Challenge:

　　Finding Time to Customize

　　For mid-size circuit board design companies, customi-zation is king when it comes to winning and retaining customers. T he ability to quickly provide reasonably priced solutions tailored to specific customers’ needs enables these companies to distinguish themselves from their competitors and build lasting customer rela-tionships. Unfortunately, given the typical turnaround time associated with board production facilities, offer-ing custom boards can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor.

　　Modco, Inc. – a leading provider of solutions for the microwave voltage controlled oscillator industry - un-derstands this dilemma. After recognizing the advan-tages that could be gained from expanding their cus-tom design offerings, Modco was looking for a way to quickly and cost effectively facilitate custom designs for their customers.

　　Solution:

　　LPKF Rapid PCB Prototyping Equipment

　　To meet demand for more custom design services, Modco turned to rapid printed circuit board (PCB) equipment from LPKF®. By bringing prototype produc-tion capabilities in-house, LPKF equipment reduces turnaround times from days to hours, giving engineers the flexibility to perform multiple design iterations with-out compromising production schedules or incurring significantly increased costs. This flexibility makes it much easier for design companies to offer custom designs.

　　Results:

　　Faster Turnaround Yields Quality Custom Designs Copy

　　Today, Modco considers custom designs its specialty. According to Dan Johnson –a manufacturing engineer at Modco – LPKF equipment has played an invaluable role in this evolution.

　　“Customer requests for design modifications used to be a real problem,” Johnson says. “If we couldn’t do it with a board we already had in our inventory, then we’d have to see if we could make the modifications by hand. Now we can make those modifications using the LPKF system and turn things around in just a couple of days.”

　　He adds, “the engineering department here has grown because of our LPKF equipment. Before it was one guy, and now we can have several people working on different projects at once.”

　　Most importantly, using LPKF equipment has enabled Modco to deliver superior custom designs to its cus-tomers.

　　John’s State:

　　“When we send a board to production, we know it’s going to work, we don’t have to go through several iterations after it goes to the board house, our LPKF system has paid for itself times over.”

LPKF Laser & Electronics AG manufactures ma-chines and laser systems used in electronics fabri-cation, the automotive sector, and the production of solar cells. Around 20 percent of the workforce is engaged in research and development