Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc.

Integrated Micro-electronics, Inc. (abbreviated as IMI, ) provides electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and power semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS) with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America. Its headquarters is located in Biñan, Laguna, Philippines.
IMI serves original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in diversified markets that include those in the automotive, industrial, medical, telecommunications infrastructure, storage device, and consumer electronics industries. Its customized solutions range from design and engineering solutions, advance manufacturing engineering capabilities, new product introduction services, manufacturing solutions, reliability tests, failure analysis, equipment calibration capabilities, test and system development, and support and fulfillment. The manufacturing portfolio of AC Industrials, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ayala Corporation, IMI is listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
History.
IMI started on August 8, 1980 as a joint venture between Ayala Corporation and Resins, Inc. With its headquarters in Muntinlupa, they were just a workforce of around 100 employees with total fixed assets of US$3,700,290 and it is engaged in the assembly of integrated circuits. In 1982, it took a contract manufacturing with its hard disk drive sub-assembly operations and, in 1986, it started the assembly of automotive hybrid integrated circuits.
In the year 1988, the company ventured into custom printed circuit board assembly and operations and in the next years, it offered standard printed circuit board assembly services with the acquisition of automated surface mounting equipment, and eventually, full product assembly and flexible printed circuit board assembly operations.
The company moved its manufacturing site in 1995 from Cupang, Muntinlupa to its present location at the Laguna Technopark. In 1998, IMI commenced offering hardware and software design services, that transitions the company to a total electronics manufacturing service provider. By 2001, IMI had three manufacturing sites in the Philippines.
As of 2023, IMI has 20 manufacturing sites of +330,072m² with more than 14,076 employees across 10 countries. From an EMS company, it expanded its scope to include EMS and Power Semiconductor Assembly and Test Services. IMI is also into prototyping, manufacturing, product test development, testing and order fulfillment.
Global expansion.
IMI has multiple manufacturing sites in Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, and the United States providing solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) catering for both regional and international markets.
The company began to establish its presence outside the Philippines. In 2005, IMI acquired the EMS assets of Saturn Electronics and Engineering Inc. in the US and the Speedy-Tech Electronics Ltd of Singapore. The acquisition of Speedy-Tech eventually led to the establishment of IMI's presence in China—through three facilities, namely, two in Shenzhen and one in Jiaxing.
By 2006, the company became one of the top 50 EMS companies in the world.
IMI strengthened its presence in Europe and South America in 2011 through the acquisition of EPIQ NV subsidiaries in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Mexico.
In August 2016, IMI announced that it will acquire 76.01 percent stake in the optical bonding and display solutions provider, VIA optronics GmbH. This brings new technology to IMI for display solution in the automotive industry by providing automotive camera and display monitor solutions for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
IMI also acquired 80 percent stake of Surface Technology International (STI) Enterprise, in 2017, through the subsidiary Integrated Micro-Electronics UK Ltd. STI is an electronics design and manufacturing solutions in both printed circuit board assembly and full box-build manufacturing for high-reliability industries such as aerospace and defense markets. It has two manufacturing sites in United Kingdom, as well as in Cebu, Philippines, and a design center in London.
Domestic expansion.
In 2010, IMI acquired PSi Technologies, a power semiconductor assembly and test service provider. The company bought the minority shares of PSi Technologies in 2014.
In January 2015, IMI acquired the remaining shares of PSi from private investment firms Narra Venture Capital II LP and Narra Associates II Limited.
In 2016, Ayala Corporation announced that it will consolidate its businesses in car dealership and industrial operations into a wholly owned subsidiary AC Industrials—this includes IMI. IMI has the major role of being the manufacturing arm of AC Industrials for its wide range of portfolio. The first project was the motorcycle assembly factory in partnership with KTM AG group under KTM Asia Motorcycle.
Stock exchange listing.
On January 21, 2010, IMI listed 1.137 billion common shares in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
It has completed its follow-on offering and listing of 215,000,000 common shares on December 5, 2014. IMI has 1,856,899,921 outstanding shares, as of March 31, 2015.
Capabilities.
IMI is an EMS player in the automotive industry. Aside from assembly services, IMI provides automotive tier 1 suppliers and original equipment manufacturer services such as design and product development and test systems development. The company manufactures safety electronics for vehicles such as automotive cameras and airbag controls.
The company also produces access control devices design against theft and dosimeters. It is also involved in the robotics industry. In addition to these, IMI also produces medical diagnostic devices and telecom infrastructure devices.
Its technology groups collaborate with one another and with customers to develop platforms or baseline technologies in areas such as camera and imaging, motor drives, power modules, lighting systems, short range wireless, human-to-machine interface, sensors, and medical electronics.
Engineering.
Design & Development.
The Design & Development (D&D) group of IMI focuses on complex automation deployments in different internal segments, business units, and external customers which includes applications in automation handling, dispensing, screwing, and customized auto feeding system for mass production. It has an extensive competencies in electronic design, mechanical design, and software development, and building platforms in the areas of automotive cameras, motor drives, and power modules. D&D provides full design services from concept to product validation. Contract design and joint development solutions of IMI is integrated in D&D, which includes power electronics, embedded systems, camera and imaging systems, motor drives, power modules, power semiconductors, LED lighting and display design, and low and high radio-frequency design.
Advanced Manufacturing Engineering.
The Advanced Manufacturing Engineering (AME) works on several industrial microelectromechanical systems-based inertial measurement unit modules, commercial laser display modules, and automotive camera modules, including the IMI minicube camera platform. AME is developing a fully automated assembly line that manufactures a complex electro-mechanical assembly for automotive safety and security electronic control at IMI Jiaxing as well as in IMI Mexico. AME is collaborating with D&D on a low cost automotive camera and power modules.
Test & Systems Development.
IMI's Test & Systems Development (TSD) expanded the development and application of fully automated test systems that integrate common backend process requirements—product marking, automated inspection, and unit sorting. It also developed an innovative test solutions for automotive electronics, EV vehicle boards and power electronics. It designed and implemented a new line of testers for power module devised and collaborated with a customer to build a fully automated tester for power train boards for EV.
Camera & Vision Technology.
The Camera and Vision Technology (CVT) group equips IMI to be ready with autonomous driving. A spun off from the D&D in 2016, the group focuses on developing vision-based products that support the different Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) applications. In 2017, The group synced with AME and TSD to become a one-stop shop solution for camera design, prototype development and mass production.
Manufacturing.
Manufacturing Solutions.
As initially an EMS company, the manufacturing arm of IMI produces products for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Some manufacturing solutions of IMI are automotive camera, power modules, complete box builds, sub-assembly, component assembly, precision assembly and automated through-hole assembly.
Plastic Capability.
IMI also manufactures plastic parts in Asia, Europe and North America that makes box-build capabilities accessible to its partners in automotive, industrial and consumer electronics industries. It integrates parts such as covers, housings and connectors in sub-assemblies, specializing in electronic box-build. Low pressure molding and thermoforming are the process capabilities of IMI.
Precision Machining.
The Precision Machining group is capable of fabricating components for various parts of any material for its customers. Some of the processes includes, material preparation in vertical and horizontal band saw, squaring on conventional machines (milling), CNC machining, finishing grinding deburring machine, coordinate measuring machine (CCM), and metal sheet works.
Motorcycle Assembly.
IMI produces motorcycle for the KTM AG group. A joint venture between KTM Asia Motorcycle Manufacturing (KAMMI) and Adventure Cycle Philippines of AC Industrials, IMI assembles four (4) models of the KTM motorcycles in its plant in Laguna, Philippines.
Starting in 2024, IMI will manufacture motorcycles for Zero.
System Integration.
The System Integration group of IMI integrates different subsystem and modules into one large system. It serves a wide variety of complex build-to-print and contract design manufacturing requirements and increases value to systems by adding new functionalities while linking all functions of different systems. IMI combines complex PCBAs, electronics and mechanical assemblies with robotics into one system.
Subsidiaries and Affiliates.
IMI has four wholly owned subsidiaries that carry out the business through the various operating entities globally:
IMI Singapore.
IMI Singapore or officially IMI International (Singapore) Pte Ltd. wholly owns Speedy-Tech Electronics Ltd. when IMI acquired it on 2005. STEL, which provides EMS and power electronics, manages the China and Singapore operations. IMI Singapore also holds Cooperatief IMI Europe U.A that manages the Europe and Mexico operations from the acquisition of EPIQ NV. IMI ROHQ is also an affiliate that serves as a supervisory, communications and coordinating center for IMI Singapore affiliates and subsidiaries. It holds the stake of IMI in VIA Optronics and IMI UK which has stake in STI Enterprises.
IMI USA.
IMI USA, Inc. acts as direct support to the Group's customers by providing program management, customer service, engineering development and prototype manufacturing services. It is also engaged in precision assembly of surface mount technology, chip on flex, chip on board, flip chip on flex, advanced manufacturing process development, engineering development, prototype manufacturing, and small precision assemblies.
IMI Japan.
IMI Japan, Inc. offers the services, such as technical, quality assurance, sales and commercial support, to answer the needs diverse range of Japanese-based OEMs. It also functions as a program management center for new business that will be endorsed to other subsidiaries. There are no manufacturing operations in IMI Japan.
PSi Technologies.
PSi Technologies, Inc. is a Philippine company, that provides power semiconductor assembly and test services, that IMI bought shares of 56%, and in 2012 it was fully acquired by IMI through the acquisition of the minority of the shares.
Reception.
IMI received Circuit Assembly's 2007 Service Excellence Award for the Highest Overall Customer Ranking for medium-sized EMS company category. (Circuit Assembly is a US-based electronics industry trade publication that recognizes companies that receive the highest customer service ratings, as judged by their own customers.) The ASEAN Business Advisory Council, hailed IMI as one of the 12 most admired companies in Southeast Asia.
IMI ranks 18th on the list of top EMS providers in the world based on 2014 EMS-related revenues as reported by Manufacturing Market Insider. It is also the 7th largest EMS player in the automotive industry as reported by New Venture Research based on 2014 EMS-related revenues.
IMI's Analytical Testing and Calibration (ATC) laboratory was granted accreditation for ISO/IEC 17025:2005 on January 8, 2016, by the Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) of the Department of Trade and Industry. The accreditation demonstrates technical competence for the scope specified by the PAB and the operation of a laboratory quality management system that meets the principles of .
Social involvement.
IMI has a corporate social responsibility program. IMI began a sustainable community livelihood program through a partnership with ChildFund Foundation and Yakap sa Kaunlaran ng Bata, Inc. (YKBI). Along with this organization IMI, provided the women from the Parents Association of San Pablo and Bay, Laguna, with 10 sewing machines to encourage them toward self-reliance and supplement their entrepreneurial skills. The Parents Associations of both communities are now sewing blouses for Krizia, a garment manufacturer.


