May 2024 Connector Industry News
Upcoming industry events, as well as recent award, partnership, promotion, personnel, facility, distribution, standards, association, and certification news from across the connector industry.
May 2024 Connector Industry News
May 2024 Connector Industry News > Event News
DigiKey has teamed up with NXP Semiconductors to launch the MCX MCU Design Contest at embedded world. Using NXP’s new FRDM development boards, contest participants are invited to submit design ideas and projects for a chance to win prizes, including a grand prize of a 14-inch MacBook Pro, Apple Watch Series 9, and AirPods Pro. The contest, which opened on April 8, runs through May 20, 2024, and final projects must be submitted by July 31, 2024. DigiKey and NXP will select the winners by August 15. To enter, participants must select a FRDM board featuring NXP’s new MCX N and MCX A series microcontrollers. FRDM boards come with a standard form factor and headers, easy access to MCU I/Os, and an on-board MCU-Link debugger. NXP’s MCX N Series are high-performance, low-power MCUs featuring a dual-core architecture, on-chip accelerators, and intelligent peripherals for multitasking capabilities and performance efficiency. The company’s MCX A Series are all-purpose MCUs designed to address a wide range of applications featuring low-power and intelligent peripherals.
May 2024 Connector Industry News > Award News
(Left) Mike Boll, Regional Sales Manager, SMP Trombetta. (Right) Charlie Kanan, CEO, Waytek.
Waytek Inc. presented SMP Trombetta with Waytek’s Outstanding Growth Award for 2023. The Outstanding Growth Award recognizes the Waytek partner whose commitment to quality, innovation, and service has been reflected by exceptional growth in product sales to Waytek customers. This is the second time that SMP Trombetta has received a Waytek award, having previously won Waytek’s 2021 New Product of the Year Award for its line of CAN bus power splitters and control modules. These products, along with SMP Trombetta’s relays, contactors, sealed busbars, and battery separators, have fueled Trombetta’s rapid growth in sales at Waytek. SMP Trombetta products include CAN bus control modules, magnetic latching battery separators, and the Bear Series of high-current contactors.
TTI Inc. announced the winners of its Supplier Excellence Awards, recognizing KOA, Bourns, Yageo, Osram, and Taiyo Yuden for their outstanding performance. In its 13th year, the Global Operations Excellence Award recognizes the supplier who earns the award in all three TTI regions – Americas, EMEA, and Asia — and scores the highest total points globally. In a close competition for the 2023 recognition, KOA, Bourns, and Yageo qualified for the prestigious award, with KOA scoring the highest number of total points including all regions to receive the Global Operations Excellence award. For the Americas region, TTI is presenting KOA, Bourns, and Yageo with the Platinum award which requires five consecutive years of award recognition. First-time Supplier Excellence Award winners Osram and Taiyo Yuden will be recognized for their dedication and commitment to operational excellence. KOA also will be recognized with the Best Quality Award for the Americas as well as the Diamond Award for the highest overall point achievement. Additional announcements recognizing the individual award winners in TTI’s Asia and EMEA regions will be forthcoming. The Supplier Excellence program focuses on quality measurements that include on-time delivery, receiving quality, customer-reported quality, administrative quality, operations, and business systems, as well as performance measurements such as sales and management support.
Smiths Interconnect’s distribution awards program recognizes and celebrates its valued business partners who have significantly contributed to the growth of Smiths Interconnect across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia. The winners in each region were selected based on their exceptional sales growth compared to the previous fiscal year. In the Americas, TTI IP&E has been named Distributor of the Year for its outstanding revenue growth and exceptional inventory management programs that have consistently delighted customers. The expertise of TTI’s corporate product marketing team in promoting the Smiths Interconnect product portfolio has been instrumental in its success. In EMEA, TTI IP&E – Europe has received the regional award for achieving remarkable growth. With a strong sales network, this European company has delivered excellent results in the German industrial market and in the defense, aerospace, and space sectors outside Germany.
Harwin announced that Avnet, iConnexion, Mindshare, Mouser Electronics, and TTI will all be recipients of the company’s 2023 distribution awards for supply chain partners and individuals who have made the most significant contribution to Harwin’s channel performance in the Americas, APAC, and Europe. Mouser Electronics wins the overall Global Distributor of the Year award for a combination of sales, market share expansion, and marketing engagement, while TTI is named the Distributor of the Year in both the Americas and EMEA after a period that saw its regional organizations deliver significant growth in sales and performances that went well beyond business plan targets. Distributor of the Year for APAC goes to iConnexion, thanks to a combination of strong sales, customer expansion, and proactive demand creation activities. In the Manufacturers’ Representative category, Arizona-based manufacturers’ representative Mindshare Technical Sales receives an award for exceptional performance in the Southwestern U.S. Personal contributions for individuals within the channel are recognized with Harwin’s ‘5-Star’ awards. For 2023, Gia Hayes, VP of Mil/aero at TTI Inc., will collect the Americas 5-Star award for initiatives to build a close collaboration between Harwin and TTI’s strategic accounts team, while Avnet’s Andrea Weighardt, who is responsible for purchaser asset management, receives the EMEA award for her outstanding engagement with Harwin and end customers and strong inventory management skills. In APAC the 5-Star award trophy goes to iConnexion sales manager Adarsh Shankarappa who has dedicated himself to growing Harwin’s sales in India as well as securing a major industrial design win in the region.
