Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1500520
JUNE 2023 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 57 really about any particular contract, but about what the "portfolio" looks like. ey tend to be inline guys, but it varies depending on their basic capacity needs. On the performance side, both batch and inline can provide the same level of cleaning for most PCBs. ere are par- ticular days where one may do a better job than the other, but on average it's a fielder's choice. With your control system, have you expanded into other controls for different baths within facilities? For example, the bare board fabricators have a lot of baths happening in their facilities. ey do, but we're not very active in the world of board fab. If it would adapt, your technology makes a lot of sense. It does. It's a case of what we are trying to control and whether we can control it. Control technol- ogy begins with sensors that are aligned with what you want to measure. It's a case of aligning the sensor with the process. We use several different sensors, which gives us some flexibility. We use this technol- ogy in other industries that we support, such as metal fabrication, where we're still clean- ing, but the cleaning products are very differ- ent because the contaminants are very differ- ent. e cleaning materials tend to match the soils. In today's world, I would consider that an economical solution to a potentially large problem. A bare board plating facility can have so many baths that, honestly, finding a process engineer is quite difficult. Do you have an increased demand for that sort of employee "replacement," if you will? In part, this tool helps minimize the need for a technician because the materials are auto- matically being moved into and monitored inside the machine. No one needs to go inside the machine to take a sample and do a manual test. ey don't need to handle the materials. Not only does that eliminate a "task," but it also eliminates the potential for a spill or handling accident. at is a real value-adder. Process control makes things safer, more pre- cisely, and automatically decreases the work- load on those operators. Back to your point about the engineers, the system has an advan- tage because it keeps the historical data on the system, and you can download it as well. Now, if there's a question about whether it was a field return or, "Gee, something weird happened yesterday," they can access that data very rap- idly and either confirm or deny whether there's a cleaning process issue. e system is always on, measuring, record- ing, and adjusting when necessary to keep the Tom Forsythe