Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1538540
56 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2025 Initially, the company devoted one part of the plant to making vertical spray etchers (Model 101), and another to making circuit boards. However, it soon became clear that it was difficult to sell spray etchers to people with whom they competed for circuit board business. The capital equipment end of the business was doing better at the time, so they sold off the circuit board end of the business, which eventually disappeared, showing they had made the right decision. You would think this would be an obvious les- son, but remember, the founders were engineers, not businessmen. Company growth meant some managers needed at least a little business acu- men. Their thinking was that there was a limited market for etching and wet processing equipment (after all, how many circuit boards could the world possibly need?) and that the company needed to diversify to survive. Projects like relatively simple numerically con- trolled drills for circuit boards, screen printers for etch resists, and more efficient nozzles for oil burn- ers came, struggled for a while, and eventually failed. The lesson here—although it took time to realize—was to stick to your core business. You're better off using your resources to improve the effi- ciency and output of what you're good at instead of wandering down uncharted and little-under- stood paths. Lessons Learned in the Lab A lesson we learned early on has been part of the company's philosophy ever since. Many of the responses to early sales attempts in the late '50s and early '60s were, "Huh, I didn't know you could do that," or "Etching? What in heaven's name is that?" So, we made the decision to use the space vacated by the former circuit board manufacturing division to set up a demonstration lab to introduce potential customers to the etching process. This proved to be an excellent idea, and we still main- tain a lab with basic full-sized develop, etch, and resist strip equipment, along with smaller machines for process and equipment development. The lab's personnel can also help with pro- cess problems not directly related to the equip- ment. This does add to the cost of doing business, and people have questioned its value at times, but repeatedly, the lab has proved its value. For instance, about 10 years ago, a glass com- pany was looking for a way to remove the tiny scratches and imperfec- tions left by the manufac- ture of display glass for TV, computer, and phone screens. We set up a development program in the lab and, in partnership with the glass manufacturer, we developed pro- cesses to produce defect-free display screens and, for phones, a glass thinning process that allowed the glass to be folded (think Samsung Z-Flip and Z-Fold phones and tablets, along with Motorola Razrs). That generated more than $10 million, which we would never have thought of without this lab. Sometimes this strategy can backfire, however. In the '90s, the owner of a print-and-etch shop in Florida decided he needed an alkaline etcher to do plated panels. He spent a week in the lab soak- ing up everything we could think of on the alkaline etch process and then two weeks with our engi- neering staff laying out the line he would need to fit in the space he had available. Several months later, he called me and asked if we could sup- ply him with someone to train his operators, as he couldn't trust himself to remember the details of our training. T H E C H E M I CA L C O N N ECT I O N