May 2024 Connector Industry News > Partnership, Personnel, & Acquisitions News
left to right: Ulrich Leidecker, COO, Phoenix Contact; Gerhard Borho – Management Board Information Technology and Digitalisation, Festo; Thomas Böck – Chairman of the Management Board Festo; Frank Stührenberg, CEO, Phoenix Contact.
Festo will use PLCnext Technology, Phoenix Contact’s open ecosystem for modern automation, in future intelligent devices. This will combine the innovative strength of both companies to take industrial automation to a new level. The new product generation is expected to be launched at the end of the year. PLCnext Technology is based on an open architecture that allows individual solutions to be developed and existing systems to be seamlessly integrated. The know-how from the two companies solves technological challenges around cybersecurity and innovative solutions for Industry 4.0. The common goal of Festo and Phoenix Contact is to meet the requirements arising from the convergence of IT and OT (Information Technology and Operations Technology) in industry through open automation solutions.
Photo from the left: Dr. Josef Leitner, Dr. Henner Spelsberg, Dr.-Ing Kurt Woelfl, Robert Klemisch
ODU has appointed Dr. Henner Spelsberg as its new managing director and spokesman of the management board, effective April 15. He will assume the responsibilities of his predecessor, Dr.-Ing. Kurt Woelfl. Before joining ODU, Spelsberg was a member of the management board of TIB Chemicals AG and a member of the advisory board of Günther Spelsberg GmbH & Co. KG. Throughout his career, he has held positions in corporate development, commercial management and as a management consultant. An industrial engineer by training, he brings extensive know-how and valuable experience to his new role, where he will be responsible for worldwide sales, portfolio management, corporate communications and marketing, as well as automotive.
Kristie Pierson is Women in Electronics (WE)’s new director of operations. With nearly 30 years of industry experience, she has expertise in marketing, supplier management, e-commerce, supply chain services, and operations. Her blend of industry knowledge and dedication to empowerment positions Pierson as a catalyst for success.
May 2024 Connector Industry News > Distribution News
Mouser Electronics is sponsoring the Create the Future Design Contest, a challenge now in its 22nd year, in which engineers submit designs that aim to better the world through technology. “With our focus on the engineer, a large portion of what we do really is at the heart of the design,” said Kevin Hess, senior vice president of marketing at Mouser, who says the global contest is open to both student and professional engineers. The contest opened March 1 and closes for entries on July 1, 2024. Hess said that despite the tight timeframe, the contest always generates cool ideas, some of which make it to the marketplace. The winning ideas from 2023 include NeuroPair, a novel approach to spinal cord repair, and Zulu Pods, which received $3M+ in funding to help the DoD revolutionize fluid delivery systems. The grand prize is US $25,000.
New Yorker Electronics announced a new franchised distribution agreement with Geyer Electronic, an international manufacturer of quartz crystals, oscillators, and resonators. Founded in 1964 in Munich as a retail store with a wide range of electronic products, Geyer became a manufacturing company in 1992, specializing in frequency products and special batteries. Ultimately it dropped the batteries line and has concentrated completely on the production and distribution of frequency products. As a franchise distributor for Geyer Electronic, New Yorker Electronics supplies its full line of quartz crystals, THT crystals and tuning fork crystals as well as ceramic resonators and PXO/XO/SSO, VCXO/LVDS/PECL and TCXO/VCTCXO oscillators.
May 2024 Connector Industry News > Facility News
Nicomatic Middle East is launching a new substructure in Abu Dhabi. Situated in the Tawazun Industrial Park, this new subsidiary allows for the extension of Nicomatic Middle East’s know-how, which has already been demonstrated in Dubai. The establishment of this subsidiary at the heart of a technological industrial park highlights Nicomatic Middle East as a significant player in technological innovations and encourages ongoing innovative solutions. The creation of Nicomatic Abu Dhabi aligns with Nicomatic’s goals to meet the specific interconnect solution needs of Middle Eastern clients. Furthermore, Nicomatic Middle East wants to participate in developing the park ecosystem through its expertise in the micro-connectors field.
May 2024 Connector Industry News > New Technical Resources
ECIA has posted a must-see webinar recording that explains the background and implications of coming legislation regarding PFAS chemicals, which are found in many electronic components. Claigan Consulting conducts extensive laboratory testing of products and follows global legislation concerning these commonly used chemicals. This webinar outlines strategies companies can use to identify the PFAS in their products and develop a reporting process to comply with evolving legal frameworks.
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