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24 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2026 The following will demonstrate the somewhat cyclical nature of the diversification advice. As I have mentioned in previous columns, in the mid-1960s (even before my time, if you can believe it), management decided we needed to diversify because the world only needed so many etchers, and we needed to prepare for the inevitable down- turn. The decision was toward household heating. Much time and effort were spent designing an efficient fuel oil injector for home furnaces that would significantly cut fuel oil costs. Unfortunately, it was discovered that to compete with companies specializing in this business, we would have to go all in and operate the household heating division as a separate business rather than an auxiliary subsid- iary of the main business operating in a corner of the factory. We couldn't afford to do that, so the idea was allowed to lapse. The urge to diversify struck again in the mid-1970s, when management decided it would be a good idea to add a screen printer to our product line, and they purchased a small screen-printing company. Techni- cally, this was not a true diversification since screen printers were a major contributor to the imaging process needed to produce circuit boards at the time, but building and selling screen printers was a lot different than selling etchers. Today, the PCB industry has evolved, and the technical demands on screen printers have become harder to meet. Once again, it was found that to compete with companies that specialize in screen printers, we would have to commit to comprehensive R&D and design effort to stay relevant. We couldn't afford to do that either, so the screen-printing subsidiary was sold to a competitor who gleefully shut it down. In the same timeframe, we were being acquired as part of someone else's diversification plan. In the early '80s, we were acquired by a German company that supplied electroplating chemistries and vertical plating lines. They, in turn, were a subsidiary of a giant German pharmaceutical corporation. The idea was to use us to introduce their plating chemistry and equipment in the U.S. and to use our equip- ment as a lure for their wet processing chemistry: dry film strippers, developers, etc. Things did not go all that smoothly at first because, for some reason, American PCB manufacturers did not break down the doors to get the German plating chemistry and equipment. Also, the first attempt to package wet processing equipment and chemistry was less than successful. This was a stripper-and- stripper-chemistry deal that gave the shop a free stripper in exchange for a contract to purchase the stripping chemistry. Unfortunately, when they did the initial audit, the sales guys didn't realize the old stripper leaked like a sieve and, as soon as the non- leaking new stripper was installed, the chemical usage dropped radically, and the return on invest- ment ballooned to 10+ years rather than the approx- imately one year initially calculated. In the early 1990s, the economy again took a downturn, and the economic gurus at the giant German pharmaceutical corporation thought, "We're making good money selling pills, why are we messing around in the electronics industry?" We were sold to a French oil company, which merged with a larger Belgian oil company, which asked the same question, "Why are we messing around with electronics when we're making money hand over fist in the oil business?" So, in the early 2000s, we found ourselves undiversified, sold to a group of a dozen employees and a local investment firm, and soon began operating as an independent LLC. Economic unrest is again rearing its head due to COVID and politics, and calls for diversification are on the rise. You may have gathered by now that I am somewhat skeptical of advice given by the economic gurus. You would be right. If you feel the urge to diversify, be sure it is your decision and not a response to a fad espoused by economic gurus who have no idea about what the PC fab business is all about. Think very care- fully about whether you want to get into something totally unrelated to your core business. You may find you will have to put more resources into it than you initially thought. I-CONNECT007 Don Ball is a process engineer at Chemcut. To read past columns or contact Ball, click here. T H E C H E M I CA L C O N N ECT I O N