Electronics recycling is still an emerging industry, which means that many recyclers–and equipment providers to the industry–are still experimenting with the processing methods that can best serve their needs, as well as those of their consuming markets.

While many recyclers engage in some degree of testing and manual disassembly to recover resalable components, eventually, many end-of-life electronics will be sent along an infeed conveyor to meet the hungry jaws of ashredder. What emerges from the other end can vary widely depending on the infeed material. The amount of automation that recyclers employ to sort and separate the electronics’ constituent materials can also vary widely.
When setting up a processing system for electronics, manufacturers often recommend considering the system as a whole, not just the individual components. Versatility is another important factor, as the composition of various electronics can fluctuate widely.

Envirocycle Inc., headquartered in Hallstead, Pa., with processing facilities in Rancho Cucamonga and San Diego, Calif., and in Mount Pleasant, Pa., has made a conscious decision to avoid shredding in favor of disassembly.

BY HAND. Greg Voorhees, vice president of operations for Envirocycle, says manual demanufacturing allows the company to provide jobs to people in the communities where it operates, as well as to cut down on airborne particulates that could affect the health of employees.
“We were also concerned that shredding increases the amount of material that is unacceptable for recycling and has to be disposed of,” Voorhees says. “We have managed to reduce our actual disposal rates to less than half of a percent.”

The company is marketing working equipment and components to resale markets, as well as raw secondary materials. Envirocycle’s dismantle department can process roughly 135,000 pounds perweek during one shift, while the company’s glass department processes a minimum of 200,000 pounds weekly.

“Mainly our process is affected by the frequency or regularity of the incoming material; basically we can process as much as we receive,” Voorhees says.

“Our lines are set up in such a way that all of the material passes by multiple people, each charged with different tasks,” he says. “For example, on our dismantle line, after the unit is disassembled, the glass is sent in one direction and the rest of the material in the opposite direction. Then the components are segregated based on type, such as the kind of plastic, circuit boards or color or black-and-white tubes and so on.”

Envirocycle staff sorts the glass by hand, first by size, then by type–either funnel or panel–then by chemistry–leaded or lead-free. “We think this system of multiple checks allows us to remove contamination and avoid mixing materials,” he says.

When considering further automation, Voorhees recommends taking a practical approach. “You have to be realistic about what kind of return you are going to get for the material you generate and compare that to the initial cost of the equipment, the cost of maintaining it and your other expenses,” he says. “Compare that to what you pay now for wages and other employee expenses.”

Voorhees also recommends assessing a company’s long-term goals prior to setting up a processing system, considering the expandability of the system and the equipments’ ability to keep up with increasing volumes of incoming material. Companies should also consider the effect of declining volumes of incoming material. “If it decreases dramatically, can you afford your monthly payments?”

For the companies who have opted to include shredding as a means to recover the constituent parts from electronics, downstream sorting can vary.

HELPING HANDS. Intechra, an IT assets disposition service provider with a 193,000-square-foot processing facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, employs a magnetic pulley to remove ferrous materials downstream from its shredder. The company relies on hand sorters, however, to recover the remaining materials.

Grover Edmiston, vice president of operations at Intechra, says the company processes IT equipment of all kinds.

Currently, Intechra processes roughly 1.2 million pounds of electronics per month through its shredder.

Prior to shredding computer monitors, Edmiston says the Intechra staff performs manual disassembly. “We bale the plastics from the monitors and shred the glass, put it into gaylords and ship it to a downstream recycler,” he says. Intechra also ships the yokes from the CRTs and the monitors’ printed circuit boards to qualified downstream partners.

Downstream from the magnet, the company uses two to six hand sorters, depending on the in-feed material. “Some think that there are not many differences in electronics. If you threw in complete computer systems, you will be sorting more items: plastic, cable, metal, printed circuit boards,” Edmiston says.

