ACI Technologies Inc. (ACI) is a scientific research corporation dedicated to the advancement of electronics manufacturing processes and materials for The Department of Defense and industry. The company operates the U.S. Navy's Center of Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing (Electronics Manufacturing Productivity Facility EMPF), and the U.S. Army's Electronics Sustainment Center (AESC). 
http://www.aciusa.org/ 

IPC is a global trade association dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 2,700 member companies which represent all facets of the electronics interconnect industry, including design, printed circuit board manufacturing and electronics assembly. 
http://www.ipc.org/default.aspx 

BEST is an IPC Master Certification Solder Training Center offering Instructor and Operator courses for IPC-A-610, J-STD-001, IPC/WHMA 620, IPC 7711/7721 as well as customized classes to meet you specific standard or criteria. Our IPC Training Division employs some of the most experienced instructors in the industry. 
http://solder.net/ 

Advanced Rework Technology is a fully independent training organisation, which has been presenting training courses since 1988. It is headed by Barry Morris, who has been involved in training for some twenty eight years. Our customer base includes many of the large, and smaller electronic companies around the UK. 
http://www.rework.co.uk/ 

IFTEC
Sessions de formation destinées aux techniciens, ingénieurs et opérateurs dans le domaine de la fabrication de cartes électroniques. 
http://www.iftec.fr/ 

Piek International Education Centre (I.E.C.) B.V. is a leading international IPC certified training institute for the entire electronics manufacturing industry. 
http://www.piekiec.eu/ 

GlobalSpec is the leading specialized vertical search, information services and e-publishing company serving the engineering, manufacturing and related scientific and technical market segments. The company provides its buy-side users with domain-expert search engines, a broad range of proprietary and aggregated Web-based content and over 60+ product and industry e-newsletters that help engineers and related professionals perform their key job tasks with the highest levels of accuracy and productivity. 
http://www.globalspec.com/ 

SMTnet.com is an industry portal site bringing together providers and users of the products, services, and information related to electronics manufacturing. We started in 1995 as a small list directory of companies and have grown to be an important part of the industry we serve today. 
http://www.smtnet.com/ 

Circuitnet - Electronics Manufacturing and Electronics Assembly News
CircuitNet is a free email newsletter covering electronics manufacturing and assembly. PCB, PC fab, assembly, test, EMS news, equipment, white papers, ... 
http://www.circuitnet.com/ 

EMSNow provides the Electronics Manufacturing Sector, and its supporting supplier and customer bases, a single, real-time information and analysis source covering the global aspects of this critical industry. EMSNow focuses on the business of the EMS industry. 
http://www.emsnow.com/ 

EMTWorldWide is a suite of electronic publishing products for Electronics Manufacturing & Test decision-makers. 
http://www.emtworldwide.com/ 

Evertiq is an online news portal for the European electronics manufacturing supply chain. 
http://www.evertiq.com/ 

 


IPC Surface Mount Equipment Manufacturers Association Council Position on Counterfeit and Inferior Parts and Unlicensed Software

The IPC Surface Mount Equipment Manufacturers Association (SMEMA) is committed to delivering the industry -- their customers -- well running, safe, quality products to facilitate the continued growth of the electronics assembly industry.
Unfortunately, counterfeit inferior reworked, refurbished, and cannibalized parts and illegally transferred or copied software destroy the quality, reliability, safety and dependability of the equipment we proudly produce.

It is therefore the IPC SMEMA Council’s position that equipment and software warranty and support obligations should not apply where the customer has altered or modified equipment manufacturers' products without prior written approval, where damages have resulted from noncompliance with published operating procedures, or where the customer has used replacement parts or software not supplied by the manufacturer or authorized suppliers.

To highlight this potential problem for our customers, the IPC SMEMA Council urges its members to consider modification of their terms and conditions to emphasize that equipment manufacturers are not responsible for damage caused by counterfeit inferior reworked, refurbished, and cannibalized parts and illegally transferred or copied software and that use of such items will result in the warranty on the equipment being void. The following is a link to a tool in IPC SMEMA Council’s Anti-Counterfeit Toolkit www.ipc.org/anti-counterfeit-tools.

We regret that some of our valued customers have been misled by producers and suppliers of counterfeit inferior reworked, refurbished, and cannibalized parts and illegally transferred or copied software but equipment manufacturers cannot be responsible for use of such items - which have neither been manufactured nor approved as to quality, reliability and safety. We urge the industry to avoid use of these items in order to avoid quality, reliability and safety issues as well.

IPC SMEMA Council Steering Committee
Chairman