Franklin, Your points are well taken. You raised 2 key issues; "speaking from a smaller sized company" and over the "last few years". I agree. Sadly, many of those companies asking "who else" aren't smaller sized and they aren't just asking for simple references. What I stated about manufacturing innovation in the US doesn't apply just to electronics or the interconnect industry in particular. My concern, and what Rudy states as there being "a story here", is that we seem to have misplaced the desire or will to innovate. We used to do this better in the US. Fortunately, I think we're slowly finding our way back to technological leadership and greater innovation. I hope others will weigh in on these issues so critical to the survival of US manufacturing industries and perhaps Rudy will provide insight to the "rest of the story". Roger --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------