Supplied in 1.2 x 1.2 x 0.5 mm SOT-723 packages, NTK313xx devices feature low RDS(on) values for over 200 mA operating current and 1.5 V low gate voltage to allow direct control from power management ASIC or other controllers. Series, which utilizes Trench technology and offers integrated ESD protection, is suited for load/power switching applications and small signal interface switching. While NTK3134N us 20 V, 890 mA, N-Channel MOSFET, NTK3139P is -20 V, -780 mA, P-Channel MOSFET.

New 1.2 mm x 1.2 mm NTK313xx devices deliver comparable performance to SC-89 MOSFETS utilized in today’s portable electronics but offer a 44 percent smaller footprint and a 38 percent lower profile

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Feb. 8, 2006 - ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN), a global leader in power management semiconductor solutions, today introduced a new generation of power MOSFETs offered in tiny SOT-723 packages and optimized for space-constrained portable applications. These new low threshold power MOSFETs utilize ON Semiconductor’s leading-edge Trench technology to achieve comparable electrical and power performance to MOSFETs offered in much larger SC-89 or SC-75 packages.

NTK3134N is a 20 volt (V), 890 milliampere (mA), N-Channel MOSFET. The NTK3139P is a -20 V, -780 mA, P-Channel MOSFET. Both devices have low RDS(on) values for over 200 mA operating current and 1.5 V low gate voltage to allow direct control from power management ASIC or other controllers.
The NTK313xx devices are ideal for load/power switching applications and small signal interface switching. Featuring integrated electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection the devices minimize the need for special handling and assembly processes. The 1.2 mm x 1.2 mm footprint of the SOT-723 package utilizes 44 percent less board space than similar performing MOSFETs offered in the SC-89 or SC-75 packages. With a low vertical clearance of 0.5 mm, the new SOT-723 packaged MOSFETs satisfy the requirements of new generation ultra-thin handheld portable devices.

Both devices are currently in production and available. Budgetary pricing is $0.13 USD per unit in 10,000 unit quantities. For additional information, visit www.onsemi.com or contact Sam.Abdeh@onsemi.com.

About ON Semiconductor

W.

QUICK–WHAT DO Apple Computer, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sony have in common? They all sel business PCs, right? Well, yeah. But flagging sales and margins have them looking elsewhere for profit–namely, your home entertainment center.

“Margins are tightening, prices are coming down, and PCs are becoming more of a commodity than ever before,” explains Find/SVP researcher Larry Fisher, “so PC companies are diversifying into consumer electronics.” It turns out Apple sells more iPods than iMacs, Gateway and Sony have their eyes glued to flat-panel TVs, and without its digital imaging division, HP’s financials might have no black ink at all. IBM, the only major player without an initiative in electronic gadgets, finally got tired of the color red and sold its PC-manufacturing operation to China’s Lenovo Group. Dell insists it makes money selling PCs but, by the way, it sure would like to come over and set up your big-screen TV and home network–maybe even sell you a personal photo printer over a cup of coffee and some Entenmann’s.

With computer upgrade cycles lengthening, manufacturers are hoping that home is where the profit is–something that remains to be seen, say analysts. But in the meantime, will vendors also have the resources to support your business PCs?

Not to worry, says Harry Harczak, executive vice president for CDW Inc., a leading distributor of all the brands mentioned above. Manufacturers have separate teams dedicated to creating, selling and building business products. No one will even notice when IBM ThinkPads and desktops start coming from China, predicts Harczak, because the design, labeling and support will still come from IBM.

In a way, PC-makers are victims of their own success. Hardware capabilities have so outstripped software demands that PC-users of every kind are holding onto their computers longer and longer, says Fisher. Likewise, the quality of hardware components is such that the usual year of free technical support should suffice: PCs that run without problems for the first 90 days rarely break down after that. These days, according to Dell, the principal cause of customer-support calls is spyware and other external intrusions coming down from the internet to clog or hijack customer PCs.

