For Pioneer MuTracx, the Future Looks Bright

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

de Geus: I think the Dow and MuTracx relationship is a very fruitful relationship. We’ll handle application knowledge, in our case combined with the equipment suppliers who are in front and behind our process—that combination is a real end solution for the end customer. Of course, Dow being a large company and having established relations in the market has the ability to meet those end customers and have access to the market. For us as a smaller company that's also very beneficial. Now we are at Dow booth at productronica and we have arranged for a number of joint customer visits where we both can share our information about the market and put our needs on the table and jointly meet those customers.

Starkey: From the outside we can see the enormous benefits in that relationship going forward. Just going back to the situation at Whelen, what production throughput are you currently achieving in that line?

de Geus: In the Whelen facility we are now up to 50 double-sided panels—that's the target we wanted to achieve at Whelen and that's right at our capabilities.

Starkey: Previously, inkjet has been to an extent dismissed as a technique only for producing a few quick prototypes. With Lunaris, you've got a complete new dimension with an imaging system that is revolutionary, which is also a true production throughput machine.

de Geus: Production is all about uptime. You must have a robust production process and our technology enables this, due to redundancy.

Starkey: I have observed for a long time the developments and the evolution of the Lunaris system and I think that it exemplifies the highest level of engineering. The machine is so delightfully and so completely engineered, the quality of the engineering design and the build quality have been demonstrated in several months of serious production operation, which again will be a big weapon invasion for the equipment elsewhere in the market. I have seen many new developments that work fine if you do a demonstration, and they might work fine for a couple of weeks if there is an engineer in close attendance, but the thing starts wearing out.

de Geus: The mother company of MuTracx now is the Sioux Group and we are a company in high-tech product engineering and product development. Comparing the MuTracx Lunaris system to other kinds of production equipment, even semiconductor equipment or pick and place equipment, the Lunaris equipment is a really high-tech system. So it was a difficult task to come up with a robust platform up to specification, but now we're there. The team has done a wonderful job in getting to the point where we are now and we've proven ourselves in a real production process. We have matured the technology, and the company is now ready for the commercial phase.

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