Pad printing

Pad printing (also called tampography) is a printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3-D object (e.g., a ceramic pottery). This is accomplished using an indirect offset (gravure) printing process that involves an image being transferred from the cliché via a silicone pad onto a substrate. Pad printing is used for printing on otherwise difficult to print on products in many industries including medical, automotive, promotional, apparel, and electronic objects, as well as appliances, sports equipment and toys. It can also be used to deposit functional materials such as conductive inks, adhesives, dyes and lubricants.
Physical changes within the ink film both on the cliché and on the pad allow it to leave the etched image area in favor of adhering to the pad, and to subsequently release from the pad in favor of adhering to the substrate.
The unique properties of the silicone pad enable it to pick the image up from a flat plane and transfer it to a variety of surfaces, such as flat, cylindrical, spherical, compound angles, textures, concave, or convex surfaces.
History.
While crude forms of pad printing have existed for centuries, it was not until the twentieth century that the technology became suitable for widespread use. First gaining a foothold in the watch-making industry following World War II, developments in the late 60s and early 70s, such as silicone pads and more advanced equipment, made the printing method far more practical. The ability to print on formerly unprintable surfaces caught the imaginations of engineers and designers, and as a result pad printing exploded into the mass production marketplace.
Today, pad printing is a well established technology covering a wide spectrum of industries and applications.
Process.
Plate and ink interface technologies.
Open inkwell system.
Open ink well systems, the older method of pad printing, used an ink trough for the ink supply, which was located behind the printing plate. A flood bar pushed a pool of ink over the plate, and a doctor blade removes the ink from the plate surface, leaving ink on the etched artwork area ready for the pad to pick up.
Sealed ink cup system.
Sealed ink cup systems employ a sealed container which acts as the ink supply, flood bar and doctor blade all at the same time. A ceramic ring with a highly polished working edge provides the seal against the printing plate.
Printing pad.
Pads are three-dimensional objects typically molded of silicone rubber. They function as a transfer vehicle, picking up ink from the printing plate, and transferring it to the part (substrate). They vary in shape and diameter depending on the application.
There are two main shape groups: "round pads" and long narrow pads called "bar pads". Pads are also made in other shapes, called "loaf pads". Within each group there are three size categories: small, medium, and large size pads. It is also possible to engineer custom-shaped pads to meet special application requirements.
Image plate.
Image plates (also called clichés or print plates) are used to contain the desired artwork "image" etched in its surface. Their function is to hold ink in this etched cavity, allowing the pad to pick up this ink as a film in the shape of the artwork, which is then transferred to the substrate.
There are two main types of printing plate materials: photopolymer and steel. Photopolymer plates are the most popular, as they are easy to use. These are typically used in short to medium production runs. Steel plates come in two forms: thin steel for medium to long runs, and thick steel for very long runs. Both steel plate types are generally processed by the plate supplier as it involves the use of specialized equipment.
Multicolor applications can be executed by the coordinated use of several clichés. One image can contain several contrast colors (monochrome) by applying different engraving depths and/or grid resolutions.
Printing ink.
Ink is used to mark or decorate parts. It comes in different chemical families to match the type of material to be printed (please consult the substrate compatibility chart for selection).
Pad printing inks are often "solvent-based" and require mixing with additives before use. They typically seem dry to the touch within seconds although complete drying (cure) might take a substantially longer period of time. There are FDA approved edible variants that have been developed for human consumption and more ecological variants to reduce the environmental impact.
There are many more options. Inks that cure via the use of ultraviolet light are convenient for certain applications. UV inks will not fully cure until UV light hits the ink. UV curable ink can be wiped off many substrates when mistakes are made. They can be cured with UV light in as fast as 1 second of light exposure. This depends on the ink, substrate and the light power and spectrum. UV inks can be reused as the pot life can be high as long as the ink stays clean, blocked from UV light and hasn't broken down from sitting. This same feature makes it easier to clean than some solvent and epoxy like two part component inks. Also there are heat curable inks, which work in much the same way as UV in the sense that there is a "trigger" that cures the ink when pulled. Two-component inks usually have a pot life of only a few hours or so. They must be disposed of when they cannot be revived (by means of retarders etc.)
Climatic conditions will significantly affect the performance of any pad printing ink, especially the open ink well style printers. Too dry conditions can lead to faster evaporation of solvents causing the ink to thicken prematurely and too much moisture can lead to ink issues of "clumping" or something similar. Also the climate can affect other aspects of the printing process such as ink pick up and release from the plate to the pad to the substrate, as well as polymer plate to blade chattering or binding due to humidity.
Substrate.
Substrate is the technical term used to address any parts or materials to be printed. Fixtures vary in materials and complexity depending on the application. Substrates need to be clean and free from surface contamination to allow proper ink adhesion.
Making of printing plates.
There are two main techniques used to create a printing plate. The traditional technique requires a UV exposure unit and involves photo exposure with film positives and chemical etching. A second technique known as "computer to plate" requires a laser engraver and involves automated laser etching. The latter technique is more convenient for short production delays, high precision, stable quality control.
Both techniques can be applied on a specialized polymer or steel plate. The standard cycle life that can be expected out of a polymer plate is quite low (50,000 impressions on the high end). By comparison, a hardened steel plate can easily last for over 1 million impressions.
Printing application examples.
Pad printing is typically used for applications where print quality, precision or a complex shape is involved.


Digital thread

Digital thread, also known as digital chain, is defined as “the use of digital tools and representations for design, evaluation, and life cycle management.”. It is a data-driven architecture that links data gathered during a Product lifecycle from all involved and distributed manufacturing systems. This data can come from any part of product's lifecycle, its transportation, or its supply chain. Digital thread "enables the collection, transmission, and sharing of data and information between systems across the product lifecycle" to enable real-time decision making, gather data, and iterate on the product.
The term 'digital thread' was first used in the Global Horizons 2013 report by the USAF Global Science and Technology Vision Task Force. Digital thread was further refined in 2018 by Singh and Willcox at MIT in their paper entitled "Engineering with a Digital Thread". In this academic paper the term digital thread is defined as "a data-driven architecture that links together information generated from across the product lifecycle and is envisioned to be the primary or authoritative data and communication platform for a company’s products at any instance of time."
Digital thread enables "data to be integrated into one platform, allowing seamless use of and ease of access to all data".
Applications.
Digital twin.
Idaho National Laboratories describes Digital Twin as "the merging of integrated and connected data, sensors and instrumentation, artificial intelligence, and online monitoring into a single cohesive unit."
It is a critical capability of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and the foundation for a Digital twin, which is defined as "a digital replica of a physical entity". In fact, digital thread was first described as related to Digital twin in the Global Horizons 2013 report. Digital thread is a means to gather data for use in the development of a Digital twin; "some argue [digital thread] is the backbone of digital twin applications". "digital thread platforms can capture data from different systems, standardize it, and provide a seamless link between the physical process or product and the digital twin". The term digital thread is also used to describe the traceability of the digital twin back to the requirements, parts and control systems that make up the physical asset.
Although digital thread and Digital twin are "every so often understood to be synonymous...they are not the same as Digital Twin relies on real-time data from its physical counterpart". "In short, digital thread describes the process while digital twin symbolizes technology". "Compared to the digital twin, the digital thread can support decision-making by designing and regulating the data interaction and processing instead of high-fidelity system models".
A digital thread enables a Digital twin by ensuring that incoming data is made uniform and easily accessible through the three main data chains:
Enabling a Digital twin could result in petabytes of data, and "necessitate the use of highly sophisticated tools and software."
Tools.
DeepLynx.
"DeepLynx is an ontological data warehouse with timeseries data support". It was primarily authored by John Darrington and Cristopher Ritter to tackle Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tool integrations and warehousing, and has evolved to enable support for digital twin.
Internet of things.
A key aspect of digital thread is the Internet of things, whose "cyber-physical systems, sensors, and so-called smart devices" are an important source of the data required by digital thread. "The ability to gather massive amounts of data through the aspired omnipresence of sensors furthermore fuels the emergence of other key technologies" such as Big data analytics, Artificial intelligence, and Cloud computing. "Thus, the data collected by using IoT technologies constitute the basis of advanced simulation models, which is in essence the livelihood of the digital twin paradigm and therefore also an integral part of the wider digital thread."
Smart manufacturing.
Big data analytics and artificial intelligence used in conjunction with Digital Thread are increasingly more required in smart manufacturing applications. Big data analytics is a "prerequisite for managing highly variable" data of smart manufacturing processes, gathered through digital thread. Artificial Intelligence can be trained using this data to create "autonomously self-improving production processes [14] and to facilitate organizational decision-making". "the digital thread paradigm not only leads to the accumulation and processing of massive amounts of data but is also shaped by the analytical results these both technologies provide".


