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Armstrong: Of course, the equipment itself is one focus, and the capabilities it has to meet all the technical challenges to inspect the board within itself. Another is the interconnectivity, the exchange of information between SPI and AOI machines, to be able to monitor and control the pick-and-place process and the print process. Then, of course, all the data mining that can come along with this. Traceability is a big thing and the inspection process plays a role in that.
Shaughnessy: Do you guys have a good chunk of the market in America? Where is your biggest market?
Armstrong: It's quite spread out globally. As tends to be the case when the customers closest to home tend to establish the greatest market share with a company like this, and Saki's headquarters being based in Tokyo, Japan, Asia is a very big stronghold for Saki. The Americas have also played a very important role—we’re very well established in Mexico and Brazil, and the U.S. We really see it pretty well spread out throughout the global market.
Shaughnessy: You were talking about differentiating yourself, but it's kind of a crowded pool, with inspection companies popping up all the time. It must be difficult to keep differentiating yourself, isn't it?
Armstrong: It certainly is. If you just mention the term AOI, you can identify more than 20 companies that play into that market. Then if you really start separating what each one does or the technology that they have and how that applies to the real world, you start getting down to just a very few that really play into all the top categories, and to the critical factors involved in the process.
That's why I mentioned that the two general categories are basically image-comparison AOI, and the algorithm-based AOI machines, which not only perform the inspection from an optical comparison standpoint, but also perform accurate measurements down to one micron resolution, like in Saki’s 3D AOI solution. We see that this crosses over into the entire product lineup, SPI, AOI and AXI.
Saki has an excellent solution in the X-ray market, actually being able to program the slices, or the vertical resolution, as you look into the inner workings of a component on the board, and be able to detect defects that are otherwise impossible to find. It's very critical depending on the type of product you have, whether it's aerospace or medical, and so on. Detecting those defects is extremely important.
Shaughnessy: It sounds like you all have a solid plan in place going forward.
Armstrong: Yes, it always continues to be challenging and there will be more challenges going forward, but we feel very positive about our situation. As you can see now, many are struggling to try and crossover into the product areas that maybe they didn't play into before. Saki being one of the first to develop that full 3-D lineup, and already having a very solid history with 2D, puts us in a very interesting position as we move forward through these challenges.
Shaughnessy: That's great. Thanks for coming by.
Armstrong: Thank you.
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