Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1007258
JULY 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 31 are geographically close to the people who are building the stuff. Shaughnessy: So, do you have any advice for anyone just getting into flex, any hurdles they should avoid? Schulte: Do your homework upfront. If you're familiar with rigid designs, you'll find that flex is just a couple of tweaks from what you have been designing. My biggest advice would be to talk to the people who have to build the stuff. When I have toured facilities, both for assembly and fab, they echo what we've been talking about here, "It sure would be nice if everybody would come and talk to us like you guys do." Shaughnessy: Well, most designers either have never been in a board shop or they haven't been in 25 years, because they're all wearing three hats at work. Schulte: That's incredible to me. I've only been doing this for going on five years now, and I was dumbfounded by how much goes into building a rigid board or a flex circuit. I haven't toured a flex facility yet, but I'm trying to get my foot in the door somewhere. When I started designing, Shawn and I went to our rigid facility and assembler. I asked Shawn, "Can't we do the fab and the assembly shop in the same day?" He laughed and said, "You're not going to want to do that." Sure enough, I was a little glassy-eyed by the time we left the PCB shop. There was so much information. It's an incredibly complex process. It's cool, and I feel like designers should be visiting the places that are building their stuff. If you understand that process, you can more confidently move through a design knowing that you're not going to have to come back and make changes. Shaughnessy: Right. Did you say that you do some printed electronics work? Schulte: Not printed electronics, necessarily, but the FDM type of printing in plastics. I'm an enthusiast. I've built a couple of kits myself. I started diving into it here at work too and then we hired another mechanical engineer who was into 3D printing, and between the two of us we were able to get ourselves a new printer. That thing is running constantly now. I've started doing a lot of my test fixture design in 3D printed parts. Before, I had to draw up the fix - ture carrier boards in 2D ACAD and send files out to be routed out of bare FR4 and I'd often have some manual assembly to do once I got boards back. If something was wrong, you'd have to repeat the process. Now I can design something in SOLIDWORKS, print one out and verify its form, fit and function before I make only the amount needed all in the same day. Shaughnessy: It's just crazy how the 3D print- ing has just taken off. Now you can just use that instead of having to basically build a cir- cuit board. Schulte: If it was up to me, we'd have a bunch more printers and I'd be printing all sorts of stuff. Shaughnessy: Well, it's good to be a hobbyist. Schulte: That's what got me interested in elec- tronics in the first place: playing with car ste- reos and computers. Shaughnessy: Are you noticing an influx of younger people? We see a lot of gray-beards retir- ing, and a few people coming in, but not many. Schulte: I would say half of our engineering staff is probably within 10 years from retiring. Five years is probably not out of the question either. We've been expanding the engineering staff for the last couple of years, and so I've been seeing younger people under 40. We're getting some younger talent in the doors here, but we are fortunate to have a bunch of expe- rienced engineers, some of whom have been here for 30, 35 years, and are a great resource to lean on. They've been there, done that. When you have questions, they've got a good answer for you or can point you in the direction of somebody who might have a good answer.