us at booth #433 and make arrangements to have a free sample part cut for your project.

Thermal transfer materials are being laser cut at A-laser due to our ability to yield high quality, tight tolerance parts in a wide range of substrates.  Many of these applications are gasket like shapes requiring exact placement of fixturing holes to ensure the product has the ideal functionality.  Our laser cutting service focuses on producing parts to 1/2 mil tolerances every time we turn on the machines.  Laser cutting thin materials requires additional attention to handling and storage, so our processes are designed to protect the precision parts we create.

A-Laser is one division within a family that forms FCT Assembly.  In addition to precision parts manufacturing, we produce SMT stencils, leaded and lead-free solder bar, flux , and paste, and offer metal reclain services.  Most of this work focuses on the contract manufacturers and OEM’s related to the PCB industry.  A-Laser covers both more of a broad and narrow spectrum.  Broad in that we work with vastly different companies each day, but narrow because we provide a very niche service. Our lasers are some of the most precise lasers at work in the United States right now and UV frequency lasers that have the ability to route rather than simply drill or etch are dificult to find.  UV laser cutting provides very high quality parts without the mess associated with our other hot cutting systems. 

Fineline Stencil uses similar high precision IR frequency lasers to cut their products.  The equipment, combined with excellent customer support and quick turn times, has positioned Fine Line as one of the premier stencil providers in the nation.

FCT Solder has a leg up on the lead free solder market as a liscensee of Nijon Superior’s Sn100c.  This product, among many others is helping FCT Solder to lead the way as new demands are placed on circuit board manufacturers.

FCT Recovery is our newest division aimed at reclaim services.  Our focus is offering a transparent and simple means to dispose of materials that take up space and create hassles for manufacturers.

These companies share a goal of high quality, excellent service, and value.

We are laser cutting silicon using our UV frequency lasers and are exploring the applications for this material is mems devices.  The UV lasers give us a very precise and very clean cut, but we are still hoping to remove about 3 microns of debris.  The laser systems are set up with a very good vacuum system already, but we are wondering if we should look for added vacuum on these jobs or try to create some sort of mask.  The laser cut mask idea is interesting and we will run trials to see if this has any effect on the substrate.  We hoped there would be an easy cleaning method available for these precision parts, but are being told that those will not work and we have to stop it before being deposited.  Laser cut mems applications are growing and we have some of the best equipment to meet these demands.

A-Laser is now an ITAR registered laser cutting service.  The process was a few months long, which really isn’t all that awful.  It could have been much longer had we not been given assistance from customers that have already been through the registration themselves.