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62 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2022 ey run in a conveyorized way; they've proven you can do it. It wasn't that huge of an investment, certainly not com- pared to a semiconductor fac- tory, but nobody's really doing that yet. How does it work with automation and connect- ing the products to align? Martin Orrick: e automa- tion challenges we're seeing now are not that much differ- ent from pre-COVID. If you look at our equipment and break it into a rigid environment and an FPC environment, it's safe to say that 99.9% of all rigid applications require some level of auto- mation in terms of just liing panels from an input mechanism, be that a stack, a cassette, stacking panel, or processing with the tool and putting them in the similar output and capacity magazines. ere are maybe one or two minor applications in the HDI space where you could potentially do hand load. But they are few and far between. In the FPC side of the business, our tools get sold into various areas. Any of those doing high volume manufacturing, such as FPC for hand- sets, all tend to run automated, roll-to-roll solu- tions. ey're either on 250- to 260-millime- ter-wide webs, or 500- to 520-millimeter-wide webs. Some of the parts they put into produc- tion are in such high volumes that with some tools this is the only part that they do; they're just running that entirely. ere are also tools in the FPC space that are used in non-roll-to- roll environments. Typically, that's in smaller lots, fast turnaround type applications where automation may not be necessary. Most of the tools we sell into North America and Europe have been, until recently, automa- tion-less, just manually loaded because they're running small lot sizes. But in general, on the overall FPC side of the business, it's probably 65% to 35% in terms of automated vs. non-auto- mated tools. As we've seen the FPC technology advance, we will probably see more auto- mation in the FPC space. Johnson: I'm sure there's pres- sure to find some way to help automate even a high-mix environment. What does that look like? Ryder: On the rigid panel side, our system is designed to be adapted to just about any automation sequence avail- able. We have good third-party partners that design and build our automation. We have our standard product loaders, and we have different configurations of that. If we have a customer that needs something special, it's a straightforward process to accommodate their specifications. Some of the trends we're seeing surround automated guided vehicles (AGVs). ere are companies that build the AGVs to drive pan- els between manufacturing processes. It's very easy for us to design a port for the panels to drive into our systems for processing. You just need to have a system that has a flexible design concept, load/unload ports on the side, and then you need the soware protocols that can manage the handshake between various loading schemes. Orrick: Our systems have always been designed with automation capability. Standards for elec- trical interfaces, mechanical interfaces, and soware interfaces have always been part of the protocols that we willingly shared with third- party providers. Because the major trends are being driven by the big fabricators, we work with these companies on automation solutions and everything else will work itself out. Johnson: How do you move toward a turnkey solution? Martin Orrick