Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1156271
32 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2019 shops have very good engineering, while other shops have zero engineering and rely on the suppliers to give them all of the information. Overall, wet processing development is being pushed by OEMs to meet sophisticated prod- uct requirements, which, at present, is where chemicals that are in use today are going to be phased out in a year or two. As a chemical supplier, we should be considering how we'll do that. How are we going to eliminate these hazardous materials? Johnson: While minimizing the amount of equipment that the fabricator has to purchase to move forward as much as possible. Milad: Right. Sometimes, if you have a totally unique concept, you have different equipment; then, the customer knows up front that they will have to purchase new equipment if they are go - ing to use this process. But a lot of the processes that we develop are for customers who cannot afford to buy equipment all the time. They want the chemical process to fit into that existing fa - cility with their current equipment. We try to do that as much as possible. Johnson: Is that common across the industry? Milad: I think so. As a chemical supplier, we have competitors. But we collaborate when we're try- ing to write a specification. After the specifica- tion is finalized, we compete against one an- other to try to sell our positive points, such as superior tech service or more robust chemistry. Johnson: There has been a lot of work with Industry 4.0 at IPC, such as CFX and Hermes, which were talked a lot about at IPC APEX EX- PO 2019 and since then. But it looks like most of the activity around CFX is on the assembly side. Milad: I agree, but there is a lot of sophistica- tion also coming to manufacturing related to software and automated equipment; it doesn't move as fast. There's always room for that. Johnson: One of the big burning issues, espe- cially in North America, is that most of the fab- ricators are nearing retirement age, and chang- ing market needs are going to cause them to need to change their processes, which may or may not need significant investment in new equipment. Many of them seem to be uninter- ested in making that investment. Milad: It depends. If you know you're going to make the investment and get a good return, you'll make it. But a lot of people are just milk- ing what they have. I work with a board shop that has very poor equipment, and they strug- gle with it. They use old equipment to make products, and it's tedious. They put a lot of demands on the suppliers, saying, "Make your chemistry work for my old equipment." Last week, we were working with a board shop that acknowledged their equipment was not up to the task, but they wanted me to modify my wet process to accommodate that equipment. When that happens, sometimes, they're suc- cessful in making products, but other times, they're not. You cannot have poor equipment and come to your supplier and say, "Make your chemis- try compensate for my inadequate equipment." But we get that every now and then. Some board shops buy state-of-the-art equipment, have good engineering, and make very sophis- ticated products. Then, there are bucket shops making good money, but they work differently; they demand a lot from suppliers, like Uyemu- ra, because they're trying to make a high-end product with sub-standard equipment. Johnson: Thank you, George. Milad: My pleasure. PCB007 As a chemical supplier, we have competitors. But we collaborate when we're trying to write a specification.