Ultima Mk1

The Ultima Mk1 is a mid-engined concept kit car produced by Noble Motorsport Ltd in 1983 (the company later became Ultima Sports when Ted Marlow and Richard Marlow bought the rights in 1992). The Mk1 was intended to go into production, but before any sold the Ultima Mk2 was introduced, and thus only one Mk1 was made.
Required donor parts.
As the Ultima Mk1 was a kit car, it required a variety of donor parts to complete. The Mk1 uses the 2.6L V6 and five-speed transaxle from the Renault 30 as well as that car's driveshafts, hubs, wheel bearings and gear lever. It also uses the steering components, front uprights, front hubs, front brakes and handbrake lever from the Mk3 Ford Cortina as well as the radiator from the Austin Princess and rear calipers from the Lancia Beta.
Performance.
The Mk1 features a square tube space frame chassis and gull-wing doors. Its powered by the 2.6L (2664cc) V6 PRV engine and five-speed transaxle from the Renault 30 producing 96 kW (128.7 hp, 130 PS).


Costume shop

A costume shop is a space where costumes for theatrical or film productions are designed, built, and stored for the company or production. Costume designers, builders, seamstresses, and stitchers work in costume shops. The shops themselves can vary in size, from one large room to a house with multiple floors. Costumes from past productions, fabric, jewelry and accessories are often stored in the shop.
Purpose.
A costume shop is where the costumes worn on stage for a production are built. Some costume shops have washers for cleaning costumes, fitting rooms, racks for storage or spaces for designers to conceptualize a costume. Some shops allow rentals of their costumes. However, the most common and primary purpose for a costume shop is for building and finishing pieces that go onstage.
There is no standard layout for costume shops, though most have stations for stitching or surging, cutting tables, fabric storage, and finishing tables. A large an expansive costume shop style helps work to enable productions to be mounted lavishly and permit study and experimentation at the same time. The process of building a costume requires many steps and stations, which the costume designer first conceptualizes. But before building can begin, the designer must choose where the costumes will come from.
Once the show is designed, pieces can come from a multitude of places, but there are commonly four options:
The costume shop will search, place orders, create, organize, and dole out the costumes for each production and each character in the manner that best fits the costume and production itself. For instance, not every shoe is cobbled in the shop, or "in house"; some are bought and some are borrowed.
Jobs within.
Within a costume shop, there are people working on different parts of the creative or accumulative process. The size of the theatre or company will determine whether each job goes to one person, if a group of individuals share more than one job, or if everyone pitches in on everything.
Costume designer.
The costume designer is an integral part of the production's creative team. They work closely with the director to develop a look for the actors onstage that best serves the plot of the play and concept the director has envisioned. "The Costume Designer seeks inspiration from many sources, including interviews with the actors who will play the characters, and extensive historical and visual research." Whether the costume designer is a permanent position or a by-production hire will determine whether they are considered the head of the costume department or shop
Assistant designer.
The assistant designer helps the head designer with the jobs that must be completed. This includes but is not limited to research, shopping, rental acquisition and fittings for actors.
Cutter/draper.
The cutter/draper is responsible for making patterns, cutting, fitting and construction of costumes from specific designs or sketches supplied by the designer. "The Cutter may assist in selecting materials and supervising the costume construction." In most shops there are multiple cutters and drapers to ease and spread out work load.
Costume coordinator/supervisor/shop manager.
A shop manager is responsible for daily goings on in the shop, much like a manager in a building or restaurant. They deal with the costume budget from the producers, manufacturing and purchasing, as well as work and costume building schedules and production crew requirements.
Stitcher (sewer, seamstress, costume builder).
A stitcher works on the actual construction of the costumes. The stitcher will sometimes assist during fittings to help with pinning and alterations. This is the entry-level position in a costume shop and often the most common job that is open in a space. A stitcher will help pick up wherever needed, often stretching out from fittings, pinning, and alteration, to textiles, dye working and errands.


