IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1544398
86 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2026 customers that are trying to meet the demands of their customers. The typical sequence of events: A potential customer approaches a PCB manufactur- er and says, "This is what we want to do. Can you do it?" The PCB manufacturer is understandably reluctant to give a potential customer a flat-out no if they are not sure, so they contact their suppliers and ask, "Can we do this with what we have from you?" Most suppliers are equally reluctant to tell an existing or potential customer no and are thus forced to determine what needs to be done to meet their customers' requirements. To cope with rapid development and change within the industry, it is invaluable to maintain a process development lab with a full-sized develop- etch-strip line (DES) that can also serve as a strip- etch-strip line (SES) or as a photochemical machin- ing line (PCM) for etching steel, by just changing process chemistries. There are also a couple of smaller process lines that allow us to do develop- ment work with a much-reduced volume of chemistry. Having an onsite process lab allows us to rela- tively quickly determine whether a new process can be run in existing equipment or if changes need to be made so that it can. This is immensely helpful when trying to cope with rapidly chang- ing manufacturing requirements with no hard-set standards. It enables rapid response to customer demands, which, in turn, helps retain existing cus- tomers or attract new ones. In cases where there is no obvious solution or fix, it is possible to team with the customer to develop the equipment and chemistry needed to accomplish the required task at hand. The downside, of course, is that maintain- ing and staffing an R&D center is not inexpensive, and those costs must be added to the cost of the equipment. Still, the ability to team up with cus- tomers to quickly respond to new challenges has proven advantageous in the long run, even though it may have cost some short-term sales. A Note About Partnerships Forming partnerships with customers can be tricky, however. Partnerships imply exclusivity, and while that may be an advantage for a supplier of con- sumables (plating chemistries, etch resists, etc.) to a very large customer, it might not be for a supplier of capital equipment. Many, many years ago (even before my time, if you can believe it), we had a development agree- ment with a very large computer company to develop equipment to etch printer bands for then state-of-the-art high-speed printers, which were unbelievably primitive by today's standards. Care- ful reading of the agreement revealed that any equipment developed for this process would be exclusively for that computer company and could not be sold to anyone else. Our lawyer caught that and got the exclusivity clause removed. That was fortunate because that equipment line became our mainstay throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, and is still a major component of our sales today. Even though we prefer not to use the term "partnership," so as to avoid the implied exclusiv- ity, things can still get a little awkward, especially given the prevalence of non-disclosure agree- ments (NDAs) today. Even a nondescript boiler- plate NDA that prevents you from disclosing that you are working with that company and what they are working on to anyone can be somewhat prob- lematic. Keeping Things Close to the Vest For instance, a few years ago, two start-up solar cell companies contacted us about a new process " Partnerships imply exclusivity, and while that may be an advantage for a supplier of consumables (plating chemistries, etch resists, etc.) to a very large customer, it might not be for a supplier of capital equipment." T H E C H E M I CA L C O N N ECT I O N