Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1330321
JANUARY 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 69 printer and hire an operator who knows how to call up the right file and hit start. When I was in direct imaging, I could train an operator in about 10 minutes. They just have to know where to find the file and hit "go." Inkjet will all be based on very simple labor costs, not a lot of skill set. A lot of the skills are embedded in the equipment, hard- ware, and software. It can do more things. In California and other restrictive areas, where water costs and restrictions are getting more difficult, it puts even more pressure on waste treatment because now you have to treat the effluent. In some countries and in some U.S. states, there's no going back on increasing water restrictions, so it's great when you can eliminate entire pieces of equipment. Johnson: In the U.S., our fabrication is typical- ly lower volume, higher mix, and higher com- plexity. This machinery lends itself well to that application. How would this technology work in a much higher-volume production facility like you might see in Asia? Carignan: If you think of today's state of the art, the systems are very similar to direct im- aging, but they're not fast. They're not imaging or printing in seconds; they're printing in min- utes. That's where you will see the evolution go. How do you get smaller droplet sizes and oper- ate at higher frequencies? These are all drop-on- demand inkjet systems and piezoelectric, for the most part. The operating frequencies are going to get much higher so that you can print much faster or with multiple printheads. Volume shops would probably be hesitant to use it for a change in their process, but I see that coming because there's money in it. There are going to be pro- ductivity gains, and there will actually be print- head development changes. There have been for the last 20 years, so it will get better. But for pro- totype or small-volume shops, it's suitable. Johnson: What other partnerships are you de- veloping? Carignan: We are being forward-thinking, and direct imaging is part of Technica. This year, SUSS MicroTec, which is a very large German company, has a PiXDRO unit entering the PCB market. We also represent a company that does direct imaging solder paste for the DI market that also has an inkjet ink that works very well. On the one hand, we are playing in hardware and commodity consumables, and they're playing in the markets that support the vision that we're talking about with some good partners. We're playing in all of the markets on both the hardware and the consumable side to make this happen. Johnson: I have to assume that you have a team that can act as a consultant for any pro- spective customers. Is there some pre-sale con- sultation expertise that customers can take ad- vantage of? Carignan: I fill that role. We have regional sales- people, and I fill a different role for them. I still field the applications, work with the salespeo- ple in the different regions on how to introduce any of this technology into them with their ap- plications, and then close the sale. We have salespeople, and on newer technology like ink- jet, I provide a little bit more application sup- port, even after the sale, because of my famil- iarity with some of this equipment—stages, motion control, and software. I also try to field customers who want to do something unique and see if it's a suitable technology. I recently did some work with a supercom- puter company that uses aluminum as their traces and wanted to be able to formulate a new ink to use an inkjet system. The customer and I cooperated, saying, "How can we make this niche application work?" We are in a bit of a consulting role. We address whether we can do it and why do we do it, not just the sales role, like how much it is and how fast it works. But typically, when you're getting into this level of technology, which is a CapEx invest- ment, you want to know what your limitations are, and that's where you need some consulting as to what you can or can't do. Looking back, I would have wanted to know where this tech- nology was going. Should I purchase now? For years, I never bought a stereo system because