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Dymax is among the companies looking to strengthen its presence in Mexico. Raul Garcia speaks with Nolan Johnson about an expanded presence through a new warehouse in Querétaro, which provides technical and lab support, and the products that Dymax will have on display at SMTA Guadalajara Expo & Tech Forum, Oct. 7–8. These products are designed to speed up production rates and be more energy efficient.
Transcript
Nolan Johnson: Hi, Nolan Johnson here for I-Connect007. Today I am talking about SMTA Guadalajara with Raul Garcia from Dymax. Raul, welcome.
Raul Garcia: Thank you, Nolan. How are you?
Johnson: I am fantastic. I'm sure your team is really excited for the SMTA show coming up. After all, Dymax has expanded its presence in Mexico. Let's get started by talking about that. How has Dymax invested in Mexico recently to make things better?
Garcia: We have invested in a new, local warehouse in the city of Querétaro, which is about two and a half hours north of Mexico City, three hours south of Guadalajara. There we already have local technical support, and we have laboratory capabilities where we can run some tests for customers.
We will also have the ability to do all calibration on radiometers and fix equipment to cure our materials locally in Querétaro. So far, our customers have had to send the equipment back to the U.S. to be calibrated or fixed. Now we can do it locally in Querétaro.
So, those are the main things we have been investing in so we can serve better our Mexican customers, mainly our electronic manufacturer customers.
Johnson: We just did an issue in SMT007 Magazine on Mexico. There has been so much growth and development in electronics manufacturing. From Dymax's perspective, what are some of the key manufacturing challenges that Mexican manufacturers are facing today?
Garcia: Everything is getting smaller, so miniaturization of components in electronics products is a fact. Also, there are requirements of faster production rates and more energy efficiency.
Dymax is prepared to address those challenges by offering products that cure very fast, that reduce manufacturing complexity. They are very easy to store and to handle. If you add up all these benefits, we offer lower operating costs to the customers.
Johnson: Raul, with all that development in the products, it sounds like your customers should see shorter curing time and easier storage, a more robust throughput at their factory. What kind of impact is this having on manufacturing throughput?
Garcia: It's huge, because the speed of production is been increasing considerably. Instead of having products that cure in two or three hours, we offer products that cure in two or three seconds. The advantage is huge. Also in space because you can get rid of the huge ovens to cure those materials that last two or three hours curing at a temperature.
Throughput has been increasing a lot, and efficiency and energy and quality of production is also been increased.
Johnson: It sounds like you're definitely meeting your customers at their need when it comes to matching their production demands.
Garcia: Exactly. That's the idea.
Johnson: At SMTA Guadalajara, what are you going to showcased during the show? What can visitors expect to see at the Dymax booth?
Garcia: We will be offering three main products that would be very good representatives of our three main technologies. One is the 9016 LED cure stacking product, which is very flexible and very tough, and it can withstand thermal cycling tests without any problem.
We will also be showing our conformal coating 9483, which offers all these advantages we have been talking about. And also a new material called 9-2479-B-REP-A. It's a long name, but it's a masking material that makes it very easy. Instead of using the traditional tapes that customers used to use to cover a component where you don't want the conformal coating to touch, for instance, with these types of materials, you can coat them, protect them, and after the process, you just remove them, and that's it. Those components will not be in touch with whatever you don't want them to be in touch.
Johnson: What differentiates Dymax from other suppliers in the electronics market?
Garcia: There are many suppliers and all of them are good. For the end user, all of our products are very good. The difference is mainly with the manufacturer contractors. The chemistry of our products is very stable. We have very stable viscosities. It's very easy to dispense. Some products change viscosity during the shift, which makes it very complex to control a good dispensing of the product. With our materials, you don't have that problem.
We also have some specific things that help enhance the quality of your assembly. We have some products that change color while they are curing. You dispense it, and they are, let's say, blue, and once they cure, they are transparent.
They have fluorescence. It's very good for inspection. The quality of inspection is very easy. Also, we have vertical integration. Dymax produces our own raw materials, so we don't depend on a third party to supply the raw materials to us.
That provides a lot of quality to the customers and confidence that they will receive the product whenever they need it.
Johnson: Obviously, there is a lot going on in this space. Those who maybe aren't watching too closely might not realize it. Where do you see continued growth opportunities for UV light curing technology, whether it's R&D or customer demand? Over the next two years or so, where should we expect to see more progress?
Garcia: The companies are aware now that they can get increased throughput and lower down the wasting energy and improve their efficiency by using materials that cure faster. There's nothing faster than UV material cure. I think the market is going to start requesting more of this type of product.
That's what Dymax does; we are specialized in UV cure coatings and adhesives. So, I expect the next years to have a huge increase in the market demand of this type of products.
Johnson: Raul Garcia, thanks for taking the time to talk. Have a great show, and I hope everything goes very well for you.
Garcia: Thank you, Nolan. It was nice talking to you
Johnson: Here for I-Connect007, I'm Nolan Johnson. Thanks for listening
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