Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1524164
84 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2024 he found that he's been able to double his ASF, which shortens his plating time and gives him more throughput capacity on that piece of equipment. So, now he is working on that bal- ance of how far he can push the speed and still get the quality he needs. I know you'll be with him every step of the way. We want our customers to be successful. We can't afford a circuit board shop in North America not to be. Anything that we can do to help, we will do it. What about corollary benefits like reducing waste and water usage? e line definitely has water-saving features as far as controlling the rinse water and the amount of water that goes through it. Alpha did a lot of work on its waste treatment and work- ing toward better water recycling, to the tune of 70%. It's fairly cost-effective to get to that 70-80% recycling mark. It gets really expensive to go that last 20%. Prashant and Alpha have done a nice job with that. ey have oodles of good water, and it is now less important for him to control it at the plating line because he's catching it on the back end and recirculating it there. Through this experience with Alpha Circuit's new facility, what would you say they have done really well? Prashant and the Alpha Circuit team did a really good job on the discovery side in their due diligence to know what they wanted to put into the new facility and understanding exactly where they wanted to be in the mar- ketplace. If you add up the years of experience that group has been making circuit boards, it's a very long time. When your customers are where they want to be, that's when you feel we've done everything right by them. Being there to service and support them is the big- gest thing. Service is everything in this business. Mike, do you have any closing thoughts? We are really proud of our partnership with Alpha Circuit, the way we could work with them, and how they worked with us. It led to some other opportunities with the used equip- ment side of our business where we were fur- ther able to support them. I would like to acknowledge our excellent team and IPS's approach to service. I like to compare our support to the fire department. If you have a big fire, you send the big ladder truck and a bunch of smaller trucks. If it's a small thing, then you send out the brush fire truck. Every situation is different. e advan- tage we have on the support side is that we can respond appropriately depending on the skill set the customer needs. We have a deep and qualified pool of talent to draw from, to put the right guys together to accomplish whatever it is they want. Our shops are all vertically integrated. We bring the parts with us, and we are very proactive with our cus- tomers. Congratulations to IPS on a job well done, and thank you, Mike, for your time today. Good to talk to you, Marcy. PCB007