| PRESS RELEASE | Back |
| PAL'S TREMENDOUS SUCCESS STORY AT A CHALLENGING TIME FOR THE INDUSTRY |
| There has been a quiet revolution going on at PAL - Process Automation International Ltd - with the Hong-Kong-based company seeing an increasing number of its customers turning to one of its newest developments, the MCP-PAL (Marunaka Copper Plater) designed for vertical continuous plating. |
| Forty-one of these revolutionary machines have been ordered since a strategically important agreement with Marunaka Kogyo Co of Japan was signed in 2001 and the first machine built in 2002. Kinsus, Wu¡¦s, Unitech, Compeq, Tripod, Nan Ya, Unimicron, Multek, Sunpower, Gultech, Hanstar, Vertex, ASE, Sumitomo, all have them. Tripod of Taiwan leads the way with eight MCP-PAL machines. There are 23 in Taiwan, or on their way there shortly; 15 in China, two destined for Japan next month and one already in the USA. So far 36 have been delivered and another five are scheduled for delivery in the coming months. |
| "The MCP-PAL produces around 15,000m2 a month; so the 33 machines already in full production are already producing a staggering 495,000m2 per month, with more due to come on line very soon," explains Geoff Paterson, PAL's managing director. "What's more the MCP-PAL can handle thin panels , micro via plating and via filling. It is proving the answer to the industry's prayers! Patents are pending in a number of countries, including Japan, Taiwan and China, as well as Europe and the USA |
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The background PAL works extremely closely with a great many of its customers while designing and building machines that fit their immediate and perceived future needs. This close relationship leads to customers sharing their aspirations and market intelligence with PAL. |
| "Some three years ago an increasing number of them were telling us of a Japanese development we should be looking at and emulating - the vertical continuous plating system," says Geoff Paterson. "Our Japanese agent, Ken Tamba, was extremely helpful. Together we researched what was on the market in Japan. As a company we spent time considering whether we should develop the whole system ourselves, or whether we should join forces with one of the Japanese companies our research had revealed was working in this field. |
| "We decided that the best route would be one of co-operation, and it was at the end of 2001 that we signed an agreement with Marunaka Kogyo Co Ltd. Their vertical continuous plating system had been working since 1998 and over 30 lines had been sold - all of them in Japan. We were interested in their technology; they wanted their machine to have worldwide exposure and be developed to meet worldwide needs - we had the ingredients for a perfect co-operation agreement! |
| "Once the agreement had been signed, we formed a special engineering team (now known as PAL's New Product Development Department) led by our Engineering Director, Mr C.W. Wong. Members of the team visited Japan to gain a greater understanding of the MCP machine, and we ended up with literally thousands of drawings from Marunaka, all of which then had to be translated at the Shenzhen plant. |
| "Without the benefit of any confirmed orders we determined in early 2002 to set about building the first test line in our Hong Kong factory. Work on it began in April 2002 and was completed by June that year. You can imagine the steep learning curve we experienced - we learned all about the qualities of the machine during the manufacturing process and our experience gave us the confidence to plan to launch it into the market during 2002. |
| "Getting the test line built was just the start of things! We then spent nine months running plating tests to confirm its performance and do test runs to show potential customers what it could achieve several Taiwan-based customers like Compeq, Kinsus, Unitech and Wu's supported the project strongly and prepared panels for us to use for testing. They also sent their experienced engineers to our test line in Hong Kong for performance verification and to suggest improvements. |
| "Our New Technologies Department (led by Dr Paul Henington and Billy Ng) spent long periods working on improving the plating quality and the machine itself. During this period we added many PAL features to the machine including DMS and enclosures. |
| "The number of machines each of our customers has, shows how delighted they are by the performance of the MCP-PAL. It is undoubtedly a tremendous success story at what has been a difficult financial time for the industry!" |
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Financial success on all fronts The PAL order book is faring well too, not only on more conventional machines designed for the pcb market, but the surface finishing industry too, where the need for sophisticated automated machines has really taken off globally. Indeed the order book shows such a growth in this market that sales have risen from less than 5% of turnover to 25% in two years. |
| Further information on PAL and its activities around the world is available on the company's website at www.palhk.com and from PAL headquarters at 11 Dai Hei Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate, New Territories, Hong Kong. Tel: +852 2666 2288; Fax\: +852 2664 0717; Email: palmktg@palhk.com and from PAL offices around the world, including PAL (Europe) at The Farriers, Annscroft, Shrewsbury SY5 8AN. Tel: +44 (0)1743 860086; Fax: +44 (0)1743 860022; Email: paleurope@aol.com |
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| 30 November 2004 |