Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1140547
96 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2019 bedded into structures, such as into the bum- per of a car or onto the glass of a windscreen. The other very interesting facet that's going to be the killer distinction is that a wire harness is an entirely passive interconnect. Our initial discussion concerns the replacement of a pas- sive wire harness with a passive flex. But ul- timately, a flex PCB is a PCB; therefore, the ability to add components to make it a smart harness rather than a passive harness is possi- bly a second-generation discussion, but that's where the real benefit of the technology is. Matties: That's exactly where the market is heading—more and more sensors everywhere. I saw some prediction of sensors from where we are today to where we're going to be in a few years, and it was staggering. Johnston: There was a very interesting discus- sion yesterday about heating electric vehicles because the energy capacity available for heat- ing electric vehicles is much less than inter- nal combustion. Thus, you have to run at high humidity and closer to the dewpoint, so accu- rate temperature control is going to be very im- portant. You are absolutely right. I sound like an enthusiastic entrepreneur, but many mac- rotrends are encouraging the use of flex ver- sus wire harness. Our to offer to the market length-unlimited multilayer flex will open up completely new avenues that had previously been closed off due to traditional supply chain manufacturing limitations. There's a discus- sion as to whether it's the chicken or the egg— has there been no large-scale supply because there's been no demand, or has there been no demand because there has been no supply? Ultimately, we are now going to answer that question. Matties: Those two are going to meet in the middle somewhere. Johnston: We think so, and we are seeing that happen. Matties: You've built a business plan around it, so you must believe that. Johnston: That's correct. We do believe that. Matties: This is new in the minds of the mar- ketplace. Where do you see your business in five years? Johnston: The intent is always that this facil- ity will be a new product development (NPI) type of facility. One of the reasons that we fol- low the patterns around the world is because we expect that when this is picked up by an OEM, it's likely that the mass-scale production will be wherever in the world is suitable for the customer's needs. We anticipate having a scale-up facility in Timbuktu or wherever it is. Matties: Is this something that you are going to license out to other fabricators, or is this some- thing you are going to scale internally? Johnston: We don't need to make that decision at this point in time, but we're having early- stage discussions. We floated on the London Stock Exchange last year to accelerate our de- velopment capability. Matties: How did that work out? Johnston: We were oversubscribed. Now, we have to walk the walk having talked a good story. It brings some new pressures, but one of the other benefits is that when Trackwise pre- viously talked to large OEMs, it represented a fairly undercapitalized small business with an associated risk profile. Today, that PLC status I sound like an enthusiastic entrepreneur, but many macrotrends are encouraging the use of flex versus wire harness.