Prevention–in the form of frequent data backups and Windows updates, as well as the deployment of updated anti-virus, firewall and other security software–is the only cure for those problems, says Harczak.

After that, he says, “It should be business as usual.”

ITHACA - Gregory J. Galvin attended graduate school at Cornell University and received his doctoral degree in 1984. He went to work for the university as director of corporate research relations and deputy director of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility.

“I worked for the vice president of research at Cornell, and my job was tying to connect the university with corporations that would support it,” Galvin says.

One research group developed a micro electromechanical (MEMS) portfolio and Cornell patented the technology. There wasn’t a lot of outside interest in the technology, so the group kept returning to Galvin to see if he could generate interest.

Galvin did more than generate interest; he decided to build a company around the intellectual property. In 1993, with co-founder and fellow Cornell graduate Timothy Davis, Galvin founded Kionix, Inc., a company specializing in the design and manufacture of micromechanical and silicon micro-mechanical devices.

The company leased space for a fabrication facility at 22 Thornwood Drive in Ithaca, says Galvin, president and CEO.

In 1994, Cornell granted Kionix exclusive rights to Cornell’s deep-silicon, plasmamicromachining intellectual property. Four years later, Kionix completed its first six-inch wafer. In 1999, the company launched its high-perfermance, single-axis accelerometer. Accelerometers are sensors that measure acceleration. For example, an accelerometer in an airbag senses the rapid deceleration of a vehicle and determines the severity of an accident before deploying the airbag. In 2000, San Jose, Calif.-based Calient Networks, Inc. acquired Kionix’s optical division, which specialized in producing MEMS for the telecommunications industry. Calient Networks renamed the newly acquired business unit Calient Optical Components.

Calient Networks also allowed Ithaca-based Kionix to retain. its name for the remainder of the company, which focuses on the sensors and microfluidic markets.

There are 170 institutional and individual shareholders that currently own Kionix. All 88 employees are stockholders. Ten to 12 institutional investors and a couple of private individual investors own the majority of the shares, Galvin says.

In 2001, Kionix moved down the road to a new, leased, nearly 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 36 Thornwood Drive in the Cornell Business and Technology Park.

This facility is comprised of 25,120 square feet of office and common space; 11,680 square feet of clean rooms; and 3,040 square feet of mechanical and maintenance space.

In 2002, production began on the dual-axis accelerometer, and in 2003 Kionix began automotive accelerometer production. Between 2004 and 2006, the company produced a number of high-performance accelerometers that became smaller in size.

Today, a broad field of accelerometers generates 99 percent of Kionix’s revenue. The company produces around two million accelerometers a month, Galvin says.

The majority of products sold by Kionix fit in a five-byfive millimeter package. The company is about to sample its first threeby-three millimeter products this quarter and go into production next quarter, Galvin says.

The production of gyroscopes also contributes to business at Kionix. Gyroscopes measure and maintain orientation.

Two years ago, the consumer-electronics field created enormous new markets for Kionix, says Galvin. Currently, Kionix’s predominant customer base is consumer-electronic companies, cell-phone companies, and companies that produce GPS devices.

“A big boost this past Christmas was the release of Sony’s PlayStation 3,” Galvin says. The gaming market has been growing steadily, selling 40 million game controllers on a monthly basis, Galvin explains. Game controllers are input devices, usually handheld, that allow consumers to control a video game. Increasingly, Kionix accelerometers are components of these game controllers.

The marketplace for accelerometers historically has been the automotive industry, Galvin says.

“Every vehicle today has a silicon accelerometer in its airbag,” he explains. “The automotive market is attractive because it is a stable and nonsaturated market. Unfortunately, there is no real growth potential.”

Kionix’s growth lies in other industries and markets.

Recently, the cell-phone market which produces one billion phones yearly, according to Galvin - has exhibited some interest in accelerometers. Samsung is dabbling in using accelerometers and cellphone recognition.