Automatic lathe

In metalworking and woodworking, an automatic lathe is a lathe with an automatically controlled cutting process. Automatic lathes were first developed in the 1870s and were mechanically controlled. From the advent of NC and CNC in the 1950s, the term automatic lathe has generally been used for only mechanically controlled lathes, although some manufacturers (e.g., DMG Mori and Tsugami) market Swiss-type CNC lathes as 'automatic'.
CNC has not yet entirely displaced mechanically automated lathes, as although no longer in production, many mechanically automated lathes remain in service.
General nomenclature.
The term "automatic lathe" is still often used in manufacturing in its earlier sense, referring to automated lathes of non-CNC types. The first automatic lathes were mechanically automated and controlled by cams or tracers and pantographs. Thus, before electronic automation via numerical control, the "automatic" in the term "automatic machine tool" always referred implicitly to "mechanical" automation.
The earliest mechanically automated lathes were geometric lathes, including rose engine lathes. In industrial contexts during the Machine Age, the term "automatic lathe" referred to mechanical screw machines and chuckers.
Since the maturation of CNC, the implicit dichotomy of "manual versus automatic" still exists, but because CNC is so ubiquitous, the term "automatic" has lost some of its distinguishing power. All CNC machine tools are automatic, but the usage in the machining industries does not routinely call them by that term. The term "automatic", when it is used at all, still often refers implicitly to cam-operated machines. Thus a 2-axis CNC lathe is not referred to as an "automatic lathe" even if fully automated.
Small- to medium-sized cam-operated automatic lathes are usually called screw machines or automatic screw machines. These machines work on parts that (as a rough guide only) are up to in diameter and in length. Screw machines almost invariably do "bar work", meaning a length of bar stock passes through the spindle and is gripped by the chuck (usually a collet chuck). As the part is being machined, the entire length of bar stock is rotated with the spindle. When the part is done, it is 'parted' from the bar, the chuck in released, the bar fed forward, and the chuck closed again, ready for the next cycle. The bar-feeding can happen by various means, including pulling-finger tools that grab the bar and pull or roller bar feed that pushes the bar from behind.
Larger cam-operated automatic lathes are usually called automatic chucking lathes, automatic lathes, automatic chuckers, automatics, or chuckers. The 'chucker' part of the name comes from the workpieces being discrete blanks, held in a bin called a "magazine", and each one takes a turn at being chucked and machined. (This is analogous to the way that each round of ammunition in the magazine of a semi-automatic pistol gets its turn at being chambered.) The blanks are either individual forgings or castings, or they are pre-sawn pieces of billet. However, some members of this family of machine tools turn bar work or work on centers (e.g., the Fay automatic lathe). Regarding bar work of large diameter (for example, or more), it is merely an academic point whether it is called "screw machine work" or just "automatic work".
Screw machine.
Screw machines, being the class of automatic lathes for small- to medium-sized parts, are used in the high-volume manufacture of a vast variety of turned components. During the Swiss screw machining process, the workpiece is supported with a guide bushing, near the cutting tool.
Screw machine nomenclature.
Speaking with reference to the normal definition of the term "screw machine", all screw machines are fully automated, whether mechanically (via cams) or by CNC, which means that once they are set up and started, they continue running and producing parts with little human intervention. Mechanical automation came first, beginning in the 1870s; computerized control (via first NC and then CNC) came later, beginning in the 1950s.
The name "screw machine" is somewhat of a metonym, as screw machines can make parts other than screws or that are not threaded. However, the archetypal use for which screw machines were named was screw-making.
The definition of the term "screw machine" has changed with changing technology. Any use of the term prior to the 1840s, if it occurred, would have referred ad hoc to any machine tool used to produce screws. That is, there would have been no established differentiation from the term "screw-cutting lathe". When turret lathes were developed in the 1840s, the term "screw machine" was applied to them in overlapping usage with the term "turret lathe". In 1860, when some of the movements, such as turret indexing, were mechanically automated, the term "automatic screw machine" was applied, and the term "hand screw machine" or "manual screw machine" was retronymously applied to the earlier machines. Within 15 years, the entire part-cutting cycle had been mechanically automated, and machines of the 1860 type were retronymously called "semi-automatic". From that time on, machines with fully automated cycles were usually called "automatic screw machines", and eventually, in the usage of most people in the machining industries, the term "screw machine" no longer was used to refer to manual or semi-automatic turret lathes, having become reserved for one class of machine, the fully mechanically automated type. This narrow meaning of "screw machine" remained stable from about the 1890s until the 1950s. (Brown & Sharpe continued to call some of their hand-operated turret lathe models "screw machines", but most machinists reserved the term for automatics.) Within this class called "screw machines" there were variations, such as single-spindle versus multispindle, horizontal-turret versus vertical-turret, etc.
With the advent of NC, screw machines diverged into two classes, mechanical and NC. This distinction continues today with mechanical screw machines and CNC screw machines. However, in shop-floor jargon, the term "screw machine" by itself is still often understood in context to imply a mechanical screw machine, so the retronym "mechanical screw machine" is not consistently used.
Automatic chucker.
An automatic chucking machine is similar to an automatic screw machine; both use spindles in production. The use of spindles, which are able to drill, bore and cut the workpiece, allows several functions simultaneously on both machines. A key difference between the machines is that the automatic chucker handles larger work, which due to its size is more often chucking work and less often bar work. The Fay automatic lathe was a variant that specialized in turning work on centers. While a screw machine is limited to around practice, automatic chuckers are available that can handle up to chucks. The chucks are air-operated. Many of these machines are multispindle (more than one main spindle).
Well-known brands of such machines have included National-Acme, Hardinge, New Britain, New Britain-Gridley, Acme-Gridley, Davenport, Bullard Mult-Au-Matic (a vertical multispindle variant), and Thomas Ryder and Son.
Automatic chuckers are a class of machine tool specialized to narrow industry niches, such as OEM part suppliers to the automotive industry. They are limited in their economic niches to high-volume production of large parts, which tends to occur only at relatively few companies (compared to smaller work that may be done by small businesses). The market for such machine tools does not generally include local job shops or tool and die shops.
Cam-operated chuckers are fading into history faster than most other non-CNC machine tool classes. This is because the few companies that have them tend to be forced to continually adapt to the latest state of the art (today all CNC) to compete and survive. Cam-op chuckers may be more likely to be scrapped than other types of non-CNC machine tools. Unlike with "Grandpa's South Bend lathe" or "Dad's old Bridgeport knee mill", virtually no one can afford to keep and use them for sentimental reasons alone. As with most nondigital commercial typesetting machinery (such as Linotype machines).
Choice of machines and control type.
Mechanical screw machines have been replaced to some extent by CNC lathes (turning centers) and CNC screw machines. However, they are still commonly in operation, and for high-volume production of turned components it is still often true that nothing is as cost-efficient as a mechanical screw machine.
In the hierarchy of manufacturing machines, the screw machine sits at the top when large product volumes are needed. An engine lathe sits at the bottom, taking the least time to set up but the most skilled labor and time to actually produce a part. A turret lathe has traditionally been one step above an engine lathe, needing greater set-up time but being able to produce a higher volume of product and usually requiring a lower-skilled operator once the set-up process is complete. Screw machines may require an extensive set-up, but once they are running, a single operator can monitor the operation of several machines.
The advent of the CNC lathe (or more properly, CNC turning center) has blurred these distinct levels of production to some extent. The CNC turning center most appropriately fits in the mid-range of production, replacing the turret lathe. However, it is often possible to produce a single component with a CNC turning center more quickly than can be done with an engine lathe. To some extent too, the CNC turning center has stepped into the region traditionally occupied by the (mechanical) screw machine. CNC screw machines do this to an even greater degree, but they are expensive. In some cases they are vital, yet in others a mechanical machine can match or beat overall performance and profitability. It is not unusual for cam-op automatic lathes to beat CNCs on cycle time. CNC offers many benefits, not least CAD/CAM integration, but the CNC itself usually does not give any inherent speed advantage within the context of an automatic lathe cycle in terms of speeds and feeds or tool-changing speed. There are many variables involved in answering the question of which is best for a particular part at a particular company. (Overhead is part of the calculation—not least because most cam-op machines are long since paid for, whereas a late-model CNC machine has hefty monthly payments). Businesses relying on cam-op machines are still competing even in today's CNC-filled environment; they just need to be vigilant and smart about keeping it that way.
In the multispindle segment, some machine tool builders also build hybrid machines that are part CNC and part old-school control (some stations are CNC while others are cam-op or actuated with simple hydraulic cycles). This lets shops with certain mixes of work derive competitive advantage from the lower cost compared with all-CNC machines. The variety of machines that allow profitable production within certain niches reflects the variety of work that exists: some high-volume work remains the province of cam-op; full CNC with all the bells and whistles outcompetes on some flexible low-volume work; and hybrid machines may yield the lowest unit price on mixes in between.
Design.
An automatic lathe may have a single spindle or multiple spindles. Each spindle contains a bar or blank of material that is being machined simultaneously. A common configuration is six spindles. The cage that holds these six bars of material indexes after each machining operation is complete. The indexing is reminiscent of a Gatling gun.
Each station may have multiple tools that cut the material in sequence. The tools are usually arranged in several axes, such as turret (rotary indexing), horizontal slide (linear indexing), and vertical slide (linear indexing). The linear groups are called "gangs". The operation of all these tools is similar to that on a turret lathe.
By way of example: a bar of material is fed forward through the spindle. The face of the bar is machined (facing operation). The outside of the bar is machined to shape (turning operation). The bar is drilled or bored, and finally, the part is cut off (parting operation).
In a single-spindle machine, these four operations would most likely be performed sequentially, with four cross-slides each coming into position in turn to perform their operation. In a multi-spindle machine, each station corresponds to a stage in the production sequence through which each piece is then cycled, all operations occurring simultaneously, but on different pieces of work, in the manner of an assembly line.
Operations.
Form tools.
For the machining of complex shapes, it is common to use form tools. This contrasts with the cutting that is performed on an engine lathe where the cutting tool is usually a single-point tool. A form tool has the form or contour of the final part but in reverse, so it cuts the material leaving the desired component shape. This contrasts to a single-point tool, which cuts on one point at a time and the shape of the component is dictated by the motion of the tool rather than its shape.
Threading.
Unlike on a lathe, single-point threading is rarely if ever performed; it is too time-consuming for the short cycle times that are typical of screw machines. A self-releasing die head can rapidly cut or roll-form threads on outside diameters. A non-releasing tap holder with a tap can quickly cut inside diameters but it requires single spindle machines to reverse into high speed in order for the tap to be removed from the work. Threading and tapping speed (low speed) is typically 1/5 the high speed.
Rotary broaching.
Rotary broaching is another common operation. The broach holder is mounted stationary while its internal live spindle and end cutting broach tool are driven by the workpiece. As the broach is fed into or around the workpiece, the broach's contact points are constantly changing, easily creating the desired form. The most common form made this way is a hexagonal socket in the end of a cap screw.
History.
The history of automatic lathes in industrial contexts began with screw machines, and that history can only be truly understood within the context of screw making in general. Thus the discussion below begins with a simple overview of screw making in prior centuries, and how it evolved into 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century practice.
Humans have been making screws since ancient times. For most of those centuries, screw making generally involved custom cutting of the threads of each screw by hand (via whittling or filing). Other ancient methods involved wrapping wire around a mandrel (such as a stick or metal rod) or carving a tree branch that had been spirally wrapped by a vine.
Various machine elements that potentially lent themselves to screw making (such as the lathe, the leadscrew, the slide rest, gears, slide rests geared direct to spindles, and "change gear" gear trains) were developed over the centuries, with some of those elements being quite ancient. Various sparks of inventive power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance combined some of these elements into screw-making machines that presaged the industrial era to follow. For example, various medieval inventors whose names are lost to history clearly worked on the problem, as shown by Wolfegg Castle's "Medieval Housebook" (written circa 1475–1490), and Leonardo da Vinci and Jacques Besson left us with drawings of screw-cutting machines from the 1500s; not all of these designs are known to have been built, but clearly similar machines were a reality during Besson's lifetime. However, it was not until 1760–1800 that these various elements were brought together successfully to create (in contemporaneous parallel) two new types of machine tool: the screw-cutting lathe (for low-volume, toolroom-style production of "machine" screws, with easy selection of various pitches) and the first high-volume-production, specialized, single-purpose machine tools for the production of screws, which were created to produce "wood" screws [meaning screws made of metal for use in wood] at high volume and low unit price. Screw-cutting lathes fed into the just-dawning evolution of modern machine shop practice, whereas the wood-screw-making machines fed into the just-dawning evolution of the modern hardware industry, that is, the concept of one factory supplying the needs of thousands of customers, who consumed screws in growing quantities for carpentry, cabinet making, and other trades, but did not make the hardware themselves (purchasing it instead from capital-intensive specialist makers for lower unit cost than they could achieve on their own). These two classes of machine tools simultaneously took the various classes of screws and moved them, for the first time, from the category of expensive, hand-made, seldom-used objects into the category of affordable, often-interchangeable commodity. (The interchangeability developed gradually, from intra-company to inter-company to national to international).
Between 1800 and 1840, on the machine-screw side, it became common practice to build all of the relevant screw-cutting machine elements into engine lathes, so the term "screw-cutting lathe" ceased to stand in contradistinction to other metalworking lathe types as a "special" kind of lathe. Meanwhile, on the wood-screw side, hardware manufacturers had developed for their own in-house use the first fully automatic [mechanically automated] special-purpose machine tools for the making of screws. The 1760–1840 development arc was a tremendous technological advance, but later advancements would make screws even cheaper and more prevalent yet again. These began in the 1840s with the adaptation of the engine lathe with a turret-head toolholder to create the turret lathe. This development greatly reduced the time, effort, and skill needed from the machine operator to produce each machine screw. Single-pointing was forgone in favor of die head cutting for such medium- and high-volume repetitive production. Then, in the 1870s, the turret lathe's part-cutting cycle (sequence of movements) was automated by being put under cam control, in a way very similar to how music boxes and player pianos can play a tune automatically. According to Rolt (1965), the first person to develop such a machine was Christopher Miner Spencer, a New England inventor. may have contemporarily independently invented a machine similar to Spencer's. However, the wood-screw-making machines of the 1840s and 1850s [special-purpose factory production machine tools as opposed to small-machine-shop machine tools], such as those developed by Cullen Whipple of the New England Screw Company and Thomas J. Sloan of the American Screw Company, had anticipated the machines of Spencer and Vander Woerd in various ways, albeit approaching the problem of automated screw production from a different commercial angle. All of the above machine tools (i.e., screw-cutting lathes; suitably equipped engine lathes and bench lathes; turret lathes; turret-lathe-derived screw machines; and wood-screw-factory screw machines) were sometimes called "screw machines" during this era (logically enough, given that they were machines tailored to screw making). The nomenclatural evolution whereby the term "screw machine" is often used more narrowly than that is discussed above.
Spencer patented his idea in 1873; but his patent failed to protect the cam drum, which Spencer called the 'brain wheel'. Therefore, many other people quickly took up the idea. Later important developers of fully automatic lathes included S. L. Worsley, who developed a single-spindle machine for Brown & Sharpe, Edwin C. Henn, Reinhold Hakewessel, and George O. Gridley, who developed multiple-spindle variants and who was involved with a succession of corporations (Acme, National, National-Acme, Windsor Machine Company, Acme-Gridley, New Britain-Gridley); Edward P. Bullard Jr, who led the development of the Bullard Mult-Au-Matic; F.C. Fay and Otto A. Schaum, who developed the Fay automatic lathe; Ralph Flanders and his brother Ernest, who further refined the Fay lathe and developed the automatic screw thread grinder. Meanwhile, engineers in Switzerland were also developing new manually and automatically controlled lathes. The technological developments in America and Switzerland flowed rapidly into other industrialized countries (via routes such as machine tool exports; trade journal articles and advertisements; trade shows, from world's fairs to regional events; and the turnover and emigration of engineers, setup hands, and operators). There, local innovators also developed further tooling for the machines and built clone machine models.
The development of numerical control was the next major leap in the history of automatic lathes—and it is also what changed the paradigm of what the "manual versus automatic" distinction meant. Beginning in the 1950s, NC lathes began to replace manual lathes and cam-op screw machines, although the displacement of the older technology by CNC has been a long, gradual arc that even today is not a total eclipse. By the 1980s, true CNC screw machines (as opposed to simpler CNC lathes), Swiss-style and non-Swiss, had begun to make serious inroads into the realm of cam-op screw machines. Similarly, CNC chuckers were developed, eventually evolving even into CNC rotary transfer machines. These machine tools are little known outside the automotive manufacturing sector.


