EIPC 2025 Winter Conference, Day 1: From Manufacturing to Sustainability

Estimated reading time: 17 minutes

The key feature of the cut edge is that it is effectively machined-all-over, without any break-off line between the two opposing v-cuts. This is achieved by a novel “synchronised cutting” mechanism employing a pair of circular saw blades where the cutting teeth are meshed with each other at high speed without touching, so that their individual cutting actions overlap. The result is two opposing v-grooves are formed simultaneously and physically overlap each other to leave a smooth beveled edge on the panel.

The machine that Fritz illustrated can handle panel thicknesses of 0.1 mm to10 mm, with cutter rotation speeds up to 10,000 rpm. Air curtains ensure dust-free operation. The whole operation of trimming all four edges and bevelling all four corners of the panel is completed in one minute and the machine can handle panel sizes from 300 mm x 300 mm to 680 mm x 680 mm with a positional accuracy of ±0.2mm.

The afternoon session's theme was “Circular economy and sustainability,” introduced by Emma Hudson of EHTC in the UK.

Helena Maripuu, group communication and investor relations lead at InCap Corporation in Estonia, described InCap's journey toward sustainable business and growth by integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices into its operations. InCap has taken the decision to create competitive advantage through responsibility and to make sustainable business its competitive edge. Benefits are expected in brand image and value, new business opportunities, decreased operational risks, and increased operational efficiency. 

Deciding on its goals in ESG, InCap chose from the beginning to aim at reporting according to the ESG reporting framework, with the objective of continuous communication, and committed to nine of the sustainable development goals of the U.N. Global Compact that promotes human rights, labour, the environment, and environmental protection as the most important for its own operations.

InCap then created its sustainability program and established its international ESG team of more than 50 members, representing over 2,000 employees at seven locations worldwide.

Maripuu listed the business benefits of the team reporting on its corporate responsibility, which included improving competitiveness, improving the quality of products and services, deepening supplier relations, increasing staff motivation and company attractiveness, improvement of the company's financial position, access to new markets and overall improving the company's reputation.

She discussed the impact of regulatory changes and new requirements from the EU in connection with the European Green Deal. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires companies to disclose the sustainability impact of its business, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) to update the rules concerning the social and environmental information that companies have to report.

Having outlined InCap's plan for implementing CSRD, she advised " accepting it if it's mandatory and choosing to do it if it’s voluntarily,” quoting former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty: “If you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance!”

Market research indicates that the majority of consumers are motivated to purchase from companies committed to making the world better and that the majority of investors believe that efforts to improve the environment and society contribute to their investment decisions. So, it is more important than ever to be transparent about commitments to ESG practices. She said it’s an opportunity for growth. “Let’s turn ESG into a competitive edge supporting the growth,” she said.

Michael Matthes, layout and measurement specialist at Würth Elektronik in Germany reiterated the benefits of ink-jet solder mask in his presentation, “Additive, recise and sustainable – how ‘s.mask’ is redefining solder mask.” He shared a particularly interesting perspective from a designer’s point of view, likening the selective solder mask application process to a 3D printing operation and demonstrating how different thicknesses were built up as a series of slices. Nominal step heights, including their tolerances, are specified in the EDA tool and converted into separate print runs per layer. As part of their “s.mask” project, Würth has prepared its own set of design rules for digital solder mask (available for download).

Matthes demonstrated schematically how thicknesses in a series of steps from 20 microns to 1450 microns are constructed and he showed a cross-section of an actual print indicating how accurately the thicknesses corresponded with the dimensions as designed and based on the printing strategy. He referenced capabilities, rule-sets and parameter settings, which are already available in proprietary EDA tools for additive solder mask.

He discussed the data-exchange formats—Gerber, ODB++ and IPC2581—in which the individual solder mask layers can be exported, and advised that data in all of these formats could be straightforwardly imported into CAM tools provided they are correctly configured.

For practical demonstration, he prepared a hand-round sample PCB with an enormous range of features including a USB-C THT/SMD-Connector with minimal web width sizes of 60 microns and spacing of 30 microns to pad, QR codes in different sizes on the copper surface, QR codes in different sizes on the bare PCB-surface, data matrix codes in different sizes on the copper surface, data matrix codes in different sizes on the bare PCB surface, shiny and matt solder mask surfaces. BGA footprints with 300 micron pitch and 180 micron pads, BGA footprints with 235-micron pitch and 160-micron pads and 80-micron solder mask definition, BGA footprints with 235-micron pitch and 160-micron pads and 100-micron solder mask opening with 50-micron web width, together with very small text sizes.

To demonstrate 3D soldermask features, there were examples of protective structures, features for increasing creepage distance, support elements and casting elements. 

Thinking beyond the bare board and into the EMS shop, Matthes anticipated potential challenges in stencil-printing solder paste onto a 3D surface of above-average height and advised using a 3D step template with milled cavities on the bottom. Alternatively, the solder paste can be jetted or dispensed.

Then, for something completely different, Marcus von Euler, head of PaperShell Electronics in Sweden, described a new biocomposite copper clad laminate.

He introduced PaperShell as a material group specialising in pressing kraft paper, impregnated with a bio-binder, into load-bearing fossil-carbon-free components. The biogenic PaperShell material is designed to replace carbon-intensive, non-renewable materials like aluminium, plastic, and glass-fibre composites. By substituting fossil-based materials with PaperShell, CO₂ emissions can be reduced by up to 99% and, if circulated, the material can be carbon negative. He claimed it is stronger than plastic, as versatile as glass-fibre, and lighter than aluminium. It is manufactured through a fully automated process and available in large-scale quantities.

