TraX Interconnect (TraX) (www.trax.co.za) is one of the three largest manufacturers of printed circuit boards (PCBs) in the country. Although today a highly stable and profitable company, its history is somewhat chequered.
The past can be traced back to 1975 when one of the current owners, Andy Chisholm started making PCBs at his home in Cape Town. His customer list grew rapidly and realising he needed more staff and better working premises he soon started a company called Renak. In 1983 Plessey decided to acquire the company, the name Renak being retained. These were the days of the telecommunications boom and Renak became a high volume manufacturer of boards for this industry, major clients including Plessey, TEMSA and Grinel. This was a good period for Renak as Plessey had capital, and processes introduced included multilayer PCBs, hot air solder levelling and photo-imageable solder masks. During this time also Plessey bought out Renak's largest competitor, Alumet Circuit Technologies and relocated the plant from Johannesburg to Cape Town where the processes and customers were integrated into Renak. This was renamed Renak Alumet Circuits. In 1990, order reductions from government persuaded Plessey to close Renak Alumet Circuits, but the company was saved by a last minute buy-out in 1991 by Andy Chisholm, Dave Delbridge and Viv James. A factory was leased at Estmil Road and a new company was born, with the hiring of a core group of the original employees. This was named TraX Interconnect (after tracks) and today, the factory staff has grown to 80 and TraX has kept itself state-of-the-art in PCB manufacture through continued acquisition of new capital equipment to extend the capabilities and meet the demands of customers.
During 2003, as an example, some R4,8m was spent on new equipment which included a fully-automatic electrodeless nickel immersion (ENIG) line, installed as an alternative to the popular Macstan Immersion Tin line. Both of these finishes are lead-free but hot-air soldering is still offered and remains popular, particularly for military applications. Other process improvements included the latest HMS horizontal etching line from Germany to allow finer tracks and spacings. This line works in conjunction with the latest Mecer copper recovery and environmentally-friendly etchant control plant. At the same time to improve inner layer adhesion and cosmetics, the manual oxide line was replaced by a new horizontal automatic line from the UK. Fine tracks and spacings required a new photo-resist developing line from France while the photo-plotters were replaced by a super accurate automatic loading Swiss unit. TraX uses a Camtek Orion AOI for all inner layer inspections and for inspecting complex outer layers.
This plant had received an R800 000 upgrade during the previous financial year to increase operating speed. In terms of the survival of TraX, this type of investment is critical and management is obviously thinking long term sustainability rather than short term personal gains, the latter having become a cross that industry in general has accepted as necessary in order to retain critical top management staff.
The core business of TraX is the production of multilayer boards, 10-layer PCBs being the current maximum, with track width and spacing of 150 µm and finished hole sizes of 200 μm. TraX soon found out that many customers wanted their boards 'yesterday' and so it introduced its premium FastTraX service. This was introduced as a 'Business Class' in 1997 and sees these boards running through the plant alongside normal production, but jumping the normal job queues. Today FastTraX has been improved even further and the company has six front-end engineers working shifts to prepare these jobs for production. At the end of the process there are four Microcraft 'Emma' net-list testers often working around the clock to meet strict delivery dates.
In terms of specifications and customer inputs, TraX requires the usual computer-generated artwork in Gerber format and drill files in Excellon CNC drill format. With its new equipment, the company is capable of producing 10-layer PCBs with track widths and spacings at an impressive 0,15 mm, and finished hole sizes of 0,2 mm. The thickness of the final PCB depends on the panel thickness (0,8 to 3,2 mm), but typically, a 10-layer board will have a final thickness of between 1,72 and 3,33 mm.
While two lead-free technologies are available (electroless nickel immersion tin line, or ENTG, and the popular Macstan Immersion Tin Line), traditional hot-air solder levelling (HAL) is still offered and remains popular, particularly with the defence sector. In terms of markets, TraX' main ones include defence, telecoms, data acquisition, security and medical products. As many of these customers are multinational, a significant portion of TraX populated boards will be exported.
The company has invested in a new super-accurate automatic Swiss unit to replace its old photo-plotters, while a dedicated automatic optical inspection (AOI) machine allows complex artwork to be inspected before use. The company also has a Camtek Orion AOI which is used for all inner layer inspection and for checking complex outer layers. A high speed auto-loading Lenz drill meets the tight tolerances required today and purchase of a second unit is under consideration.
All the other equipment necessary to produce high-quality multilayer boards is available. When it comes to quality, TraX only purchases top quality materials from companies such as Cookson Electronics, Electra Polymers, Isola, MacDermid and Technolam. TraX was the first PCB manufacturer in the country to be certified to the ISO 9001:2000 quality measurement system by the SABS, and it is the only manufacturer in the country certified to use the UL mark on some of its products.
TraX is going from strength and is a good example of a company with its focus on continued growth. This is seen from the fact that profits are invested in new capital equipment, expanding capacity while ensuring that TraX stays up-to-date in terms of new technology and advanced capability. There is no excessive remuneration for directors here, as the hard-earned profits are committed to growth. The latest news is that TraX has been awarded a BEE compliance certificate from SEESA, allowing customers to tender for previously unattainable contracts governed by the new procurement guidelines.
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