Euro container

A Euro container, also called Eurobox, Euro crate or KLT box (from , "small load carrier"), is an industrial stacking container conforming to the VDA 4500 standard. The standard was originally defined by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) for the automotive industry, but was subsequently adopted across many other areas of manufacturing and the shipping industry. The most common sizes (length × width) are 600 × 400 mm and 400 × 300 mm, which can be stacked together to fill a Euro-pallet measuring 1200 × 800 mm.
Dimensions.
Eurocontainers are based around two standard heights of and , including a overlap in the vertical direction—the height of the feet, or base, stacked into the lip of the box below:
These containers are manufactured typically in grey polypropylene or another thermoplast by injection molding.
Containers with full floor and walls are watertight. Many designs have at least two or more often four rectangular (about 12 x 4 cm) rounded grip-holes near the middle of the lips. The design may include some small holes in the lowest parts of at least two walls to let liquid run out if stored outdoors in rain or after washing. Walls constructed as grids allow one to see from the side into the box. If the bottom is formed by a grid, too, air may flow easily through even stacked boxes to keep bakery dry or allow quick cooling.
Euro-containers mounted on the rear rack of a bicycle or small motorcycle are widely used by newspaper-deliverers in Austrian towns. A Euro-container fits between the frame tubes in the low transportation bay of the Danish freight bike Bullitt.
Related standards.
The 400×300-millimetre sizes and stacking height were adopted in the early 1990s for inter-stacking Systainer boxes.


Perforated metal

Perforated metal, also known as perforated sheet, perforated plate, or perforated screen, is sheet metal that has been manually or mechanically stamped or punched using CNC technology or in some cases laser cutting to create different holes sizes, shapes and patterns. Materials used to manufacture perforated metal sheets include stainless steel, cold rolled steel, galvanized steel, brass, aluminum, tinplate, copper, Monel, Inconel, titanium, plastic, and more.
The process of perforating metal sheets has been practiced for over 150 years. In the late 19th century, metal screens were used as an efficient means of separating coal. The first perforators were laborers who would manually punch individual holes into the metal sheet. This proved to be an inefficient and inconsistent method which led to the development of new techniques, such as perforating the metal with a series of needles arranged in a way that would create the desired hole pattern.
Modern day perforation methods involve the use of technology and machines. Common equipment used for the perforation of metal include rotary pinned perforation rollers, die and punch presses, and laser perforations.
Applications.
Perforated metal has been utilized across a variety of industries including, but not limited to:
Benefits.
The acoustic performance of perforated metal helps people or workers to limit health effects from noise. Studies have shown that perforated metals help reduce sound levels.
Studies have shown that having buildings use perforated metal sheets in front of their façade can bring in one study 29% energy savings (HVAC + Lighting estimated consumption in 1 year) and in the second one 45% energy savings (heating, ventilation, air conditioning). Depending on the location of the building (intensity of the external sun), solar irradiation can be decrease by 77.9%.


FEM Element

FEM Element is a commercial finite element method solver for electromagnetic structures from EEsof. FEM Element can perform electromagnetic simulation of arbitrarily-shaped, passive three-dimensional structures.
It is aimed at providing 3D EM simulation to designers working on RF circuits, MMICs, PC boards, modules, and signal integrity applications. It provides a full 3D electromagnetic field solver, a solid modeling GUI, and fully automated meshing and convergence capabilities for modeling arbitrary 3D shapes such as connectors, machined parts, components, bond wires, antennas, and packages.
FEM Element is available with integration into Keysight EEsof's Advanced Design System (ADS) and EMPro platforms.
It was originally called Electromagnetic Design System (EMDS).


2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup

The 2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Schalke 04, Villarreal, and Perugia. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup.
First round.
First leg.
"This game was declared void by UEFA due to fan incident at the stadium with smoke bomb thrown onto the field. The second leg game by itself determined the result of the matchup."
Second leg.
"2–2 on aggregate, Pasching won on away goals rule."
"Lierse won 7–1 on aggregate."
"Pobeda won 7–2 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate, Partizani won on away goals rule."
"3–3 on aggregate, Brno won on away goals rule."
"Koper won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Örgryte IS won 4–1 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate, Győr won on away goals rule."
"Marek Dupnitsa won 5–4 on aggregate."
"Shamrock Rovers won 3–1 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Tampere United won on away goals rule."
"Sutjeska won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Gloria Bistrița won 6–2 on aggregate."
"OFK Beograd won 5–3 on aggregate."
"Wil won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Tobol won 5–1 on aggregate."
"ZTS Dubnica won 7–1 on aggregate."
"Dacia Chișinău won 5–1 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Sloboda Tuzla won on penalties."
"Shakhtyor Soligorsk won 8–1 on aggregate."
"Allianssi won 2–1 on aggregate."
Second round.
Second leg.
"Allianssi won 1–0 on aggregate."
"4–4 on aggregate, Nice won on away goals rule."
"Slovácko won 4–3 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Racing de Santander won on away goals rule."
"Slovan Liberec won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Brno won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Brescia won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Wolfsburg won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Cibalia won 5–3 on aggregate."
"Tobol won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Wil won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Pasching won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Lierse won 5–2 on aggregate."
"Tampere United won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Dacia Chișinău won 5–0 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate, Koper won on away goals rule."
Third round.
Second leg.
"Pasching won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Perugia won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Koper won 5–4 on aggregate."
"Nantes won 5–3 on aggregate."
"Werder Bremen won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Villarreal won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Brno won 5–4 on aggregate."
"Schalke 04 won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Slovan Liberec won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Wolfsburg won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Cibalia won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Heerenveen won 5–1 on aggregate."
Semi-finals.
Second leg.
"Heerenveen won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Wolfsburg won 8–1 on aggregate."
"Schalke 04 won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Pasching won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Perugia won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Villarreal won 3–1 on aggregate."
Finals.
Second leg.
"Schalke 04 won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Perugia won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Villareal won 2–1 on aggregate."


