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64 The PCB Magazine • May 2015 by Karl Dietz KaRl DieTZ ConsUlTinG llC karl's tech talk Quick-Turn Circuit Board Shops coluMn Quick-turn circuit board shops specialize in the speedy delivery of small lots or prototype boards. Thus, they value any processing tech- nique and technologies that reduce the time of the critical path between receiving the CAD data and shipping the finished boards. Some of the technologies that enable fast delivery are also suitable for mass production. The follow- ing are some examples of quick-turn process- ing. Phototooling The creation of a silver halide phototool in- volves a number of time-consuming steps such as plotting, development, fixing, drying, and equilibrating the phototool to the temperature and humidity of the working environment. Equilibration is particularly time-consuming (Figure 1). Some quick-turn shops have tried to short- cut the equilibration step with limited success. Figure 1: Humidity pre-conditioning times.