Scalable ZLD and a Solution for PCB Start-ups

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Alex Stepinski talks about his business priorities for this year and what the market, particularly aerospace and defense, needs for orders to be filled.

Barry Matties: What is your priority for 2024? What do you hope to accomplish this year?

Alex Stepinski: ZLD (zero liquid discharge) systems have become a good ROI investment on a larger scale, but I have more work to do on a smaller scale. In 2024, I believe we will get all sizes of this system down to an ROI of one year or less. This year, my key objective is to develop a central recycling system with a good ROI so that every shop has a high desire to buy. Then I need to be able to deliver the system in an efficient and cost-effective way for everyone. I want to get that product going.

I have other interests beyond wastewater. While doing the due diligence for new factories in the U.S., I have found that many want to build circuit board shops but at a startup scale, and many want to build for aerospace and defense. Right now, the minimum viable bill of materials (BOM) to build a PCB shop is too high. If we make it all about defense-related products, the minimum viable BOM is traditionally tens of millions of dollars. I have a partner and we’re bringing a solution to market this year that has a new bill of material for startups. With this new approach, it's just under $10 million to do everything—laser drill, SAP, embedded products—but on a very small scale. Once you have your minimum viable product and are qualified, you can add more equipment. It's really the starting point that’s missing.

There is a lot of concern in the market that there will be too much consolidation in the North American and European markets. Consolidation is not necessarily a good thing, because it’s not an innovative ecosystem. We want and need the mid-sized, sub-$50 million turnover companies in the market. But they won’t start out at $50 million, and you can't be begging everyone for tens of millions of dollars. We need to take this down to a much lower level to have more investments, which further de-risks things.

Matties: Are these people more engineering-minded or more marketing- and business development-minded?

Stepinski: They run the full gamut. We're trying to right-size a system with good operating costs that's green and automated and lets you get started. If you have such a BOM, you can make money very quickly in the defense and aerospace arena because the pricing is typically very high, and the market price is driven significantly by high labor operations. All the folks who are in this business have a lot of highly paid labor costs and a lot of equipment that all needs to be maintained. So, if you come in with a very nimble operation with fewer people, simple automation, low BOM cost, and low operating costs—because everything's on the small side—you can run circles around them. A little PT boat turns a lot faster than the aircraft carrier.

Matties: I think the swarm approach with multiple smaller-sized satellites is much more productive than one giant one.

Stepinski: Yes. Those are my two key focuses: the environmental/sustainability side, and distributed manufacturing. That ecosystem is the most sustainable, and it drives innovation. Many more companies are involved with more ideas. Having been in charge of both small and large operations, I did 100 times more invention and innovation at the smaller organizations than I did in the bigger operations where you're dealing with more bureaucracy.

Matties: Those are exciting and worthwhile initiatives. We will definitely stay in touch and look forward to hearing more about them as you progress. Thank you, Alex, and good luck.

This article, originally appeared in the April 2024 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.