In September 2010, Henkel divested its lines of Epoxy Coating Powders, Transfer Epoxy Mold Compounds, and Optically Clear Mold Compounds along with its factory in Olean, NY, USA who produce it to SolEpoxy, Inc. Click on the image to see the divestiture letter.

Since this time, SolEpoxy Inc. is committed to regaining its former leadership position as a technical innovator and global supplier of epoxy coating powders, Transfer Epoxy Mold Compounds and Optically Clear Mold Compounds and has retained the best and the brightest of the formulating chemists and process engineers. As SolEpoxy, Inc., they are committed to reinvesting in new research and development, specifically for automotive and high power applications. Fortunately, with the support of CAPLINQ, SolEpoxy still supply nearly 300MT of epoxy materials per year to Europe, and have monthly 40ft container ships arriving from USA, making SolEpoxy very price competitive because of both the strength of the Euro and the strong logistics infrastructure in place. CAPLINQ has been selected as SolEpoxy’s appointed market and logistics partners, as we have many years of technical experience with these epoxy molding and coating powders. Click on the image to see the introduction letter of CAPLINQ and SolEpoxy’s cooperation.

Below is a complete list of products that were included in the sale and which are still manufactured in the same Olean, NY, USA factory. If you require any of these products, please see our Epoxy Compound Products or contact us for more details.

Please click here for the list of technical datasheets.

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For more information about polyimide tapes or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.

E-Zend.nl is a great online service portal

Given the success of CAPLINQ.com, our Dutch offices recently requested to hire webdesigners to redesign the homepage. Given the short project time expected, it seemed unnecessary to hire a full-time Adobe Illustrator designer. CAPLINQ turned to E-Zend.nl, an online service portal which brings together clients and professionals.

CAPLINQ registered online, posted a job and within hours received a couple offers, including one from Hoebeke ICT Services. We accepted the offer and within a day had a new homepage. Thanks E-Zend!

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Ivo Verzijlbergen, who, effective 1st January 2012, has taken up the position of Commercial Manager at CAPLINQ Europe BV and will be based in Assendelft, the Netherlands. Key to this role will be the development of the epoxy coating powder and epoxy molding compound business in Europe.

Ivo achieved his Bachelor Degree in Marketing and Communications and has been working the last 8 years in international Sales and Marketing. During his last tenure with Hankook Tire Co. Ltd., he played a key role in increasing Hankook’s marketshare within Scandinavia and Benelux from 0.8% to 5%, in a mature tire market.

Ivo is an autosport and automotive enthusiast, an avid traveler and skydiver and will soon be married to his fiancée Nikki.

We welcome Ivo to this new position and wishing him a continuing long and successful career with CAPLINQ Europe.

Every so often, when flipping through the Trade Journals, there is an ad or a column that will catch our eye. In the last few issues of the Semiconductor Trade Journals, EasySpheres has been running this Ad, “Got Balls”. Everytime I see it, I can’t help but think, “Yep, you’ve got balls, alright… charging so much for solder spheres!”

I don’t want to bash EasySpheres business model, which is essentially a distributor of Kester Solder Spheres in smaller packaging, as distributors play an important role in the distribution of goods to smaller customers, and I’m sure EasySpheres provides good service to its customers. What I do want to comment on though, are the tiny packages these end of being.

When you deal with tiny solder spheres, 10,000 pieces can be smaller than a teaspoon of spheres. Even going as high as a million might fill a tablespoon. The volume of these spheres is really tiny, and what most purchasers don’t realize is that the weight of the delivery packaging can easily be 10x the weight of the goods sold. I understand that companies all want to run on “Just In Time” inventory, but when you order such small order quantities, take a second to think of the manufacturing process of these spheres.

Any process that needs to run production to churn out a teaspoon of product is going to be expensive relative to the quantity purchased. We looked at this model over and over again, and it just never made sense to us. Yes, you can charge high prices for tiny package quantities, but our view is that the better deal for the customer is to sell 100x (yes, one HUNDRED TIMES) the amount of spheres – 1 million or (1 kkpcs) – for the same price as 3-4x (three to four times) that tiny amount.

To start the production process to churn out essentially small pieces of alloyed metal is an expensive process for tiny amounts, but if purchasers can buy more of the material, the price drops drastically. So no, we don’t typically sell less than one million pieces, but our prices on one million solder spheres is generally less than the same price EasySpheres charges for 40,000 spheres. Check it out for yourself!

For more information about Tin/Lead (Sn63Pb37) or Leadfree (Pb-free SAC305 or SAC405) solder spheres or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.

CAPLINQ is pleased to announce PET1S, its newest polyester tape introduction designed as a plating tape.

LINQTAPE™ PET1S-Series Polyester Plating Tape is a 1 mil polyester backing film coated with a pressure-sensitive silicone adhesive. PET1S is an extremely versatile plating tape used to protect circuitry from chemicals and fumes during PCB production. It is recommended for solder mask over bare copper boards.

