Patton Ships RoHS SmartNodes for VoIP6.14.2006 Patton finishes RoHS transition for flagship SmartNode™ VoIP products ahead of the European Union Directive’s July 1, 2006 deadline GAITHERSBURG, MD and BERN SWITZERLAND: Patton Electronics — the leader in VoIP, connectivity, and network access solutions — and Patton-Inalp Networks AG — creator of the SmartNode™ brand of industry-leading VoIP technology solutions — announced today that they completed the RoHS transition in manufacturing their flagship VoIP products including the popular SmartNode™ 4630. Patton is now shipping the RoHS-compliant SmartNode 4630 Series ISDN BRI gateway routers. Carriers and Enterprises in Europe depend on the SmartNode 4630 Series ISDN BRI gateway routers since they uniquely address the ISDN-centric telecom infrastructure in Europe. Patton tackled vast changes to meet RoHS maintaining its significant market share in the EU and continuing to meet corporate global environmental goals. “We expanded into Europe during the mid-80’s,” reflected Burton A. Patton, Executive Vice President at Patton. “Now we have significant European operations with product development, support, purchasing, sales and robust industry partnerships.” The SmartNode Products were originally developed by Inalp Networks AG, Switzerland (now Patton-Inalp Networks AG). The SmartNode products are now renowned in Europe and the ‘VoIP Gateway of choice’ for ISDN applications. The SN4630 series targets Europe by featuring Euro-ISDN interfaces, an additional fallback port, and either ADSL or G.SHDSL ports for the WAN connection. The SN4630 was winner of Internet Telephony Magazine’s ‘Product of the Year’ in 2005. “Compliance with RoHS has been a company-wide effort because of the broad impact required in process, equipment and mindset,” said Steve Schrader, Patton’s Vice President of Manufacturing. “The challenge extends beyond manufacturing and material control. Successful completion, within our micro-multinational structure, required cooperation from engineering, marketing, supply chain and executive management personnel located on multiple continents.” said Schrader. Patton replaced automated manufacturing equipment including wave soldering equipment, re-engineered the process chemicals and reflow profiles, and scrubbed the qualified vendor lists to include RoHS compliant components and sub-assemblies. Patton has been retraining of the entire factory workforce, researching RoHS materials, reviewing each of the 8000 unique components in stock, and coordinating the transition with the supply chain for over one year. For a hi-resolution image of the SmartNode™ 4630, go to Patton's media resources page and click on VoIP. About Patton Patton manufactures communications equipment for carrier, enterprise, and industrial networks worldwide. Incorporated in 1984, Patton’s catalog of more than 500 products includes SmartNode™ and SmartLink™ VoIP solutions; ForeFront™ multi-service access infrastructure solutions (T1/E1, G.SHDSL, xDSL, dial-up); IPLink™ CPE solutions (WAN routers, modems, remote access servers, NTUs, CSU/DSUs); CopperLink™ Ethernet Extenders; EtherBITS™ device servers; EnviroNET™ industrial-networking equipment, network-connectivity Micro-Products (interface-converters, etc.), and more. For more information or a free catalog, contact [email protected]. Patton Electronics Company 7622 Rickenbacker Drive Gaithersburg, MD 20879 USA Tel: (301) 975-1000 Fax: (301) 869-9293 Email: [email protected] Web: www.patton.com ### |
