Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1433652
32 SMT007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2021 tions have been changed, and there is a change during production or some stuff that has been approved by the customer but has not been up- dated in the specification of the customer. Just to be sure we are talking about the same thing, we'll check the current PCB and then we will try to source with another supplier. Matties: You validate those labs to give you a huge advantage for a number of different rea- sons. Chauvet: We see that sometimes the custom- er validates 150°C Tg, which is normal Tg, we will say. During the project they have some troubles, or they ask in the project to go to 170°C, but they never really update the specifi- cation. So, when they outsource the PCB, the new supplier is using the old lower value and they get the same issue that they already found during the project, but they just have some trouble validating an alternate supplier some- times. Matties: As you look forward, what do you ex- pect for 2022 regarding the pandemic, the sup- ply chain, and how you're taking care of your customers? Chauvet: I think it will stay very complicated. We are hearing that the docks and transportation will continue to be complicated. For us, the main target is to get the boards before Chinese New Year. Even af- ter that, I don't think that the situ- ation will be like before. It will stay a selling market and there are still some difficulties in finding raw ma- terial for the PCBs. I don't think it will change totally. It might be a bit easier, but it will stay a complicated market. We can see that there are new markets, like EV, etc., that are pushing. Copper is a very big issue for us. While we have allocation in the raw material for PCBs, it's be- cause they cannot get the copper. I don't think it will change in the next few months. Matties: How much EV work have you seen, or what's the percentage or curve over the last year or two? Chauvet: Currently, it's still small. We just get more and more RFQs. We do a few prototypes, etc., but nothing is really in mass production on our side. We can see that there is a big shi and with our location, we expect to get a lot of business from Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. erefore, we want to invest in that. It's a bit of a new technology, or it's old, but there are more people doing the boards in a different way. Now they try to put the power circuitry with the control circuitry in the same PCB, so it means one part of the PCB has heavy cop- per and one part has normal copper. ey try to mix both in the same PCB, and this is really brand new on the market. Doing that, it's because everything keeps get- ting smaller and they need to find space. ey cannot use two boards, so they try to reduce the space and they must put everything in one PCB, but it's not easy at all. erefore, we try to bring this technology to the EV manufactur- XRF X-ray fluorescence—Micro Pioneer XRF 2000.