Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1067105
52 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2019 That's coming at us. And then, come 2019, I believe the lead time for the larger case sizes of MLCCs is going to go out further than it is right now. That's going to be a huge problem. Matties: It's not just manu- facturing capacity alone, it's actually a shortage of the equipment to produce them. There's not enough equip- ment as well. Martin: Yes. I was at Vishay in China this June, and they told me they had equipment on order for a year, and they had pushed it out because the manufacturer couldn't get parts. Matties: It's a deeper supply chain issue beyond just the floor space. Martin: Exactly. The manufacturers can't get the machines to make more parts because the machine manufacturers can't get the parts. Matties: Thank you very much, Stephanie. This was very informative. Martin: Thank you. SMT007 Matties: Very much so. Is there anything we haven't talked about that you feel we should cover? Martin: As I said, we're fighting tariff issues. We're mainly waiting for manufacturers to move. I think there's going to be a big move on business out of China to other regions to mitigate the tariffs. It hasn't really had a huge impact yet, but I think it's coming. I think it's going to have a significant impact in a few months. Right now, the distributors have been really good. They're absorbing what they can't mitigate for us, so it's going to have a huge impact with the manufacturers on what they choose to design and which products we buy. At the recent electronica show in Munich, Germany, I-Connect007 Technical Editor Pete Starkey met with Jade Bridges, global technical support manager at Electrolube, to discuss how to manage thermal interfaces for maximum heat transfer efficiency, and the latest developments in their thermal manage- ment materials. She also provides an update on conformal coatings, and the trends they are seeing in the market. "The LED industry is one we've focused on a lot where efficiency is key. The automo- tive industry is another important area—basi- cally, anywhere they need good heat dissipation. Electric vehicles are a key example in the automotive industry, as well as battery packs," said Bridges. "We've looked at the requirements of these industries and how they differ from what we were doing 10, 15, and 20 years ago. It's a growing market, and the range of applications is expanding, so we decided to invest in a thermal management specialist team that solely concentrates on that area. We have chemists developing new technologies and making our current technol- ogies even better." Electrolube on Managing Thermal Interfaces and Conformal Coatings Jade Bridges