The PaperShell Electronics division offers biocomposite copper clad laminate to the electronics industry as a sustainable solution to minimise negative environmental impact and reduce the hazards of e-waste. This innovative biogenic material, designed to integrate seamlessly with standard PCB and PCBA infrastructure and recycling processes, is said to eliminate all hazardous chemicals and to reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 78% compared with traditional epoxy-glass-fibre copper clad laminates. 

His expressive tagline is, “From trees to PCBs,” and said, “Combining the power of photosynthesis with cutting-edge Swedish engineering, we are paving the way for a greener electronics industry with our biogenic copper clad laminate product.”

PaperShell’s laminate is currently being tested for production within existing PCB, PCBA, and recycling infrastructures and processes.

Von Euler’s value proposition included: eco-friendly innovation by reduction in CO₂ emissions, elimination of hazardous chemicals and aligning with stricter environmental regulations, cost-competitiveness together with savings on cost of compliance and carbon taxes, and seamless introduction and access to EU grants. 

Daniel Hamandouche, chief technology officer at ForSURE Technology and a software developer in the Netherlands, discussed the automation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) reporting, leveraging artificial intelligence for eco-modulation and sustainability compliance.

He explained that EPR has emerged as a critical regulatory instrument to promote circular economy, although businesses face significant challenges, including increasing complexity of compliance, reporting burdens, and eco-modulation fees. EPR shifts the responsibility of end-of-life product management from consumers and municipalities to the producers themselves, meaning that those who manufacture, import, or sell products are now responsible for ensuring these products are recycled, reused, or disposed of in an eco-friendly manner. Hamandouche examined how AI-powered automation could address these challenges, reduce carbon footprints and encourage innovation in green manufacturing.

He observed that circularity in the PCB community revolved around designing, producing, and managing PCBs in a manner that minimised waste and extended the lifecycle of materials. This includes adopting designs that allow for easier disassembly, and the recovery of valuable materials like copper, gold, and rare earth metals. However, the complex structure of PCBs makes recycling costly and technically challenging. It is also important that the machines used in PCB manufacture provide meaningful data to enable enhanced energy efficiency and reduce usage of harmful resources. 

Hamandouche proposed a new AI-powered automation model designed as a transformative solution to address the challenges that businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, face in complying with EPR regulations. This AI model also offers tailored insights for optimising product concept, design and production stages, enabling SMEs to enhance their circularity within the PCB community while minimising costs.

After further exploring these challenges, he summarised the knowledge needed for the AI-powered automation model, before presenting the details of a model that can be applied to the current challenges of a company. He outlined the steps that could be taken to start using technology to support circular practices within a company, tailored to its current market presence, and discussed benefits, downsides, and potential future improvements of the proposed model.

The final presentation of the first conference day came from Alex Stepinski, principal of Smart Process Design in Poland, who discussed advances in manufacturing efficiency utilising circular economy systems, with particular reference to zero-liquid-discharge concepts for chemicals and wastewater.

Stepinski, who has been directly involved in developing innovative zero-liquid-discharge central recycling systems for PCB fabrication plants, reviewed their evolution.

First-generation evaporative-based systems had high capital and operating costs and unique segregation needs. Second-generation electrolytic-separation-based systems reduced the capital cost by 50% and the operating cost by over 80% compared with first-generation, worked with a standard segregation plan, and did not require modification of the manufacturing process.

The third-generation systems currently being deployed were autonomous, de-segregated, electrolytic-separation-based processes. They did not need primary treatment segregation, and self-adjusted their operational mode based upon the detected contamination level. These systems could operate profitably due to the creation of circular-economy products instead of sludges, the first time that a positive return-on-investment could be attributable to PCB fabrication wastewater treatment. 

Stepinski listed the key attributes of third-generation systems as less than 10% of the chemical usage of typical plants with no proprietary chemicals necessary, only 20–40% of the footprint of typical plants and only between 50–400 litres of water needed per day to operate the plant. The systems made de-ionised water as the product, with over 99% water recovery, zero liquid discharge, and zero evaporative emissions. They were highly automated, with energy consumption less than 20% of any other zero liquid discharge system. Capital expenditure was about twice that of traditional systems but return on investment was less than one year at full system operating capacity.

He described the sequence of operations:

• Stage 1 of the process is a chemical-free organic reduction, using electrolytically generated hydrogen peroxide and UV photolysis
• Stage 2 is zero-labour suspended solids removal by centrifugal concentration
• Stage 3 is an electrolytic separation process of removing dissolved ionic compounds through stacks of ion exchange resin in sheet form combined with electrodes, whereby regeneration of the resin is achieved by a continuous electrolytic process without the need for chemicals
• Stage 4 is a distillation of residual water from the brine produced in Stage 3, producing ultra-pure water. The distillate from concentration of the sludge was re-used in the rinse system.

Stepinski also discussed some point-source recycling concepts for chemicals and wastewater, such as acid and caustic purification by membranes and metals recovery by copper-selective and precious-metal-scavenging membranes and electrolysis.

There is currently a renaissance of recycling technology. He commented that, in addition to the architecture presented, his company is developing recovery solutions for almost all individual microelectronics waste stream applications. His experience is that third-generation central systems and point-source solutions can be implemented in most PCB fabrication operations for a six-month to three-year return-on-investment.

Following a day of outstanding technical presentations, delegates boarded buses for the 35-mile journey to Wiltz in northern Luxembourg, where they were treated to a highly informative guided tour of Circuit Foil, a copper foil manufacturer, before traveling back to relax and network over dinner at the Restaurant SixSeven in the heart of Luxembourg City.

I am grateful to Alun Morgan for generously sharing his photographs.

• < Previous Page