Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1520956
30 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2024 supplier. We have close working relationships with both. We have been doing this for a long time, and we are able to work together with our suppliers to develop new solutions and pro- vide other customized options. We want our customers to produce their products without issues and without the need for workarounds. Real Cost and ROI Moving to this technology is viewed by manu- facturers as a significant capital investment. But over time, you are reducing costs in many ways, and, of course, you have the sustain- ability factor. How do you talk about ROI? Milena: It is very dependent on the applica- tion and end-product. We need to understand the customer's specific needs. For example, you may only need to cover a small part of the board. You cannot do it with the traditional conventional process, but you can with inkjet. Hans: Six years ago, I designed and made a manufacturing line: a Hakuto laminator with a preheater, laminator, buffer, the LDI system, and then a peeler, developer, and stripper. e length of that line and the footprint was at least two or three times bigger than it is today. e investment at that time, just six years ago, was about 3 million Euro. Now it is less than 1 million Euro. That is a significant cost difference. Hans: at means separate service for an LDI machine and a laminator. Service and work- the pad, track, sides, and edges for full cover- age (Figure 4). e inkjet machine has an ink recycling sys- tem and a self-maintenance station to regu- larly clean the printhead. If a nozzle is clogged, the machine can self-correct to a certain point. ere is an internal AOI function. When we print the picture, we are printing an additional line on the panel frame on which every noz- zle is represented. e high-resolution cam- era goes through and checks to see if the line is perfect. Depending on the product, we can also adjust the table to the customer's needs: clamping, vacuum, or both, whatever the spe- cific need may be. A significant new develop- ment is a transmissive light option for front- to-back registration. is makes it easier when you don't have a 90-degree angle. If you're working with transmissive light, the shadow is always the same, even on the top side. e reg- istration is better. Hans: Of course, there is serialization and bar- coding. Our machines can print two differ- ent inks at a time whether different colors of solder mask, or one solder mask and one leg- end, for example. Another option is printing a logo with the same ink using different sur- faces (matte or glossy). We also have flexible ink used on flex circuits (Figure 5). Milena: What I love about our company is that we are the key link between the customer and Figure 4: Superior solder mask coverage. Figure 5: Sample of a flex product.