“Nothing has hit a resounding success yet,” Galvin says. “However, there are major hints that manufacturers are looking to put motion detection in phones.”

The computer industry has already examined the advantages of accelerometers. Several manufacturers have included the device in notebook computers, so the accelerometer can tell the computer to lock in the hard drive if the notebook is accidentally dropped.

“This is a very exciting time for us because we are at the tip of the iceberg,” Galvin says. “We need to figure out how to make consumer-electronics products aware of motion.”

AS VEGAS — Ultimate Electronics used Las Vegas as a venue to unveil its new Hard Rock Sound Asylum theme rooms. The chain plans to install the rooms with the famous Hard Rock name in 35 stores this year and throughout the chain in 2004.

The 58-store chain based in Denver opened the first two rooms at its Las Vegas outlets just a few miles down the road from the Hard Rock Casino. Ultimate Electronics president David Workman was at the July 11 opening of newly renovated store on Tropicana Avenue to talk about the demo rooms and the new partnership with Hard Rock Cafe.

“We always try to bring out-of-the-box experiences to our stores, and this is a great example of that,” said Workman. “The Hard Rock Cafe is one of the top 10 brands in the world, and they have the same passion for music that we have.”

The demo rooms are set in back of the stores and feature the Hard Rock logo above the doorway. Klipsch Audio Technologies, the official supplier of loudspeakers for the Hard Rock Cafe, is providing the sound systems, and Sharp and Pioneer are chipping in with projectors and components.

The chain plans to spend approximately $1 million to roll out the Hard Rock rooms in stores this year, including seven new stores it plans to open in Minneapolis; Kansas City, Mo.; Austin, Texas; and Wichita, Kan. The remainder of the stores will be outfitted with Hard Rock rooms in 2004.

In addition to giving Ultimate a high-profile brand name in its stores, Workman said the demo rooms help set the chain apart from other consumer electronics chains. “Anyone can display products on a wire rack and sell them, said Workman. “We’re all about showing people what the products can do.”

Ultimate is also using the rooms as a key component of store remodels like the one it just completed on the Tropicana Avenue store. “We’re retooling the interiors of some of our stores and the Hard Rock rooms are a part of the new look,” said Workman.

Ultimate Electronics is continuing to expand despite an ongoing economic malaise that’s hurting sales. In its most recent quarter, the chain posted a loss of $1.4 million and reported an 8% decline in same-store sales. Part of the loss was attributed to costs associated with 12 new stores it opened in late 2002. Later this year, the chain will eliminate computer products from its stores to make room for new audio and video products.

NEW YORK (Reuters)—Wal-Mart Stores said on Monday that, starting next year, it will ask its electronics suppliers to evaluate the environmental impact of their products, and it will use the assessment to determine which merchandise to sell in its stores.

The world’s largest retailer said suppliers will be asked to fill out a scorecard evaluating their electronics based on criteria such as energy efficiency, durability and the size of the package containing the product. Wal-Mart buyers can then use the scorecard results to make purchasing decisions.

The scorecard is the latest effort by the retailer to push its suppliers to follow its environmental initiatives.

Wal-Mart has vowed to cut energy usage and reduce waste at its stores, and earlier this year, Chief Executive Lee Scott unveiled a new environmental plan challenging employees, suppliers and customers to remove nonrenewable energy from their lives.

With more than 127 million customers visiting a Wal-Mart store or a Sam’s Club location in America every week, the company is considered one of few able to make direct changes to global energy consumption.

While the efforts may help the environment, they are also seen as a way for Wal-Mart to cut costs as profit margins at its U.S. stores have narrowed.

For instance, Wal-Mart has asked its suppliers to cut the amount of packaging used in products sold through Wal-Mart by 5 percent by 2013. The move is expected to save the retailer $3.4 billion over the five years.

