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20 PCB007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2025 T H E C H E M I CA L C O N N ECT I O N by D o n B a l l , C h e m c ut Serious discussions about automation in the PCB industry began in the mid-1970s. I profess no great expertise in automation, but I have been around the industry for a while now (I may have mentioned that on occasion), and I have seen many success- ful and unsuccessful attempts at automation over the years. As such, I have no hesitation in present- ing my thoughts on automation. Feel free to agree or disagree. A Bit of Japanese History The first significant discussions on automation I was aware of occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Japanese were making inroads into U.S. printed circuit board sales with less expensive and higher quality boards than most U.S. PCB suppliers could provide. This was a time when, to make a profit, you had to churn out as many boards per day for the lowest cost possible, and the Japanese shops were beating us in both volume and price. Initially, the assumption was that the problem stemmed from Thoughts on the Evolution of Automation Japan's lower labor costs. This was true to some extent, but not by as much as we thought. If not with cheaper labor, how were they beating us? To the best of my understanding (and I'm sure it was more complicated), the Japanese printed cir- cuit industry leaders got together in the late '60s, when PCB sales were taking off, and developed a roadmap of where the industry would be in five or 10 years and what the best way was to meet those demands. They foresaw that the demand for circuit boards would likely increase exponentially, with volume and price being the primary driving fac- tors. They handled volume by anticipating needs and expanding production equipment as needed to keep up with demand. Reducing costs was not so simple. The biggest cost component is labor, and the surest way to reduce costs is to reduce the amount of labor. They decided to automate as much as possible to minimize the labor needed (note that I said minimize, not cut to the bone). They eliminated as much unskilled labor as possible while keeping