Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1011746
AUGUST 2018 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 15 have a tremendous number of different ma- terials and the designers, I believe, don't have a good working knowledge of board manufac- turing. Because we do a lot of combinations: FR-4 and Rogers; FR-4 and PTFE; and FR-4 and rigid polyimide and flex—we just get all kinds of stuff. And we make it work. We certainly go through a learning curve on some of these ma- terials just like the Astra that Mark mentioned. It sounds as though it is a competitive material to the Rogers 4000 series, which obviously is a benefit to the board guys because right now Rogers basically has everybody stretched out, delivery-wise. You're at their mercy to say, "Well, if we can't get it for 30 days ..." which again hurts us, but it certainly hurts the end customer as well. I think one of the other things with be- ing a relatively small board shop is that you don't carry the muscle and the might of some of the big guys. So you don't always necessar- ily get that treatment and you may be dealing with drop. Earlier today when we were talk- ing about this Astra material, and how if it's not supplied in the 24-inch grain direction we need, then we must buy full sheets of this ma- terial. I'm assuming 36 x 48 or 48 x 48. We buy it from China, freight it in, and now we have to cut it down to the size we can use. And if we do that and we only need one piece of material, but there's a lot charged for 15 piec- es; you're dropping $2,500 on materials for a $1,000 order that you're trying to turn. Feinberg: Well, that is an issue because just this one problem of raw material of laminate can actually destroy what's left of our industry in the U.S., and then what happens? Our military is going to buy circuit boards from China and who knows what's really in them, right? Krick: Exactly. Feinberg: The biggest challenge you're facing seems to be supply more than anything else. Is that what I'm hearing? Osborn: Correct. From a supply standpoint, let me give you an example of the financial im- pact the dwindling supplier base is having on Colonial. Two months ago we were notified by our chemical supplier that we would have to replace our existing ENIG line because they were no longer going to support that particular chemistry. After shelling out over $41,000 and taking precious start-up time out of our pro- duction schedule to validate this new chem- istry, I realized that this is just the beginning of changes yet to come. We are being forced to change and the word "choice" is no longer in our vocabulary. The other thing is that our supplier base doesn't have the people in the field to go into the shops anymore. Feinberg: It's not like the old days where we had salesmen who were process engineers in the field. Osborn: Correct. Or at least if they didn't know, they had access to the information and would get it for you. But being forced to change your chemistries because your suppliers have con- solidated and they're no longer going to car- ry the one that you've been using for 15 years, and to put that kind of money out all at one time, it's a killer and it hurts. Krick: That's another one of the issues with a small shop.We have been in a couple of situ- ations just in recent months, and to get some- body on the phone who is a knowledge base, like an applications engineer is like pulling teeth. We're kind of on the convenience tour. We're about 40 miles away from TTM Sterling, and if an AE happens to be in that facility, they may swing past for a cordial visit here but, again, we don't really carry the clout where a drill bit supplier or a chemistry supplier is go- ing to put somebody on a plane to come in and help us out with a problem. We are being forced to change and the word "choice" is no longer in our vocabulary.