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October 2015 • The PCB Magazine 39 Coakley: The system processes a maximum of three panels at any given time in order to achieve the high productivity required for volume production. Matties: What about the ink? Is this a proprietary ink from a single source? Coakley: The ink resist is a hot melt wax formula - tion that requires UV cure and the resist is suitable for acid or alkaline etching and for tin plating as used here at Whelen. The ink is supplied to us by our strategic part- ner, Dow Chemicals, based here in New England. We then supply the inkjet engine and the resist in one package to the customer. Matties: And you resell it? Coakley: What the customer buys is a good board and maximum potential yield into the subsequent process; this is paid for in a unique commercial model called "Pay for click," which is adapted from the graphic print industry. It ensures the customer only pays for good panels printed that have met stringent quality controls. The click payment not only includes the re - sist to produce a good panel, but replacement price heads as required, all spare parts, preventa- tive maintenance and full on-site service support and can be structured for single or double-sided printing. It keeps control of related process costs plus equipment consumable and servicing costs throughout the life of the system. Matties: It's reliable, hands off, and it needs limited customer intervention? Coakley: Yes, that's the design brief and the practi - cal day-to-day experience at Whelen today. At the start, we supplied extensive engineering and oper- ator support as you would expect in the early days, but today, Whelen has taken full responsibility for daily production with limited and sometimes only remote intervention from our Dutch team. High-reliability has been built into the system and combined remote diagnostics and "machine- to-world control." Matties: This is your first installation, correct? Has it gone the way you thought it would? Coakley: Yes, Whelen is our first installation and we are honoured to be a valued supplier for such a key component in this groundbreaking project. The concept to change the face of PCB manu - facturing with inkjet technology in such a short space of time has been a challenge at times and many valuable lessons have been learnt for future installations. We, along with our partners, plus great support from Whelen, have ensured this first project has been a resounding success and all parties can be proud of the joint achievement. Matties: Thank you very much Coakley: Thank you. PCB MUTRACx: FIRST INSTALL ACHIEvES CAM TO ETCH IN 5 MINUTES FeATure Vacuum chuck. Proprietary built-in aoi system.