Adams & Co. Real Estate recently brokered a 10-year, 4,000s/f lease for Brick House Electronics at the 980 Avenue of the Americas, also known as the Vogue Building, bringing occupancy at the property to 100 percent. Jeffrey Buslik and Jeffrey Schwartz represented the landlord in the transaction, Ellman Realty Advisors represented the tenant.

Microsoft and Samsung enter a patent licensing agreement focused on the companies’ consumer electronics lines. The deal gives the two firms access to each others’ patents for existing and future inventions in categories including computers, televisions, digital video recorders and digital media players.

If big-ticket buys like digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and LCD TVs are on your shopping list, you’ll need a plan to find the best deals. Step one: Decide how high-tech you want to go. You want to be sure your investment won’t be obsolete as soon as you leave the store. Some advice to help you shop smarter:

Research first, buy later. Check the Internet to help narrow your search. Every major manufacturer posts product information online. You can also browse competitive prices on Web sites such as cnet.com, pricewatch.com, bestwebbuys.com/electronics/and newegg.com.

Shop around. If you’re a bargain hunter and your primary criterion is to find the best price, the big chains may be your best bet. For some consumers, service contracts and warranties, which bigger chains are more apt to offer, are essential. Larger chains also have huge inventories, so chances are the item you want will be in stock. On the other hand, national chains sometimes employ part-time sales associates who may not know which end of the box is up.

By contrast, independent electronics stores will likely offer great one-on-one service. They also take time to answer your ongoing questions with follow-up service. The drawback: Their prices may be slightly higher than national chains.

Be prepared to negotiate. Ask the salesperson, “Is this your best price?” If she’s not authorized to cut a deal, ask to speak with the manager, if the price is nonnegotiable, inquire about other options–free delivery, a reduction in shipping costs, free or discounted accessories.

A mistake many leaders make is the self imposed responsibility to have all the answers. This is just not true. It is okay to admit to not having all the answers. Good leaders are willing to show their imperfections. Surround yourself with a solid executive team and you don’t need all the answers. No one expects perfection, just leadership. Being President doesn’t grant you supreme knowledge.

The Ego Factor

Stagnant growth, lost market share and panic response management are more likely to occur if strategic growth objectives are Ego driven vs. Profit driven which often leads to putting personal needs ahead of business needs. This is a common symptom of the lack of leadership in the organization. Leadership is quite different then management. Steve Kaufman in his DREF interview, NAW’s leadership series (2003), stated that he did not invent the phrase “Servant Leadership” but he leans heavily toward that methodology.

The academics tell us a leaders role is to serve those people that report to him. He or She is not a dictator but their ultimate role is to serve, to allow those people to achieve their goals. It’s a style that starts by asking; What do you want to accomplish rather than telling them what you want to accomplish.” I would say that the servant leadership model is the one that I like to talk about. I like to talk about the most effective leaders being those that have volunteer followers not those–that have draftees. And if your team could vote for a leader rather than be assigned a leader, would they still vote for you. Steve Kaufman, CEO Arrow Electronics

Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment. Warren Bennis, leadership scholar believes American corporations are over managed and underled. Great leaders get exceptional efforts from their employees. Effective leaders must have vision. A visionary leader has a clear sense for the future with the ability to turn their vision into results. This could not be accomplished if they let their ego get in the way. Communication is key to the process used to inspire others to act.

A servant leader makes a conscious choice to lead by being a servant first. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between these two extremes is where you find the most effective leaders. Your style is determined by you, your environment and the specific situation you face. But, if you stay in the grid between these two extremes, your effectiveness as a leader will be obvious.

Good managers get employees to respect them, effective leaders get employees to not only respect them but more importantly they get them to respect themselves.

http://www.ceostrategist.com Dr. Rick Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in leadership and the creation of competitive advantage in wholesale distribution. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with distributor executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information. CEO Strategist – experts in Strategic Leadership in Wholesale Distribution. Sign up for Rick’s monthly news letter