Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/674146
82 SMT Magazine • May 2016 not achievable unless you've got people on the ground, and committed people as well, who are prepared to work outside of normal hours. The key to it as always, everywhere in the world, is people. We're very pleased with the progress that they've made. We're actually coming up to our thirteenth year here now, so it feels like more like home every year. Starkey: What proportion of your business is in this area, Ron? Jakeman: It's significant—probably close to 50%, because we also use the Chinese operation to support Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Korea, in shipping products from Beijing to those countries. It is the most important sub- sidiary we've got, currently. Also, we're using it to support our Indian operation. We've been sending products in from China to India for some time, but we're now sending equipment in to allow us to manufacture in our own fac- tory, which we now have in India. We also have expertise from the guys in Beijing, who have been making the products, as I mentioned, for almost 12 years now. It really is the most impor- tant subsidiary we've got. Starkey: You mentioned products Ron; are you of- fering new products at this show? Jakeman: We've got three new products, two of which we think are significant on the ther- mal management side. They're actually non- silicone gap pads. We've had silicone pads in the range probably for about a year to com- plement the thermal paste. It really depends on the manufacturing operation on the prod- uct whether you want to use a paste or a pad. These are significant because a lot of people don't like silicone around electronics. Our non-silicone paste has done really well, and these are two really high-performance, non- silicone gap pads. The other product is in our Safewash range which has been successful, as you know, for many years. We've moved into pH neutral types of cleaners for very specific operations on deli- cate electronics. This new one is very low foam so it can be used in all of the cleaning kit. It's pH neutral but extremely effective at removing flux residues, which a lot of the products on the market, neutral phase, don't actually do that. We think this is important, and we've sold it in quite good volumes, actually. Development has been going on for about six months. Starkey: What sort of flux systems is this appropri- ate for? Jakeman: It's really for cleaning PCBAs and very delicate electronic assemblies. Of course it's bio- degradable, water-based, and it solves many of the issues. Starkey: Ron, is there anything that we should have talked about that we haven't? Jakeman: I don't think so. We're very busy sup- porting the customers with developing our new products to complement the European range. You were at productronica and you saw the new range of coatings, which is where we're expect- ing to get significant business this year. The coatings are in test with many of our major cus- tomers and we have secured BMW's approval on them as well. I was in Munich about three weeks ago actually going through the reports with the materials guy. Starkey: That's excellent news. Jakeman: That's very good news. Phil Kinner presented at APEX yesterday on the 2K range of coatings. We've done some joint work with the National Physical Lab on condensation on cir- cuit boards, about which he presented a paper to the IPC Committee. All in all, worldwide, it's going very well and we're very busy. Starkey: Thank you, Ron. It's been great to see you in China. I'm very grateful for your time and I wish you every success. Jakeman: Thanks very much, Pete. Starkey: My pleasure. SMT electrolube: we like problems (chinese style)