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Challenge:

For mid-size circuit board design companies, customization is king when it comes to winning and retaining customers. The 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 relationships. Unfortunately, given the typical turnaround time associated with board production facilities, offering custom boards can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor.

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

Solution:

To meet demand for more custom design services, Modco turned to rapid printed circuit board (PCB) equipment from LPKF®. By bringing prototype production capabilities in-house, LPKF equipment reduces turnaround times from days to hours, giving engineers the flexibility to perform multiple design iterations without compromising production schedules or incurring significantly increased costs. This flexibility makes it much easier for design companies to offer custom designs.

Results:

Today, Modco considers custom designs its specialty. According to Dan Johnson – a manufacturing engineer at Modco – LPKF equipment has played an invaluablerole 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 customers.