Moisture sensitivity level

Moisture sensitivity level (MSL) is a rating that shows a device's susceptibility to damage due to absorbed moisture when subjected to reflow soldering as defined in J-STD-020.
It relates to the packaging and handling precautions for some semiconductors. The MSL is an electronic standard for the time period in which a moisture sensitive device can be exposed to ambient room conditions (30 °C/85%RH at Level 1; 30 °C/60%RH at all other levels).
Increasingly, semiconductors have been manufactured in smaller sizes. Components such as thin fine-pitch devices and ball grid arrays could be damaged during SMT reflow when moisture trapped inside the component expands.
The expansion of trapped moisture can result in internal separation (delamination) of the plastic from the die or lead-frame, wire bond damage, die damage, and internal cracks. Most of this damage is not visible on the component surface. In extreme cases, cracks will extend to the component surface. In the most severe cases, the component will bulge and pop. This is known as the "popcorn" effect. This occurs when part temperature rises rapidly to a high maximum during the soldering (assembly) process. This does not occur when part temperature rises slowly and to a low maximum during a baking (preheating) process.
Moisture sensitive devices are packaged in a moisture barrier antistatic bag with a desiccant and a moisture indicator card which is sealed.
Moisture sensitivity levels are specified in technical standard IPC/JEDEC "Moisture/reflow Sensitivity Classification for Nonhermetic Surface-Mount Devices". The times indicate how long components can be outside of dry storage before they have to be baked to remove any absorbed moisture.
Practical.
MSL-specified parts must be baked before assembly if their exposure has exceeded the rating. Once assembled, moisture sensitivity is generally no longer a factor.
External links.
https://www.ipc.org/TOC/IPC-JEDEC-J-STD-020E.pdf
https://www.bourns.com/docs/RoHS-MSL/msl_mf.pdf


High performance positioning system

A high performance positioning system (HPPS) is a type of positioning system consisting of a piece of electromechanics equipment (e.g. an assembly of linear stages and rotary stages) that is capable of moving an object in a three-dimensional space within a work envelope. Positioning could be done point to point or along a desired path of motion. Position is typically defined in six degrees of freedom, including linear, in an x,y,z cartesian coordinate system, and angular orientation of yaw, pitch, roll. HPPS are used in many manufacturing processes to move an object (tool or part) smoothly and accurately in six degrees of freedom, along a desired path, at a desired orientation, with high acceleration, high deceleration, high velocity and low settling time. It is designed to quickly stop its motion and accurately place the moving object at its desired final position and orientation with minimal jittering.
HPPS requires a structural characteristics of low moving mass and high stiffness. The resulting system characteristic is a high value for the lowest natural frequency of the system. High natural frequency allows the motion controller to drive the system at high servo bandwidth, which means that the HPPS can reject all motion disturbing frequencies, which act at a lower frequency than the bandwidth. For higher frequency disturbances such as floor vibration, acoustic noise, motor cogging, bearing jitter and cable carrier rattling, HPPS may employ structural composite materials for damping and isolation mounts for vibration attenuation. Unlike articulating robots, which have revolute joints that connect their links, HPPS links typically consists of sliding joints, which are relatively stiffer than revolute joints. That is the reason why high performance positioning systems are often referred to as cartesian robots.
Performance.
HPPS, driven by linear motors, can move at a combined high velocity on order of 3-5 m/s, high accelerations of 5-7 g, at micron or sub micron positioning accuracy with settling times on order of milliseconds and servo bandwidth of 30-50 Hz. Ball screw actuators, on the other hand, have typical bandwidth of 10-20 Hz and belt driven actuators at about 5-10 Hz. The bandwidth value of HPPS is about 1/3 of the lowest natural frequency in the range of 90-150 Hz. Settling time to +/- 1% Constant Velocity, or + / - 1 um jitter, after high acceleration or high deceleration respectively, takes an estimated 3 bandwidth periods. For example, a 50 Hz servo bandwidth, having a 1 / 50 · 1000 = 20 msec period, will settle to 1 um position accuracy within an estimated 3 · 20 = 60 msec. The lowest natural frequency equals the square root of system stiffness divided by moving inertia. A typical linear recirculating bearing rail, of a high performance positioning stage, has a stiffness on order of 100-300 N/um. Such a performance is required in semiconductor process equipment, electronics assembly lines, numerically controlled machine tools, coordinate-measuring machines, 3D Printing, pick-and-place machines, drug discovery assaying and many more. At their highest performance HPPS may use granite base for thermal stability and flat surfaces, air bearings for jitter free motion, brushless linear motors for non contact, frictionless actuation, high force and low inertia, and laser interferometer for sub micron position feedback. On the other hand, a typical 6 degrees of freedom articulated robot, with 1 m' reach, has a structural stiffness on the order of 1 N/um. That is why articulated robots are best being employed as automation equipment in processes which require position repeatability on the order of 100's microns, such as robot welding, paint robots, palletizers and many more.
History.
The original HPPS were developed at Anorad Corporation (now Rockwell Automation) in the 1980s, after the invention of brushless linear motors by Anorad's Founder and CEO, Anwar Chitayat. Initially HPPS were used for high precision manufacturing processes in semiconductor applications such as Applied Materials, PCB Inspection Orbotech and High Velocity Machine Tool Ford. In parallel linear motor technology and their integration in HPPS, was expanded around the world. As a result, in 1996 Siemens integrated its CNC with Anorad linear motors to drive a 20 m' long Maskant machine at Boeing for chemical milling of aircraft wings. In 1997 FANUC licensed Anorad's linear motor technology and integrated it as a complete solution with their CNC products line. And in 1998, Rockwell Automation acquired Anorad to compete with Siemens and Fanuc in providing a complete linear motor solutions to drive high velocity machine tools in Automotive transfer lines. Today linear motors are being used in hundreds of thousands high performance positioning systems, which drive manufacturing processes around the world. Their market is expected to grow, according to some studies, at 4.4% a year and reach $1.5B in 2025.
System requirements.
Specifications.
System specification (technical standard) is an official interface between the application requirements (problem), as described by the user (customer) and the design (solution) as optimized by the developer (supplier).
System solution.
Configuration.
HPPS configuration is typically optimized for maximum structural stiffness with maximum damping and minimum inertia, smallest Abbe error at the point of interest (POI), with minimum components and maximum maintainability.
System analysis.
System analysis is a process of understanding the relationships between design parameters, operating conditions, environmental variables and system performance based on system modeling and analysis tools
Component sizing.
Component sizing is the process of selecting standard parts from component suppliers, or designing a custom part for manufacturing
System testing.
System testing is an iterative process of system development, intended to validate system analysis modeling, proof of concepts, safety factor of performance specifications and acceptant testing.


Production board

A traditional production board, stripboard, or production strip is a filmmaking term for a cardboard or wooden chart displaying color-coded strips of paper, each containing information about a scene in the film's shooting script. The strips can then be rearranged and laid out sequentially to represent the order one wants to film in, providing a schedule that can be used to plan the production. This is done because most films are shot "out of sequence," meaning that they do not necessarily begin with the first scene and end with the last. For logistical purposes, scenes are often grouped by talent or location and are arranged to accommodate the schedules of cast and crew. A production board is not to be confused with a Stripboard used for electronics prototyping.
A modern version of a strip board will commonly be printed using dedicated computer software, such as MovieMagic Scheduling, Celtx, or Scenechronize, or by customizing general purpose software such as OpenOffice.org Calc or Microsoft Excel.
Common Contents.
Information on the strips can include
Color Conventions.
Production strip boards are often color-coded according to the following convention:
Scenechronize uses a sightly modified convention:
Finally, MovieMagic Scheduling has its own standard:


Flexible manufacturing system

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a manufacturing system in which there is some amount of flexibility that allows the system to react in case of changes, whether predicted or unpredicted.
This flexibility is generally considered to fall into two categories, which both contain numerous subcategories.
Most flexible manufacturing systems consist of three main systems:
The main advantages of a flexible manufacturing system is its high flexibility in managing manufacturing resources like time and effort in order to manufacture a new product.
The best application of a flexible manufacturing system is found in the 'production of small sets of products like those from a mass production.
Flexibility.
Flexibility in manufacturing means the ability to deal with slightly or greatly mixed parts, to allow variation in parts assembly and variations in process sequence, change the production volume and change the design of certain product being manufactured.
Industrial FMS communication.
An industrial flexible manufacturing system consists of robots, computer-controlled Machines, computer numerical controlled machines (CNC), instrumentation devices, computers, sensors, and other stand alone systems such as inspection machines. The use of robots in the production segment of manufacturing industries promises a variety of benefits ranging from high utilization to high volume of productivity. Each Robotic cell or node will be located along a material handling system such as a conveyor or automatic guided vehicle. The production of each part or work-piece will require a different combination of manufacturing nodes. The movement of parts from one node to another is done through the material handling system. At the end of part processing, the finished parts will be routed to an automatic inspection node, and subsequently unloaded from the Flexible Manufacturing System.
The FMS data traffic consists of large files and short messages, and mostly come from nodes, devices and instruments. The message size ranges between a few bytes to several hundreds of bytes. Executive software and other data, for example, are files with a large size, while messages for machining data, instrument to instrument communications, status monitoring, and data reporting are transmitted in small size.
There is also some variation on response time. Large program files from a main computer usually take about 60 seconds to be down loaded into each instrument or node at the beginning of FMS operation. Messages for instrument data need to be sent in a periodic time with deterministic time delay. Other types of messages used for emergency reporting are quite short in size and must be transmitted and received with an almost instantaneous response.
The demands for reliable FMS protocol that support all the FMS data characteristics are now urgent. The existing IEEE standard protocols do not fully satisfy the real time communication requirements in this environment. The delay of CSMA/CD is unbounded as the number of nodes increases due to the message collisions. Token bus has a deterministic message delay, but it does not support prioritized access scheme which is needed in FMS communications. Token Ring provides prioritized access and has a low message delay, however, its data transmission is unreliable. A single node failure which may occur quite often in FMS causes transmission errors of passing message in that node. In addition, the topology of Token Ring results in high wiring installation and cost.
A design of FMS communication that supports a real time communication with bounded message delay and reacts promptly to any emergency signal is needed. Because of machine failure and malfunction due to heat, dust, and electromagnetic interference is common, a prioritized mechanism and immediate transmission of emergency messages are needed so that a suitable recovery procedure can be applied. A modification of standard Token Bus to implement a prioritized access scheme was proposed to allow transmission of short and periodic messages with a low delay compared to the one for long messages.


