Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1419905
66 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2021 Matties: In terms of the equipment that you're selling, are people coming in and looking to customize each piece or are they looking for off-the-shelf ? Walsh: At IPS, we really don't do off-the- shelf. Everybody has a slightly different foot- print they need to fit in, or they have a differ- ent requirement, so we design and engineer every piece in-house, then custom-build it to that customer. Matties: When it comes to the equipment reli- ability and maintenance, what requirements are customers looking at there? Walsh: We offer a one-year warranty on any- thing we build, but what we're seeing is that customers are asking for quarterly factory maintenance from us. is means we send people out to their factory once a quarter to tune everything up. We're seeing a lot more of those kinds of service agreements, and that's one of the reasons we're expanding our service team. Matties: You mentioned you had a lot of installations. Besides horizontal, you also offer vertical equipment from your VCM line. Is that still something that people are interested in? Walsh: Yes. If you have a small space, and you need to shoehorn a process in, there's no bet- ter way. With a VCM, there is no puddling during processing because the panel is vertical; many customers prefer it. I ran them for years when I was inside a board shop, and they ran great. If you want great performance or have a small space and want almost no maintenance, that's the way to go. Matties: Is it really just space require- ments or is there a performance ben- efit to VCM? Walsh: Every customer feels differently about it, but many of our customers like that there's no puddling. Performance wise, they are sim- ple to run and keep maintained. Matties: What's the typical order process for a customer? How does that work here? Walsh: ey'll contact us, and we'll get to basic requirements of what they're looking for, size of equipment they want to fit into the area available, and we will create a quote. If it's close to something that's already been manufactured, we can send them a drawing or manipulate a drawing quickly. at will give them a sense for what it looks like, and that's how the process starts. Once the order is placed, it goes right into engineering review and the sales guy and the customer and our engineering work through all the details and all the pieces, and then it's off and running in engineering. It's designed from the ground up in SolidWorks. Matties: What's your lead time right now? Walsh: If it's something simple, 18 to 20 weeks. If it's something more complicated, 24 to 28 weeks. We're very busy right now. Our very complicated stuff is extremely complicated, and we do everything in-house, so you really are looking at 24 weeks.