Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/924542
8 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2018 Happy New Year and welcome to 2018! To bring in the new year, we've made a few chang- es to our maga- zines. You may have noticed that our name has changed from The PCB Maga- zine to PCB007 Magazine. Not only did we update our magazine's name, we refreshed the interior pages of the publication, as well. As an I-Connect007 publication, PCB007 Magazine fits nicely with our other publications, which also carry through with the naming conven- tion starting this month: SMT007 Magazine and Design007 Magazine. We hope you enjoy this fresh new look. This month, we will discuss the equipment purchasing decision-making process. How many of you can recall the earliest "dippy dunk" PCB shops, so-called because that's ex- actly how it was done? There were no convey- orized lines, no automatic hoists, no load/un- load stations, maybe not even a lab for ana- lyzing the plating baths. Plating or etch resist was screen-printed onto the boards, or in some cases sprayed or dip-coated, imaged and de- veloped in a small ver- tical spray developing tank. A few shops had small convey- orized etchers. We have come so far and be- come so sophis- ticated! Equip- ment for making a PCB is many or- ders of magnitude more involved and far, far more capa- ble than those ancient days—and many orders of magnitude more expen- sive. But as equipment has become more sophisticated and costly, determin- ing what equipment you need has become far more complicated, too. Choosing wisely—and correctly anticipating your and the market's needs—has never been more critical, and can involve hundreds of thousands and indeed mil- lions of dollars. Being wrong is not only cost- ly but could put your whole operation in jeop- ardy. Yikes. As usual, we conducted a survey on this month's topic to see what was most important to our readers. Interestingly, the most common two reasons for buying new equipment were to improve an existing capability and to increase capacity; adding a new capability placed third. Patty's Perspective, a column by Patty Goldman I-CONNECT007 New Year, New Equipment—Right?