Soft retooling

Soft retooling is a process that changes the ablation shape during laser ablation without changing any hardware. Contrarily to conventional milling, it is possible with laser sculpting to change ablation geometry just by changing parameters of laser ablation that have the desired effects on laser ablation. Conventional milling machines contain trays on which different tool bits are stored and must consider in their machining routine tool change. This operation is not necessary when using laser sculpting.


Coupon (PWB)

A coupon or test coupon is a printed circuit board (PCB) used to test the quality of a printed wiring board (PWB) fabrication process. Test coupons are fabricated on the same panel as the PWBs, typically at the edges. Coupons are then inspected to ensure proper layer alignment, electrical connectivity, and cross sectioned to inspect internal structures. Coupons can be designed custom for a PWB or selected from a vendor library.
Overview.
A coupon is designed to include traces and vias with the same dimensions and structures as those of the main PWB. It is standard practice to locate coupons on the edges of a panel, from which multiple PWBs are fabricated, to verify the consistency of plating, etching, and lamination across the whole panel. The use of coupons for testing is a necessary step in accurately and reliably monitoring fabrication quality and consistency.


Moody Fabrication & Machine, Inc.

Moody Fabrication & Machine, Inc. was a subsidiary of M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. that manufactured parts for heavy machinery equipment as well as operated barges for the transport of marine and construction equipment. It was located at the Bellinger Shipyard on the Intracoastal Waterway between Jacksonville and Atlantic Beach. In October 2014, M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. sold the Bellinger Shipyard to Jacksonville Intracoastal, LLC. for $9.4 million.
Operations.
Moody Fabrication & Machine, Inc. operated out of the headquarters of M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. in 1994 fabricating sheet metal and manufacturing parts for heavy machinery. In February 1995 a shipyard on the Intracoastal Waterway called the Bellinger Shipyard was sold to M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. for $1.9 million by Fruehauf Trailer Corporation. Moody Fabrication & Machine moved to the newly purchased Bellinger Shipyard where it operated for 19 years. The main operations of Moody Fabrication is its crane boom shop, fabrication shop, and its machine shop. The crane boom shop builds and repairs crane booms for various crane manufacturers. Employees of Moody Fabrication are certified welders who perform repairs, machine work, and millwright work. The Bellinger Shipyard was also shared with MOBRO Marine, Inc. Moody Fabrication & Machine utilized the Intracoastal to transport completed products such as tugboats and heavy equipment.
Decline.
During the Great Recession in March 2010 Moody Fabrication & Machine declined in business. At the same time M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. had filed for Chapter 11 Banktruptcy putting the fate of Moody Fabrication & Machine in jeopardy. Because of a decline in business M. D. Moody decided to sell the Bellinger Shipyard and gradually cease operations of Moody Fabrication & Machine. In October 2014 M. D. Moody sold the Bellinger Shipyard to Jacksonville Intracoastal LLC. for $9.4 million.


List of manufacturers by motor vehicle production

This is a list of manufacturers by motor vehicle production, by year, based on Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA).
Figures include passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, minibuses, trucks, buses and coaches. OICA defines these entries as follows:
Overview.
Motor vehicle production by manufacturer (top five groups)
The summary chart includes the five largest worldwide automotive manufacturing groups as of 2017 by number of vehicles produced. Those same groups have held the top 5 positions since 2007; only Hyundai / Kia had a lower rank until it took the fifth spot from DaimlerChrysler in 2006. Figures were compiled by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA):
2000,
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
2014,
2015,
2016,
2017.
2017.
This is a list of largest manufacturers by production in 2017.
2016.
This is a list of largest manufacturers by production in 2016. Some figures were amended in the 2017 report.
2015.
Rank of manufacturers by production in 2015
2014.
Rank of manufacturers by production in 2014
2013.
Rank of manufacturers by production in 2013
2012.
Rank of manufacturers by production in 2012
2008.
This is a list of the 20 largest automotive manufacturers, ranked by their production volume in 2008.
2007.
This is a list of the 20 largest automotive manufacturers, ranked by their production volume in 2007.
2006.
This is a list of the 20 largest automotive manufacturers, ranked by their production volume in 2006.
2005.
This is a list of the 20 largest automotive manufacturers, ranked by their production volume in 2005.
2004.
This is a list of the 20 largest automotive manufacturers, ranked by their production volume in 2004.


Charles L. Coffin

Charles L. Coffin of Detroit was awarded for an arc welding process using a metal electrode. This was the first time that metal melted from the electrode carried across the arc to deposit filler metal in the joint to make a weld. Two years earlier, Nikolay Slavyanov presented the same idea of transferring metal across an arc, but to cast metal in a mold.


Thermal relief

A thermal relief pad, thermal pad or simply thermal, is a printed circuit board (PCB) pad connected to a copper pour using a "thermal connection". It looks like a normal pad with copper "spokes" connecting it to the surrounding copper.
A typical pad on a printed circuit board is only connected to a few narrow tracks. A pad directly connected to the copper pour is difficult to solder, since the heat quickly leaks away from the pad into the copper pour due to high thermal conductivity of copper. A thermal connection restricts the heat flow, making the pad easier to solder.
Via holes that only connect one layer to another, without having soldering wires or pins into the hole, do not normally need thermal restriction.
Wire-leaded components may require the thermal relief pattern to be customized or even omitted when carrying radio-frequency currents (where the additional inductance would be problematic), or where very high current densities are expected (where the spokes of the thermal relief may act as a fuse). In these cases the parts may require additional hand soldering during assembly.


Record press

A record press is a machine for manufacturing vinyl records. It is essentially a hydraulic press fitted with thin nickel stampers which are negative impressions of a master disc. Labels and a pre-heated vinyl patty (or "biscuit") are placed in a heated mold cavity. Two stampers are used, one for each of side of the disc. The record press closes under a pressure of about 150 tons. The process of compression molding forces the hot vinyl to fill the grooves in the stampers, and take the form of the finished record.
Vacuum molding.
In the mid-1960s, Emory Cook developed a system of record forming wherein the mold pressure was replaced by a vacuum. In this technique, the mold cavity was evacuated and vinyl was introduced in micro-particle form. The particles were then flash-fused instantaneously at a high temperature forming a coherent solid. Cook called this disc manufacturing technology "microfusion". A small pressing plant in Hollywood also employed a similar system which they maintained fused the particles more evenly throughout the disc thickness calling their product "polymax". Both claimed the resultant disc grooves exhibited less surface noise and greater resistance to deformation from stylus tip inertia than convention pressure molded vinyl discs.


Submerged arc welding

Submerged arc welding (SAW) is a common arc welding process. The first SAW patent was taken out in 1935. The process requires a continuously fed consumable solid or tubular (metal cored) electrode. The molten weld and the arc zone are protected from atmospheric contamination by being "submerged" under a blanket of granular fusible flux consisting of lime, silica, manganese oxide, calcium fluoride, and other compounds. When molten, the flux becomes conductive, and provides a current path between the electrode and the work. This thick layer of flux completely covers the molten metal thus preventing spatter and sparks as well as suppressing the intense ultraviolet radiation and fumes that are a part of the shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process.
SAW is normally operated in the automatic or mechanized mode, however, semi-automatic (hand-held) SAW guns with pressurized or gravity flux feed delivery are available. The process is normally limited to the flat or horizontal-fillet welding positions (although horizontal groove position welds have been done with a special arrangement to support the flux). Deposition rates approaching 45 kg/h (100 lb/h) have been reported — this compares to ~5 kg/h (10 lb/h) (max) for shielded metal arc welding. Although currents ranging from 300 to 2000 A are commonly utilized, currents of up to 5000 A have also been used (multiple arcs).
Single or multiple (2 to 5) electrode wire variations of the process exist. SAW strip-cladding utilizes a flat strip electrode (e.g. 60 mm wide x 0.5 mm thick). DC or AC power can be used, and combinations of DC and AC are common on multiple electrode systems. Constant voltage welding power supplies are most commonly used; however, constant current systems in combination with a voltage sensing wire-feeder are available.
Features.
Welding head.
It feeds flux and filler metal to the welding joint. The electrode (filler metal) gets energized here.
Flux hopper.
It stores the flux and controls the rate of flux deposition on the welding joint.
Flux.
The granulated flux shields and thus protects molten weld from atmospheric contamination. The flux cleans weld metal and can also modify its chemical composition. The flux is granulated to a definite size. It may be of fused, bonded or mechanically mixed type. The flux may consist of fluorides of calcium and oxides of calcium, magnesium, silicon, aluminium and manganese compounds. Alloying elements may be added as per requirements. Substances involving large amounts of gas during welding are never mixed with the flux. Flux with fine and coarse particle sizes are recommended for welding heavier and smaller thickness respectively.
Electrode.
SAW filler material usually is a standard wire as well as other special forms. This wire normally has a thickness of 1.6 mm to 6 mm (1/16 in. to 1/4 in.). In certain circumstances, twisted wire can be used to give the arc an oscillating movement. This helps fuse the toe of the weld to the base metal.
The electrode composition depends upon the material being welded. Alloying elements may be added in the electrodes. Electrodes are available to weld mild steels, high carbon steels, low and special alloy steels, stainless steel and some of the nonferrous of copper and nickel. Electrodes are generally copper coated to prevent rusting and to increase their electrical conductivity. Electrodes are available in straight lengths and coils. Their diameters may be 1.6, 2.0, 2.4, 3, 4.0, 4.8, and 6.4 mm. The approximate value of currents to weld with 1.6, 3.2 and 6.4 mm diameter electrodes are 150–350, 250–800 and 650–1350 Amps respectively.
Welding Operation.
The flux starts depositing on the joint to be welded. Since the flux is not electrically conductive when cold, the arc may be struck either by touching the electrode with the work piece or by placing steel wool between electrode and job before switching on the welding current or by using a high frequency unit. In all cases the arc is struck under a cover of flux. Flux otherwise is an insulator but once it melts due to heat of the arc, it becomes highly conductive and hence the current flow is maintained between the electrode and the workpiece through the molten flux. The upper portion of the flux, in contact with atmosphere, which is visible remains granular (unchanged) and can be reused. The lower, melted flux becomes slag, which is waste material and must be removed after welding.
The electrode is continuously fed to the joint to be welded at a predetermined speed. In semi-automatic welding sets the welding head is moved manually along the joint. In automatic welding a separate drive moves either the welding head over the stationary job or the job moves/rotates under the stationary welding head.
The arc length is kept constant by using the principle of a self-adjusting arc. If the arc length decreases, arc voltage will increase, arc current and therefore burn-off rate will increase thereby causing the arc to lengthen. The reverse occurs if the arc length increases more than the normal.
A backing plate of steel or copper may be used to control penetration and to support large amounts of molten metal associated with the process.


