First EIE and CCI Eurolam on Direct Imaging, Printers and Partnership

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

Matties: When customers start looking at this DI system, what sort of demands do they have for a system like this?

Stoeckli: At first it’s the simplicity of use. They don’t want something complex, and as Lawson mentioned, this has separate aggregates for water chilling system, cooling with water flow and those kinds of features. It’s plug-and-print. You install the machine and you have one line for the power supply, another line for the air pressure, and the small vacuum pump sitting behind. That’s it.

Lightfoot:  The versatility is also attractive, from the point of view of being able to process many dry film resists from different manufacturers. Some people change for different reasons, for example, they have more than one resist in production for different applications or processes. The same also applies for a wide range of solder masks from different manufacturers.  Due to the wide spectral sensitivity, it encompasses all dry film and soldermasks in common use within the industry.

Matties: It’s very compatible to their current processes. You don’t want to force them to change their supply base.

Stoeckli: No, there is no disruption in their qualified process.

Matties: I think that would be a big benefit for them. You have price point, flexibility, and simplicity.

Lightfoot:  And low maintenance is a big part. Some people associate direct imaging systems with expensive maintenance contracts and that is not the case with the EDI500.

Matties: There is no maintenance contract?

Stoeckli: It’s also one of my policies, I would say. I come from the production industry, and I never liked vendors who would basically force you to sign a contract. Having felt this, I said, “No. We need to provide something to our customer that can help them to keep the machine as it was in the early stage.” It’s their choice: either we provide full support with a maintenance contract, or they use our maintenance kit so they can do it in-house by their people to whom we’ve provided the necessary service training. The kit is meant for worn components that have to be replaced.

In certain situations for the printer or the DI we will train. If they have a maintenance team, we want to take care of them because it is important that the machine is well-maintained and that it works over the years. The worst thing that can happen is that someone buys it and does nothing and hopes that after two years it’s in the same condition as when they bought it. That’s not the case. You have to take care of the machine, especially the printers.

It’s like a coffee machine; if you don’t clean it from time to time you’ll have it all over. Basically, we give them the full training, roughly three to four days, and they complete the different steps to do filter replacement, tube replacement, lamp replacement, and so on. Then afterwards, they can do it on their own through the whole process.

Matties: For the inkjet, there is a lot of competition for these pieces of equipment out there, a lot of choices. How does someone come in and ultimately decide on yours?

Stoeckli: I think today nobody decides automatically on one single brand. People are trained and they look around. This it is so important that we come to shows like productronica, to present the latest developments we’ve made. The customers come with some specific demands and it’s always the best tradeoff. They can buy the $600,000 machine with multiple heads that is very fast, but perhaps for their budget, instead of investing $600,000 in one single piece of equipment, they can invest $300,000 in a DI and put the rest into the wet process.

People might look at their needs in terms of capacity and productivity, and perhaps save some money on one hand and put it towards something else. People here are not just looking at the fastest machines and the highest productivity like they do in China; they tend to invest smartly in the whole process.

Matties: If it’s for the U.S. or Europe, it’s low volume, high mix.

Stoeckli: That’s it, and high versatility.

Matties: That’s because in America, a lot of companies are smaller manufacturers with smaller budgets, so this scales in nicely. It’s a small footprint with ease of use, and they don’t need a lot of extra resources. I see a lot of good reasons for people to take you seriously with this. One unit I saw in China was printing in 12 seconds or something like that. That’s just crazy fast. But in China you need that kind of speed.

Stoeckli: Absolutely.

Matties: How fast is your printer?

Stoeckli: With the CP562 we are about 60 seconds a side. It depends on the expected print quality and the size of the panel. The customers say, “Okay, it’s not as fast as the other one, but you can do whatever you want.”

I had a customer here who came by to say hello because he was using our EDI. He’d been using it for one year, and his exposure machine broke, so he put everything on our EDI500 machine, from innerlayers to soldermask, and it saved his production, simply because our EDI is versatile enough to do it.

Matties: It looks like you guys are doing a really good job.

Stoeckli: We have to continue. As you know, in production or in manufacturing, you have to move forward and be working on the next generation. We have a very strong positioning in Asia and when you talk with them, especially in Korea or Japan. When we started the EDI project, we had a 50-micron line and space and we thought it was a good achievement; after discussing it with them, they said, “30 microns would be better.”

Then we made it and it’s what we have now. Our machine is doing 30 microns very nicely and actually we have exceeded it. The roadmap is now about speed, and we always have to look ahead.

Lightfoot:  It’s a very good fit for CCI Eurolam because we already sell a wide range of base laminates and bonding and drilling consumables, as well as conventional imaging products for PTH and multilayer boards. We also sell dry film resists and soldermask in certain countries, so it’s a perfect fit. We’re already familiar with customers and have a strong customer base.

Matties: How is the customer’s reception when you first introduce this? Are they calling you looking for a DI?

Lightfoot:  I think it’s fair to say that most PCB fabricators see some form of direct imaging as the way to go. For many years, the costs have been prohibitive. What we have now is a lower-priced machine with lower running cost, which is always important. Coupled with that is the fact that the performance is more than acceptable. With the EDI500 we are talking about a DI system that is capable of producing 30-micron lines and spaces. It’s good to know that this is achievable, but many customers are still regularly processing 75–100 microns. This additional capability is protecting their investment for their future needs.

Matties: What sort of warranty do you provide with your machine?

Stoeckli: Currently, it’s 12 months, but from the experience we have with our photoplotters, which are working over decades, I’m thinking about extending it to two years.

Matties: That’s fantastic. Well thank you very much for your time gentlemen.

Stoeckli: Thank you.

Lightfoot: Thank you.

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