Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1190860
80 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2019 Shaughnessy: Kelly, you said that SEP was the first company to step up with a plan. Tell us about that. Dack: I was searching for capabilities, and while we did get NDAs with a lot of capable suppliers, SEP responded within a week with a quotation and a solution. On top of that, they jumped on a plane and came to visit us; they talked to our supplier management group and our engineers about their capabilities. They submitted tangible evidence of their abilities to our manufacturing and engineering team rep- resentatives. A business card is one thing, but meeting in person with the people who are do- ing the work is always the best. Martindale: As far as putting a metal plate on the back of a flex unit, there are folks who can do that; it's a matter of putting in the up- front investment in time and energy. This is before you've even thought, "Am I going to get business or not?" It's that engineering support up front to work with designers and people in the supply chain and think strategically about how the partnership can go to market with the product. One aspect of doing that is to be able to technically support the R&D, the production side of it, and work with everyone trying to get there. Shaughnessy: What was the point of attaching metal to the flex? Did the metal have to flex too? Dack: The purpose, in this case, was to serve as a rigidized surface that also doubles as a heat sink. Shaughnessy: So, the flex wouldn't flex? Martindale: In this flex application, there is a need for high-end heat dissipation, so that's where the metal-backed flex circuitry came in. Usually, when components are to be installed onto a flex part, rigidization using a stiffener made with polyimide or FR-4 is common. But in this case, the rigid metal heat sink could serve as the rigidizer. It works nicely as a two- for-one solution. However, dissimilar materi- als like stainless steel and polyimide require certain bonding materials that are unique in the industry. Not everyone uses them or is willing to invest the time to R&D them and build them into the prototypes and take it to the production side. We were able to do re- search in the industry on what standardized materials we can get out in the marketplace. We had to bond this stainless steel plate on the back of the flex, build that into the quote for Kelly in what we're doing here, and then look at the assembly side of it and how we put that all together as well. Shaughnessy: And you flew right out to visit them. Martindale: Yes, it worked out well. We're a company in a very competitive industry, and we have a certain niche that works well for us; flex happens to be one. We realize that meet- ing face to face is where the real work is done from an engineering perspective and develop- ing solutions together. You can work remote- ly and over email all day long, but meeting in person and understanding who you're working with, why you're with them, and the technol- ogy side is where it's at. Shaughnessy: Thanks for your time. Dack: Thank you for your expertise. Martindale: You are both very welcome. FLEX007 A business card is one thing, but meeting in person with the people who are doing the work is always the best.