Inventory investment

Inventory investment is a component of gross domestic product (GDP). What is produced in a certain country is naturally also sold eventually, but some of the goods produced in a given year may be sold in a later year rather than in the year they were produced. Conversely, some of the goods sold in a given year might have been produced in an earlier year. The difference between goods produced (production) and goods sold (sales) in a given year is called inventory investment. The concept can be applied to the economy as a whole or to an individual firm, however this concept is generally applied in macroeconomics (economy as a whole). Unintended unsold stock of goods increases inventory investment.
Definition of inventory investment.
Thus, if production per unit time exceeds sales per unit time, then inventory investment per unit time is positive; as a result, at the end of that period of time the stock of inventory inventories on hand will be greater than it was at the beginning. The reverse is true if production is less than sales.
Mathematical relationship of inventory investment to inventories.
In discrete time, the end-of-period stock of inventories minus the beginning-of-period stock of inventories equals the flow of inventory investment per time period.
In continuous time, the time derivative of the stock of inventories equals the instantaneous flow of inventory investment.
Intended and unintended inventory investment.
A positive flow of intended inventory investment occurs when a firm expects that sales will be high enough that the current level of inventories on hand may be insufficient—perhaps because in the presence of very short-term fluctuations in the timing of customer purchases, there is a risk of temporarily being unable to supply the product when a customer demands it. To avoid that prospect, the firm deliberately builds up its inventories—that is, engages in positive intended inventory investment by deliberately producing more than it expects to sell. Economists view this positive intended inventory investment as a form of spending—in effect, the firm is buying inventories from itself.
Conversely, if a firm decides that its current level of inventories is unjustifiably high—some of the inventories are taking up costly warehouse space while exceeding what is needed to prevent stock-outs—then it will engage in a negative flow of intended inventory investment. It does this by deliberately producing less than what it expects to sell.
Positive or negative unintended inventory investment occurs when customers buy a different amount of the firm's product than the firm expected during a particular time period. If customers buy less than expected, inventories unexpectedly build up and unintended inventory investment turns out to have been positive. If customers buy more than expected, inventories unexpectedly decline and unintended inventory investment turns out to have been negative.
Either positive or negative intended inventory investment can coincide with either positive or negative unintended inventory investment. They are separate, unrelated events: one is based on deliberate actions to adjust the stock of inventories, while the other results from mispredictions of customer demand.
To help reduce costs associated with inventory management, (holding costs, shortage costs, spoilage costs, etc.) inventory management practices like vendor managed inventory have been adopted by retailers.
Relationship to macroeconomic equilibrium.
In macroeconomics, equilibrium in the goods market occurs when the supply of goods (output) equals the demand for goods (the sum of various types of expenditure—consumer expenditure, government expenditure on goods, net expenditures by people outside the country on the country's exports, fixed investment expenditure on physical capital, and intended inventory investment). If these are indeed equal for a particular time period, there is no unintended inventory investment and there is goods market equilibrium. If they are not equal, there is disequilibrium in the goods market. This is reflected in the presence of positive or negative unintended inventory investment.
Inventory investment over the business cycle.
A typical business cycle plays out in the following way. Starting from some point in the business cycle, some group (consumers, government, purchasers of exports, etc.) decides for some reason to have a sustained increase in their spending. This may come as a surprise to producers, who initially experience negative inventory investment as their sales have unexpectedly exceeded their production. Now their inventories are too low, for two reasons: (1) Inventories have accidentally gone down, and (2) the optimal level of inventories—what producers want to have on hand—has gone up because sustained customer demand has gone up and there is increased danger of temporary stock-outs. In order to build inventories up to an appropriate level, firms engage in positive intended inventory investment. This positive flow of intended inventory investment continues until the target level of inventories is reached. During this time, the economy is in a boom both due to the original sustained increase in spending and due to the positive flow of intended inventory investment.
At some point, there is a sustained decline in some type of spending for some reason. (One reason may simply be that, once inventories reach their desired level, there stops being positive intended inventory investment; but there may be other reasons as well.) Then there is positive unintended inventory investment as firms are caught by surprise by the external drop in demand and they fail to simultaneously lower their production. Now inventories are too high, for two reasons: (1) They have accidentally risen, and (2) the optimal level of inventories is lower now due to the new, lower level of sustained demand. So in order to lower their inventories, firms deliberately cut back their production to below the level of demand by their customers, thus causing inventories to be deliberately drawn down—that is, intended inventory investment is negative. Intended inventory investment remains negative until the target level of inventories is reached. During this time, the economy, having peaked out, is in a downturn (a recession) both due to the sustained decrease in non-inventory expenditure and due to the negative flow of intended inventory investment.
At some point, there is a sustained increase in some type of spending for some reason. (One reason may simply be that, once inventories sink to their desired level, there stops being negative intended inventory investment, which goes up from negative to zero; but again there may be other reasons as well.) At this point there is negative unintended inventory investment as firms are caught by surprise by the external increase in demand and they fail to simultaneously raise their production. Now inventories are too low, again for two reasons, and we are back where we started in the cycle. The recession has bottomed out, sustained spending is once again high, target inventory levels are higher than actual inventory levels, and intended inventory investment is positive.


2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup

The 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup football finals (the summer football competition for European clubs that had not qualified for one of the two major UEFA competitions) were won by Lille, Schalke 04, and Villarreal.
All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup.
First round.
First leg.
"The game was awarded 3–0 to Khazar Universiteti due to Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz fielding an ineligible player."
Second leg.
"2–2 on aggregate, Sloboda Tuzla won on away goals rule."
"The game was awarded 3–0 to Vllaznia due to Hapoel fielding an ineligible player. Vllaznia won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Vardar won 10–2 on aggregate."
"Slaven Belupo won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Sartid won 11–0 on aggregate."
"Marek Dupnitsa won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Spartak Moscow won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Teplice won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Thun won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Tescoma Zlín won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Khazar Universiteti won 5–1 on aggregate."
"4–4 on aggregate, Spartak Trnava won on away goals rule."
"Dinamo Minsk won 2–1 on aggregate."
"ZTS Dubnica won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Gent won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Cork City won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Vėtra won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Odense won 7–0 on aggregate."
"1–1 on aggregate, Tampere United won on away goals rule."
"Dinaburg won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Esbjerg won 7–1 on aggregate."
Second round.
Second leg.
"Tescoma Zlín won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Vėtra won 2–1 on aggregate."
"The game was awarded 3–0 to Genk due to Marek Dupnitsa fielding an ineligible player. Genk won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Villarreal won 5–0 on aggregate."
"Shinnik Yaroslavl won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Slovan Liberec won 7–1 on aggregate."
"Thun won 7–3 on aggregate."
"OFK Beograd won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Cork City won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Esbjerg won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Spartak Moscow won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Tampere United won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Dinamo Minsk won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Spartak Trnava won 3–1 on aggregate."
"1–1 on aggregate. Vardar won 4–3 on penalties."
"Slaven Belupo won 2–1 on aggregate."
Third round.
Second leg.
"4–4 on aggregate, Atlético Madrid won on away goals rule."
"Nantes won 4–2 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Genk won on away goals rule."
"Hamburger SV won 5–3 on aggregate."
"União de Leiria won 6–2 on aggregate."
"Schalke 04 won 7–1 on aggregate."
"Slovan Liberec won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Lille won 4–3 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Slaven Belupo won on away goals rule."
"OFK Beograd won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Villarreal won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Esbjerg won 5–1 on aggregate."
Semi-finals.
Second leg.
"Schalke 04 won 6–1 on aggregate."
"Lille won 4–1 on aggregate."
"União de Leiria won 2–0 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Slovan Liberec won on away goals rule."
"Villarreal won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Atlético Madrid won 5–1 on aggregate."
Finals.
Second leg.
"Schalke 04 won 3–1 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate. Villareal won 3–1 on penalties."
"Lille won 2–0 on aggregate."