Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1309864
14 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2020 result. This is something that's coming to the market from GreenSource next year. Matties: It sounds critical. Stepinski: We're in the R&D on this, and this is the base for having a good plating model. Once you have this, then you can partner with soft- ware companies, but you can't really do that until you have your model, until you know how the process behaves; otherwise, it's just a shot in the dark. It's getting the starting point and endpoint. You have to get interim points and see how things plate during the whole course of things—including 10% in, 30% in, and 60% in—and really understand it. Matties: One of the points that you made in one of our first visits to GreenSource that re- ally stuck with me is you built the company from the plating department out. Is that be- cause plating really sets your limits or capabil- ities to the marketplace? Stepinski: Plating is the type of operation that has a lot of scaled economies. Usually, the marginal cost of capacity is quite low. There are a lot of fixed costs in putting in a plating line, and you have to put in the whole super- structure, hoist, cabinet, and rectifiers. When you add additional plating tanks, the cost is not so high. It's very important to understand this in the beginning because if you try to up- grade your systems later, a lot of things might change. The supplier that did the first installation, and the people that did the first installation, and the sub-tier suppliers of your supplier may not be there; they may have changed things. It's like if you buy a classic car, and you're go- ing to search all the junkyards of the world to find parts. You also tend to be at the mercy of the supplier because they hold the source code and everything, and they're going to take full advantage of that monopoly over you. That's why it's very important to buy a line at a size that meets your long-term require- ments and avoid any upgrades. Unless you planned for the upgrade to begin with and just didn't put a heater on, or a pump on, and left the chemistry out, that's okay. But don't add on to the line, I/O on the cabinet, or addition- al hoists, because those suppliers will take ad- vantage of you over this. That's why I did it the way I did and put in the long-term capac- ity up front because it's cost-effective in the long term. If you don't have the cash to afford the low marginal cost of capacity, that's a different sto- ry. A lot of PCB shops are cash poor, and it be- comes a big challenge in the market. Exper- tise in plating is another challenge. Very few people have this expertise, and you can't go to school for it. Day: Technical plating can very easily become your bottleneck. It's not a 60-minute operation anymore; it can be a four-, five-, six-, eight- hour operation, depending on the technolo- gy you're trying to do. You need enough cells from the beginning, so you have to scope this in. Once you have a plating cell and a foot- print, or a designated footprint for it, it's not so easy to add onto. If you have cells that are ul- tra-capable, can move in many axes of dimen- sion, and ensure excellence through dynam- ics—and you couple that with the other factor you're going to have, which is current density and time—you can ensure that what you de- signed in the beginning has the capacity to ful- fill your needs. Matties: Your plating system has dramatically evolved since you put it in. You upgraded the system you have to the capabilities that you're describing. What was that process like, and what was the impetus for that? Stepinski: With our first large copper vertical plater, we had a problem where the supplier didn't complete the project and went bank- rupt. We had to use our internal equipment re- sources to correct this, and then we made some modifications based on a step-by-step learn- ing approach, one tank at a time. But these were only minor adjustments, and it was about learning how to design the next line more than anything else.