LINQTAPE™ PET1S-Series Polyester Plating Tape comes as a standard in 36 yard (33m) lengths of varying widths, but longer rolls may be available upon request.

Technical datasheet is available here.

NEW!! Debate, discuss and generally have your say in our forum
For more information about polyester tapes or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.

CAPLINQ is pleased to announce PIT2S-RL, its newest polyimide tape introduction designed as a no-residue High Temperature Mounting Tape on PET Release Liner.

LINQTAPE™ PIT2S-RL-Series Polyimide Tape is a high-temperature resistant polyimide tape on a 2mil PET Release Liner. It is designed primarily for high temperature temporary bonding applications and it removes cleanly without adhesive residue after exposure to heat or chemicals. It may also be used in electrical insulation applications
that require Class H Tape grade.

LINQTAPE™PIT2S-RL-Series Polyimide™ Tape provides an excellent balance of electrical, mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties over a wide range of temperatures. It has enhanced strength for puncture and tear resistance and can be used in applications that may see intermittent temperatures up to 260°C (500°F). LINQTAPE™PIT2S-RL-Series Polyimide Tape comes as a standard in 36 yard (33m) lengths of varying widths, but longer rolls may be available upon request.

Technical datasheet is available here.

NEW!! Debate, discuss and generally have your say in our forum
For more information about polyimide tapes or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.

CAPLINQ is pleased to publish the following price list for the PIT1SD-2RL. PIT1SD-2RL is a double-sided, polyimide tape with a PET release liner on both sides. The products listed below are standard sizes, but custom sizes can also be provided.

NEW!! Debate, discuss and generally have your say in our forum
For more information about polyimide tapes or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.

In an earlier post, we asked this question, but it’s come back again and again, so we want to address again, in more detail, and with an aim for discussion.

We are often asked if our products are UL Certified. Customers often as us because they in turn need to provide UL certification on their products. We understand this, but that’s almost beside the point.

The reason is because UL certification is given on a product-by-product basis and each UL certification test costs about $1000. If we get UL certification on PIT1S (1mil silicone adhesive polyimide tape) then this does not mean it extends to PIT1A (same polyimide backing but acrylic adhesive instead of silicone) or to PIT2S (same polyimide backing, same silicone adhesive, 2mil thickness instead of 1mil).

So, yes, we can make extrapolations based on the results of the data, but we cannot “extrapolate” UL-certification. So what’s the point? Furthermore, customers often require UL certification on the final products they make that [i]use[/i] the polyimide tape, which means they still have to go through UL certification of their own – [i]whether or not CAPLINQ has UL-certification[/i].

So the short answer to the question is YES, we have UL-certification on [i]some[/i] products, NO, we do not have UL-Certification on [i]all[/i] products, and YES, we can

get UL-certification on the polyimide tapes you require – this is only conditional on the number of rolls in questions and who will pay for the UL-certification.

NEW!! Debate, discuss and generally have your say in our forum
For more information about polyimide tapes or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.

Over the past 4 years, CAPLINQ and Profound Materials have steady increased their solder sphere market share and displaced traditional solder ball market leaders Senju, Accurus (Henkel), and Cookson in a very simple way: by providing high-quality solder spheres at the market’s lowest prices.

Globally, Profound Material supplies solder spheres to 9 of the top 10 semiconductor companies, and together with CAPLINQ, is growing its customer base to include numerous more small and medium-sized customers. With the industry’s latest technology manufacturing practices, Profound Material supplies Tin-Lead and lead-free solder spheres with no more than 1.5% Spheroid Tolerance and down to a 0.005 mm diameter tolerance.

We are pleased to publish the following price list for the SAC405 (Sn95.5Ag4Cu0.5) Lead-free solder spheres.

For more information about Tin/Lead (Sn63Pb37) or Leadfree (Pb-free SAC305 or SAC405) solder spheres or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.

Over the past 4 years, CAPLINQ and Profound Materials have steady increased their solder sphere market share and displaced traditional solder ball market leaders Senju, Accurus (Henkel), and Cookson in a very simple way: by providing high-quality solder spheres at the market’s lowest prices.

Globally, Profound Material supplies solder spheres to 9 of the top 10 semiconductor companies, and together with CAPLINQ, is growing its customer base to include numerous more small and medium-sized customers. With the industry’s latest technology manufacturing practices, Profound Material supplies Tin-Lead and lead-free solder spheres with no more than 1.5% Spheroid Tolerance and down to a 0.005 mm diameter tolerance.

We are pleased to publish the following price list for the Sn63Pb37 Tin/Lead solder spheres.

For more information about Tin/Lead (Sn63Pb37) or Leadfree (Pb-free SAC305 or SAC405) solder spheres or any other of our products, visit us or contact us for more details.