-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueDon’t Just Survive, Thrive
If we are to be relevant and prosper during these next critical decades in electronics, we must do more than survive. As an industry, we can and must thrive. In this issue, our contributors explore these concepts meant to help you take your business to the next level.
Material Matters
Materials management is nuanced, multifaceted, and requires a holistic systems approach for business success. When building high mix, low volume, and high technology, managing materials and overall cost containment are even greater challenges.
Additive Manufacturing
In this month’s issue, we explore additive manufacturing technology for the PCB fabricator: where it stands today, the true benefits, and where it seems to be headed.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Ventec Shares Their Insights on the Laminate Market, Part I
September 12, 2017 | Barry Matties, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
![](https://iconnect007.com/application/files/4716/3123/8264/ventec-editorial-mark-goodwin.jpg)
I-Connect007’s Barry Matties sat down with the COO of Ventec USA/Europe, Mark Goodwin, to discuss the laminate market as a whole, the market segments behind that growth, and how Ventec has positioned itself in the thermal management space.
Matties: Mark, can you begin by giving our readers a little of your background in the industry—not just where you have worked, but the tasks you’ve done?
Goodwin: I started in this business for a company called Photocircuits. Not the big American Photocircuits, but a little photoplotting bureau in Barton-le-Clay, in Bedfordshire, England. I worked there from ‘83 to ‘90, and I started off with red and blue reductions, red and blue separations and taped artworks on a big Littlejohn wooden camera. Then I ended up in a sales role, but that was at a point when everybody started buying laser plotters and the business was clearly going to have to change and decline. I kind of realized that and when I saw Isola’s advert in the Luton news I remember thinking, “Well, every circuit board needs laminate and lots of it. It only needs one set of artwork and they use lots of laminate. It's got to be a better bet.” They offered me a job with a mobile phone and a company car, and that always swings it, doesn't it? In 1990, I started with Isola.
Matties: Was sales something that you were interested in?
Goodwin: I was already selling for Photocircuits, technical selling. I'm a great believer in people that look back and discover they’ve had a career. I know very few people that have written it down on a sheet of paper and said, I'm going to do this, this, and this and then have actually gone and done it.
I just see opportunities and take them—or not—but mostly the good ones I've taken. And you know, I got a great education in the laminate business and owe a lot to Manfred Cygon, a really good guy. I spent the first two or three months at Isola working in the factory in Cumbernauld, and then working in Cygon’s labs in Düren, Germany and that gave me a very good grounding on materials. I always said, and I really believe this, that I'm not a technical guy, not at the level of detail you really need to be a technical guy, but I do understand all of the concepts that go on in this business, and I really attribute that to Manfred Cygon, who was a fantastically good guy.
Matties: How long did you work at Isola?
Goodwin: I was there until 2004 and then disappeared out of the business for 18 months or so in a non-compete and joined Ventec at beginning of 2007. The rest is Ventec history. We started with a 1985-vintage Schmid saw and a Rosenthal slitter from when Pontius was a Pilate.
Matties: It's quite a climb from there to here.
Goodwin: I know. We've got state-of-the-art equipment now. Some people say we should have big Schelling saws, but I disagree for the UK market. The UK market is low-volume, high-mix, so why do you want an automated, big piece of kit? We've got big automated saws in the German facility where we have the kind of volumes that dictate that. It’s far better off to have two small manual saws for the UK market, which is high-mix, low-volume, and service-driven. It gives you two things: the first is redundancy, but because we run two saws eight hours a day we gain bandwidth and If we have one piece of kit go down, we can run one saw 16 hours a day and still keep all our customers supplied.
Matties: So capacity and redundancy.Page 1 of 2
Suggested Items
Jaltek Forge Partnership to Target New ‘Agritech’ Business
07/26/2024 | JaltekJaltek is thrilled to announce it has signed a new partnership that will give ‘agritech’ innovators seeking contract manufacturing and electronics solutions a single point of contact.
Flex Appoints Michael Hartung as President, Chief Commercial Officer
07/26/2024 | FlexFlex announced the appointment of Michael Hartung as President, Chief Commercial Officer, effective immediately. In his expanded role, Mr. Hartung will continue to report to Flex CEO, Revathi Advaithi and lead both the Agility and Reliability segments, focusing on delivering on the long-term Flex Forward strategy and driving the adoption of the company's end-to-end services and products across targeted markets.
Amphenol Reports Record Q2 2024 Results and Announces Dividend Increase
07/26/2024 | Amphenol CorporationThe Company continues to deploy its financial strength in a variety of ways to increase shareholder value. During the quarter, the Company purchased 3.1 million shares of its common stock for $190 million and paid dividends of $132 million, resulting in total capital returned to shareholders of more than $320 million.
MKS’ Atotech and ESI Participate in Electronics Circuit Asia in Thailand
07/25/2024 | AtotechMKS Instruments announces its participation at the Electronics Circuit Asia 2024 in Thailand, July 24-26, highlighting its leading brands Atotech® and ESI® and related advances in advanced packaging, package substrate, and printed circuit board manufacturing.
NCAB Releases Interim Report, January–June 2024
07/25/2024 | NCABNet sales decreased by 12% to SEK 935.1 million (1,057.5). In USD, net sales decreased 13%. For comparable units, net sales decreased 15% in both SEK and USD.