Dan's Six Pack
Interview with Steve Campisi,
Technical Service Engineer
Every month we like to visit with one of the key team members at Taiyo and see what they are up to. I ask them six key questions (hence the name Dan's Six Pack) designed to give us insight into what they are currently developing or how things are going. This month I talked to Technical Service Engineer Steve Campisi about how business is in Europe. Steve has been involved in the Taiyo sales efforts in Europe since 2005, so I always enjoy catching up with him and talking about Taiyo's work in Europe.
Dan: Steve, good to talk to you again. I always like talking about your progress on the European front, so tell me, how are things going?
Steve: Hi Dan nice to see you again, it's always a pleasure talking with you. Business is going well. There's a lot going on in Europe, as well as in other parts of the world, for that matter. This year I had the opportunity to support our European customers' facilities in China, India and Korea. Some of these facilities are huge in size, as Donald Trump would say. At Taiyo we believe in supporting our customers no matter their location. We are YOUR ULTIMATE SOLUTION.
Dan: That's pretty interesting. So besides Europe you are now hitting other parts of the world as well. So how have you guys done in terms of increasing your market share?
Steve: I've been involved in quite a few trials and startups this year while maintaining our service with our present customers. It's been so busy that we added another qualified support person from Taiyo to help out in the European market. Bob MacRae, our Eastern Regional Sales Manager in the US and Canada, is now technically supporting our customers in Western Europe. Bob will gradually integrate into supporting the sales groups in Europe. Bob has done a great job for us in the eastern region of North America. His sales experience and technical skills will benefit the European market tremendously.
Dan: What is your market share today as opposed to what it was when you guys took over sales in Europe?
Steve: In the last three years we've doubled our market share. That works out to be the addition of an average of 15 new customers per year. We presently have several trials that are ongoing and a major one coming soon. We're now involved in parts of Europe where we had very little to no business, in the past.
Dan: What do you see are the differences between servicing customers in Europe versus North America?
Steve: Servicing customers in general poses challenges no matter where you are because unique situations surface all the time. The culture, product needs and processes in Europe differ from one country to another, or continent for that matter, but Taiyo has a good group of people involved in North America and in Europe. Everyone brings a high level of expertise for the various processes.
Dan: Are there any differences in product demands?
Steve: The last time we spoke a lot of the work involved the solar industry with heavy coppered laminates. Since then, there's been an influx of work involving the automotive sector. Customers are requiring solder masks to meet a higher degree of crack resistance. Therefore, before the year is over we will begin manufacturing in the US, the newly developed PSR-4000 AM03TS. The AM product line is widely used in the automotive sector in Asia and we are now introducing the product into Europe and North America.
Dan: So Steve, to wrap up here, tell us how do you see things going for Taiyo in Europe in the next few years?
Steve: There's been a lot of development and interest with our pure LDI products. I use the word pure to differentiate ourselves from our competitors who take a regular solder mask, tweak it slightly, and re-label it as an LDI. Taiyo has put in an immense amount of work to develop our LDI products. If time permits, by year's end we are hoping to introduce another product that will benefit our existing, as well as new customers. The product will provide a higher level of quality and latitude to the processes. The resolution has been improved by faster photo speeds, which improves the side walls and ability to maintain smaller features. It also has better de-bubbling power and chemical resistance. Another benefit will be its shelf life, which will be an improvement on the current 6 to 12 month range of our other products. Therefore, business can only improve in Europe in the next few years, as well as in other countries!
For more information or to contact Steve personally email him at [email protected]
Taiyo America has developed a thermal cure dielectric gap filler, THP-100 DX1 (GF), to help fill between the high copper inner layer circuitry so that you will accomplish flatter planar outer layers after lamination. The Tg is 160
Taiyo America has also developed a UV cure flexible solder mask, FOC-800, to meet the needs of flex applications for touch screens, membrane switches and/or rigid-flex applications. FOC-800 coats extremely well and has excellent resistance to ENIG, Immersion Tin, Immersion Silver and HASL. This product is now commercially available to all markets.
Steve has been in the Printed Circuit Board & Assembly Industry since 1980. He has extensive experience in the application of LPI solder mask, via filling, peelable solder mask, legend & carbon inks. Steve also worked in the assembly of microelectronics, chip & wire bonding & the manufacturing of hybrid printable electronics.