Spirit Circuits: Building a New Factory in Romania...

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Driver: It’s literally repatriating the work and using our existing order book. Yes, I would love to build a factory like Alex Stepinski and have a digital plated-through-hole factory. We don’t have that as an order book at the moment but that will be our Phase 3. We will go for digital manufacturing of plated-through multilayer once we’ve got ourselves established. There also is the risk factor of not having any skilled labor available in the country. We’re starting from zero with the labor. Once we’ve got some basic skills there, we can then build on those skills.

Matties: That would almost make the case for jumping to Phase 3 first, because the reduction of skill in Phase 3.

Driver: It would, but then you need the money to build the plant. We don’t have the money.

Matties: Right, that would be finances aside.

Driver: Finances aside, yes, I’d probably go straight into phase three. If I had $10 million to go and build a factory I’d probably go for it. We could make it a digital, hands-off operation, although it’s never really hands-off.

Matties: No, I think Alex has 17 people where normally it would be 70 or 80. How about waste treatment over there? How do you handle that? Are you going for a zero-discharge setup?

Driver: We are engaged with Alex and we’re looking for zero discharge. Alex was here at the weekend and he is going to be engaged with us with some of his innovations on waste treatment. I’m impressed with his thought process.

Matties: The nice thing about what Alex is doing is he’s repurposing equipment that already exists to achieve the goal. It’s not a lot of special new technology that you have to chase.

Driver: He’s being disruptive and he’s challenging the norm. I have 15 years on Alex and have been making boards a lot longer and it’s annoying, some of the obvious things that he’s chal lenging at the moment, but at the same time refreshing and encouraging to see a new generation with a passion for our industry.

Matties: Fresh perspective is always refreshing.

Driver: I’m very impressed with Alex’s disruptive mind. We’re going to be working with Alex and he’s going to have some input into how we design the factory.

Matties: That’s great news. Anything else you would like to discuss?

Driver: I don’t think so, but it’s very nice to see you here, and speaking on behalf of the EIPC it was very nice to see you guys at the EIPC Summer Conference. The conference in Edinburgh was fantastic as well as the global presence there. You had some of your colleagues over from the U.S. and it was very nice to see you guys here. I’m very pleased to welcome you actually.

Matties: Thank you. It’s been great to be here.

Driver: We’re a very proud PCB company here, and it’s nice to have global visitors and global coverage.

Matties: It’s our pleasure, absolutely.

Driver: I’m sorry that you had to suffer Jake [president of Viking Test] today. [Laughs]

Matties: He’s going to teach me how to play golf while I’m here. I’m sure I’m about to get schooled.

Driver: As you’re very aware Barry, we are neighbors to Jake, we are neighbors to Cemco, and we are in a very fortunate position. We’ve got some good support around us.

Matties: In fact, it was an unannounced meeting we had with Peter Lymn of Cemco this morning. It was just fascinating. I’ve known Peter by name for many years but this was my first time to actually get to know him a little bit better.

Driver: He’s a fantastic guy, a guru.

Matties: His mind works a little differently too, doesn’t it? In a positive way.

Driver: It does. He’s a good neighbor for us. I like innovative people and he’s certainly one of those, and he is a character for our industry.

Matties: Then I see Jake’s equipment from Viking throughout your facility, so that’s great.

Driver: Jake’s done well for us.

Matties: I saw some Chinese equipment here too. Maybe some routing equipment you have down there?

Driver: Not routing, but we’ve got scoring that Jake supplied and XY measuring machines.

Matties: Martin said you’re really happy with it and that it’s just great equipment.

Driver: It’s perfect. We wouldn’t buy it without support of a distributor or a service team. There are opportunities to buy Chinese equipment yourself, but we wouldn’t do it without Jake or another. It hasn’t been without its problems. For example the scoring machine arrived with a Chinese operating system on it and Jake’s brother Sam was here and fixed it. It’s not without problems. It’s not without risk, but you need a good partner. We’re very happy with Viking.

Matties: Thank you very much, Steve. Appreciate it.

Driver: Cheers.

Editor's Npte: This article originally appeared in the August 2016 issue of The PCB Magazine.

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