Events: The SMCBA has been very active this year with its Technical Program. Never before in the ten year history of the Association has there been as many and varied range of professional development programs available to Members and the electronics industry generally. Fifteen (15) Surface Mount Rework programs have been completed in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Geraldton, Adelaide, Auckland and Christchurch and involved as many as 150 participants. My thanks go to Terry Clitheroe the Instructor for these programs for the tremendous amount of effort he has put into the programs. We also conducted specialised workshops for the designers in Melbourne and Sydney in March. These workshops were presented by Mr Gary Ferrari who is the Executive Director of the IPC Designers Council.

Free technical sessions on board finishes where conducted in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland and in May, again in these three cities, we conducted the Inaugural Australasian SMT Academy with the support of DIST, the SMTA and IHS Publishing. This program was a great success and reached more than ninety (90) people in the industry. It is proposed to develop this program as an annual event. My thanks go to Ed Hale who put a great deal of effort into the running of our first SMT Academy and to those organisations who provided equipment and services to enable the practical demonstrations - AMT-Indium, Axion Australasia, BOC Gases, Machinery Forum, Morris Productions and Precision Circuits. The Association also during the year became involved in a four way sponsorship arrangement with the Canberra Institute of Technology and two other members AEMS and Cooper Tools to assist in sending Ken Galvin to the United States to undertake training as an instructor for the IPC-A-610B operator and inspector program and the MTTC’s ANSI/J-STD-001B program. Since completing these programs Ken has conducted a great number of programs for Members and conducted two IPC-A-610B programs for the SMCBA in Melbourne and Sydney. It is planned that more of these programs will be offered in the coming year.

Surface Mount ‘98 is now underway with numbers well up on SM’96 and hopefully by the end of the week will have exceed SM’97 - particularly if the gas gets turned on!!! Our thanks go to the sponsors of Surface Mount ‘98”:

Australian Electronic Manufacturing Services
Bluegum Group
Consolidated Alloys
Hewlett-Packard
Indium Corporation
Multicore Solders
Philips Components
Precision Circuits
Screencraft Manufacturing

and AEEMA, AEE Magazine, Australian Exhibition Services (organisers of Elenex), BOC Gases, EDAC Systems and Morris Circuits.

Designers Council: Under the auspices of the SMCBA the Australasian Chapter of the IPC Designers Council was established in Australia and New Zealand. The Chapter is working very well in Melbourne, experiencing a few logistical problems in Sydney and planning is underway to be more active in the other centres.

Financial Results: The Association operated at a surplus of just over $4,000 in 1997/98. Membership continues to grow enabling the SMCBA to expand its services and subsidise library subscriptions. Surpluses in some of the professional development programs enabled the SMCBA to establish the SMT Academy which understandably ran at a loss in its inaugural year, these programs are also essential to the day to day operation of this industry association.
The Outlook for 1999 for the SMCBA: As we enter the second decade of our existence (remembering the first ten years are the hardest!) we are facing possibly the most difficult period for the Electronics Industry. The current environment, Asian crisis, fluctuating Australian dollar, closure of large plants, inactivity of Governments highlight the significant changes facing the electronics industry as we approach the year 2000. The Y2K bug will lead to an exciting six month period and on top of this new technologies are about to be implemented - DCA, Flip Chip, CSP, Micro BGAs; all of these technologies are about to be embraced on the Australian/New Zealand scene.
We live in interesting times, we need the SMCBA and the SMCBA needs your support for the next 10 years.
In Conclusion: My thanks to all members of the Executive Committee and Sub-Committees. These volunteer people put in long and hard hours through their dedication to the electronics industry in Australia and New Zealand. Thanks must also go to the various companies that the Executive Committee Members work for particularly for their donation of peoples time and the financial support they give. Congratulations to the new Executive Committee Members Stephen Wilce and Hugh Crowther - you will no longer have to volunteer for jobs they will of course now be delegated to you!!! My thanks to the outgoing member of the Committee Laurie Thomas who has served on the Executive on and off since 1988.
The SMCBA is celebrating ten years of service to the electronics industry in this region. The efforts of this Association since 1988 have been recognised internationally - please spread the word amongst your colleagues of the benefits of membership and don’t forget that it is up to you to use your membership.
Thanks to all those who have supported our programs in 1997/98.

- Hugh Kelly, President SMCBA

NEW DESK MANUALS RELEASED The IPC has released three desk manuals for easy reference guides:

IPC-DRM-18 Component Identification Desk Reference Manual
Assembly operators can have an immediate component identification resource at their workstations with the Component ID Desk Reference Manual. This comprehensive reference manual contains colour photographs and full descriptions of more than 40 of the most commonly used through-hole and surface mount components, interconnections and hardware used in electronic assembly today. Also included is a terminology section with quick hard facts on polarity, orientation, lead styles and CRDs. The band-reading section has full colour, easy to use code charts and other component value data.

IPC-DRM-40 Through-Hole Solder Joint Evaluation Desk Reference Manual
Through-hole assembly inspectors now have an easy to use desk reference manual which contains pictorial interpretations of the soldering requirements of the J-STD-001 and the additional soldering workmanship standards contained in the IPC-A-610. Clear, conclusive photographs are provided for target conditions, minimum acceptable conditions and non-conforming defects in a simple to understand format. Also included is a terminology section.

IPC-DRM SMT Desk Reference Manual for Surface Mount Solder Joint Evaluation
To help your workforce understand and apply the surface mount acceptance criteria from the IPC-A-610B and the J-STD-001B, the IPC has produced a new Desk Reference Manual. This manual contains 3D colour graphics for chip component, gull wing and J-lead solder joints. The acceptance criteria associated with each image are referenced to the specific paragraph in the 610/001 documents in case there questions.

Available ex stock from the SMCBA - for pricing please phone our office on (03) 9568 0599

SMT Academy Thank You...
The inaugural SMT Academy would not have been possible without the assistance of: AMT-Indium, Axion Australasia, BOC Gases, Machinery Forum, Morris Productions, Multicore Solders and Precision Circuits.
Thanks also to Geoff Griffiths (Precision Circuits), Velimir Hirsl (Philips), Tom O'Reilly (Hypertec) and David Muscat (Arqtek Design) for their presentations to meetings of the SMCBA and the IPC Designers Council.

For Your Diary
Surface Mount '98
and Elenex '98
October 5-9
Melbourne