A New Source for Laser Drills

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Sekine: I have to say that, with the machine we are proposing, it’s that we need to deliver. At the present, it's paper. The first thing we need to do is show that we can do it; that's a must. I don't have much concern starting production, but the biggest concern at the present time is to make sure we can deliver on what we are promising. 

Matties: But you're going to see it for Nova Drilling Services here in three months’ time.

Sekine: We already started before Nova gave us the order a couple of months ago, so those parts are coming in.

Matties: So you're already building the first one in New Hampshire. Why did you choose New Hampshire for manufacturing?

Sekine: It's simply that the key R&D engineers and designers are in New Hampshire. I asked them if there was any potential for them to move, possibly here to California, and they said no. They have no plan to move to California. It’s too expensive, and their families don't want to move. They love New Hampshire, so we decided to make the facility there.

Matties: It probably works to your advantage to have both coasts covered with offices.

Sekine: That's for sure. We can take care of the East Coast customers from New Hampshire, and here in Milpitas, the West Coast.

Matties: With all your contacts, I would think that you're the guy doing primarily all the sales at this point.

Sekine: Yes, I'm the sales guy.

Matties: Are you covering all of North America?

Sekine: Actually, I have a couple of representatives. Maybe you know Dick Betz? He used to work for Hitachi. Once I started here, he said he is willing to work for us. The other one is Photochemical. They are taking care of the East Coast.

Matties: The thing you had working to your advantage at Hitachi, though, was that it is a very well-known brand name. A lot of brand recognition. 

Sekine: Yes, at that time we were selling mechanical drills to top-10 U.S. customers, not PCB fabricators, but IBM, HP, Honeywell, Xerox, etc. All these big companies were making the PCBs by themselves and they accepted our new technology, which was the only one available at the time. We're lucky to get into that area now. This is a very similar time for Nano System—a zero start. What we have working for us is flexibility to meet the customer’s requirement. If the customer said, "Can you make this change?" or, "I have this material, can you come up with something?" we can do this for them.

Matties: Is the growth market for you Asia?

Sekine: Yes, as long as we can show the capability and what we can do. 

Matties: Asia is a more price-sensitive market. I would think that you're going to find more competition over there.

Sekine: I think so. However, there are two things to consider. Asian customers always feel comfortable if the product is designed and made in the United States, and the main laser component we will probably purchase from the U.S. or Japan. The message to Asian customers is that this is designed in the U.S., the majority of the parts are from the U.S., and Japanese engineers are joining on to complete the machines. That's a big selling point.

Matties: That should give you a strong team and collaborative effort that way.

Sekine: Exactly. I don't think customers mind if you make the machine in Asia, they just want to know the Japanese or U.S. guys are going to support the Asian manufacturing. Instead of having an idea, design and manufacturing in Asia, the idea is from U.S., with support from Japan, and then we can make it anywhere. I think this will be well-accepted and that might be the direction we will go.

Matties: That will be interesting to watch. Because I know everyone has their eye on Asia for large volume. In Asia, automation obviously is a big issue. Are your machines going to be automated?

Sekine: Our partner has these automation capabilities. They make many units for a huge company in Asia. Basically, they're delivering these automation parts to an Asian company who is a supplier to a big U.S. company. We can utilize this when we make the base of our laser machines so they have loader/unloaders or other automated equipment. That's something we need to have, and our partner already has it.

Matties: Are you going to be distributing other equipment in this organization?

Sekine: I'm not focusing too much on it, that's the 'by the way,' because I want to have the core focus of business to be our laser equipment. Luckily, I have these distributing opportunities, and they might turn into a very big sales chance that we can manufacture. But that’s the ‘by the way,’ much like our service department that can service lasers and mechanical drills of any brand.

Matties: Are you doing that on a contract basis? 

Sekine: Yes, it's on a contract basis. 

Matties: So people sign up for monthly maintenance, that sort of thing? Then you also do emergency service repair?

Sekine: Exactly, both of them. Those are the 'by the way.'

Matties: What about Europe?

Sekine: No plans for Europe right now. They have a few good companies over in Europe.

Matties: Well, Sam, congratulations and best of luck with your new machine.

Sekine: Thank you so much.

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