Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1530610
DECEMBER 2024 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 87 board; it's more of a rigid board, but its base is on specialized materials that are much thinner and with thinner copper, allow- ing you to get to smaller fea- tures with the right processing equipment. I hope to be able to talk about that soon. We have some incredible new technologies that nobody else has. On the fabrication side, our China group is accom- plishing its goal to be one of the top technical companies in our industry. It's very exciting. Our expansion as an EMS supplier and box builds just makes sense as well. Cottrell: Yes, he's talking about our integra- tion of flexible solutions, at inTFlex. At our Huizhou facility, we have invested roughly $6 million in the past eight months, installing new equipment and automation to ensure the best product price for our customers. e intent is to help our customers get their products to market quicker through the prod- uct development and manufacturing cycle, from design to market. e next logical piece is to offer some type of value-added manufac- turing, and that's where inTFlex comes in. It is a 900,000-square-foot facility about two-and- a-half hours from our major bare printed cir- cuit facility. I've been in this industry for a long time, and I can tell you these facilities are abso- lutely stunning in their capabilities and auto- mation. We have a world class manufactur- ing execution system (MES) controlled plant where everything is monitored and controlled. All the equipment is new, high-speed, and high quality. We can bring value to our clients from multiple entry points. This is not just for your existing customers? A customer can come in at different entry points based on their particular needs? Cottrell: Yes, all along the product lifecycle. e flexible, heater, and mem- brane switch markets are multi- billion dollar markets alone. We know those markets well and wanted to increase the value we could bring them. Custom- ers are asking for it, so to pro- vide them with better service, we made this incredible invest- ment for this new campus. What else can you tell me about the inTFlex facility? Cottrell: We're executing sev- eral programs for our existing flexible solution clients today, as well as some straight contract manufacturing, or EMS. We have added support staff on the front end, and now we have teams in Europe and the U.S., along with world-class marketing support. Regarding package size and HDI, everything is getting smaller and tighter. So, along with our new high speed SMT lines, we also offer flip chip, wire bonding, and die bond assem- bly; all this can be done in-house within the family of FCT and inTFlex. We also have a plastic molding group that will move into our inTFlex facility soon, so these are pretty excit- ing times. With some business models, when you go into a low-cost region, the revenue threshold or the volume threshold can be quite high. Our threshold from a volume and revenue perspec- tive is a lot less because we want to bring new companies into the family and then offer our suite of services: flex and EMS. Can you place a price point on that? Cottrell: From an annual revenue perspec- tive, $500,000 is the threshold, and based on my 20-plus years in the industry, it typically starts at $5–$10 million before one would even entertain that conversation. We're saying that we'll give you an opportunity to leverage these amazing facilities and capabilities, with a lower cost entry of revenue. Ray Cottrell