SMT Production Capability

Well, one of the things that we'll need to replace is the fact that all of our current boards use through hole components. (if that makes any sense)

Joe

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Any University that teaches with Mydata or Contact probably isn't worth your time. And with the increases in admissions I cant see why any University worth its salt would use such "rudimentary equations". How about cancling the football and basketball programs and funneling that money into actual education? But I guess that would upset the Alumni now wouldn't it?

Don't forget about AOI, AOX and how about education programs on Boundry scan test. Test Engineers are hard to find. Oh and how about lead-free SMT as well as wave solder. How about cleaning lead-free assemblies?

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Bobby, Thank you for your first contribution to the forum. I am perplexed as to why you, like many others, feel the necessity to bad mouth companies that you personally have never visited. I am also wondering why the people that bash companies like Contact never come out of the closet and reveal their identity.

Let me point out some problems I have with your �theories�.

First, you theorize that small companies such as Contact are going to be higher in price. This has never been, and still is not the case. We, like all of our competition, have been cost engineering our products to meet the requirements of today�s pick and place market. This has resulted in the development of the C5. The C5 is a spin-off of our C7. The C7 was developed during a time of industry prosperity and therefore is loaded with extensive standard features such as the high throughput multi board indexing conveyor, tape cutters, and smart feeders to name a few. Recognizing the shift in industry demands prompted our development of the C5. Although the layout of the machine architecture is quite different (and quite unique) the same technology has been employed thus dramatically shortening the product development time. There is great excitement in our factory now as we build the first units.

Secondly, you errantly misinform the public about our service capabilities. We have 5 service technicians available for phone support, 3 of which are also travelers. This has proven to be more than enough coverage during the industry downturn and our service has not been compromised in the least. If the industry continues to recover, we will undoubtedly add service personnel accordingly.

Finally, I welcome all visitors to come to our factory to judge for themselves what the future holds for Contact. Or come to Apex and see the C7 and C5 (booth 561). Tell me you read this post in the SMTnet forum and I will give you my own personal �song and dance�.

Respectfully, Greg Pompea Vice President of Engineering Contact Systems

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Bobby

I read with interest your recent commentary on Contact Systems. One item that caught my eye was your instruction to possible users of Contact Equipment to be wary of their used machines.

We at Magellan Service have been providing support to over three hundred manufacturing facilities where Contact machines are installed. This has taken place over the past seven years, and we have supported facilities with new and used Contact machines. We also provide reconditioning, training, retrofits, on site service, contract Preventative Maintenance, and phone support.

Having said this, we speak to Contact service personel on a weekly basis. Each time we have placed calls to their facility, someone is available for phone support. We also purchase spare parts from Contact. Parts have been readily available.

It may interest you to know, of the 4,000 plus thru hole machines manufactured by Contact, over 95% are still in production, not bad for a machine which began its life cycle over 16 years ago.

In addition, over 99% of the C3S's, AV's, AVX's, and Z's are still in production facilities running strong. When first introduced, it was one of the most desireable platforms for use in Contract Manufacturing facilities. They are flexible, easy to program, user freindly machines. You can call our offices at anytime and we will gladly run down the list of standard features that make this machine a proven success in the field.

Magellan Service has installed used Contact machines at learning facilities. The machines' low cost, flexible platform, and ease of programming/use make them a cost effective and user freindly training platform. I would gladly have you come to our facility, we have for years trained new users in a days time on all aspects of running and programming on these machines. Why spend thousands more on a machine to be used in a classroom environment?

Lastly, the C7 is not a bust. Yes, Contact has spent several years on its development, but the machine is in the field building real product. And if this platform ends up being nothing more than a development tool for the C5, so much the better for the end user.

Feel free at anytime to call for information concerning Contact manufactured machines. I have personally worked on this equipment for 15 years and firmly beleive that these machines are not going away.

Regards,

Robert Tomaselli, President Magellan Service Corp Office 860 489 5119 Mobile 203 232 4308

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