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56 The PCB Magazine • May 2016 process then actually you get a far more con- sistent product, and the high quality is what's required to sell it. So, that definitely is the trend. If you look around this show I've seen no end of automa- tion equipment here. You see the big drilling machines, the big plating lines, the big produc- tion screen printing lines, and imaging lines. Then you see on the front and back end of these machines a lot of automation for handling, so you see this being really hands-off now. Starkey: So really it's a bit of paradox be- cause the perception is "manufacture is low cost in China because of low cost labor," but if you automate the whole process it's really just down to intelligent choice of process and the right capi- tal investment in the right equipment, the right automation and not many people involved. So, could you not just lift that automated model and place it anywhere else in the world? Morgan: Well, yes. There is no doubt that it started out here because of low cost labor but now they are going to a very large automated model. In the end they'll become self-sustain- ing; if you look around now, the supply base is really in China and in Asia. This means for everything—you think of raw materials, chem- istry, equipment—it's all here. All that really isn't here are two things: the start and the end! So design is largely not here, and the consumer market is largely not here ei- ther. Design authorities are mostly still in North America and Europe and the biggest consumer market in the world is still Europe, followed by North America. So actually, the middle of it is all done here with the supply chain all around. If you think about Europe, think about North America, think of all the chemical sup- ply companies and laminate supply companies that used to exist. There are very few now, and these are concentrated into very large success- ful operations, many in Asia supplying an Asian market. So you couldn't pick up just the PCB bit any more, you'd need to pick up the whole sup- ply chain as well, and that's too much. Starkey: I think you've clarified my under- standing with your explanation; thanks very much. To read the full interview with Alun Mor- gan, click here. Excerpted from, "The ESI Solution: High-Throughput Roll-to-Roll UV Laser Drilling of Thin, Flex Materials" Pete Starkey: Patrick, you've explained to me that China is a large and diverse market for you. Specifically, you have been addressing some of the problems of machining roll-to-roll flex cir- cuits. Could you describe some of the realities of handling and machining these materials? What are the problems? How do you address them, and what you can offer with an ESI laser system? Patrick Riechel: We actually pioneered UV laser drilling for roll-to-roll material back in the '90s, together with our partner Northfield Au- tomation Systems, who worked with us on our 5000 laser platform. So UV laser drilling with roll-to-roll handling is something we've been doing for many, many years, basically since the beginning. Handling 12-25-12 materials—that's 12 micron copper, 25 micron polyimide, and 12 micron copper—has become a very normal automation is tHe talk of tHe town at CpCa sHow 2016 Pete Starkey with Alun morgan