KMEZ improves product quality in cooperation with the customers
Kyshtym Copper Electrolytic Plant invited consumers of a new type of product from Moscow, Voronezh, Izhevsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk Region in the copper foil electrodeposition shop. During that Customer’s Day, the heads and technologists of plants producing foil-clad materials for domestic electronics visited KMEZ.
“We invited you in order to show the new production, to hear your wishes, and then, taking them into account, to adjust and improve the technology,” said Andrey Kudryavtsev, General Director of JSC KMEZ, opening the meeting.
Many customers have already received pilot samples of the Kyshtym foil and already formed their impression of its parameters based on test results from laboratories and foil performance in the production process.
“We already use Kyshtym foil even in commercial batches,” said Igor Kolokolov, General Director of the Bobrovsky Insulation plant. “Sometimes we have no issue with it, sometimes there are some comments. We adjust its quality in the process of close cooperation with manufacturer. Today’s meeting is one of those working moments that will allow us to take further steps.”
As Alexander Sidorenko, JSC KMEZ Chief Engineer, emphasized, the raw material for the foil is 100% pure copper of KMEZ own production. Customers do not doubt its quality. They are worried about the parameters of the foil itself, for example, the degree of its elongation, as well as the types of coating. The customers questions were answered by the Deputy Chief Engineer for Technology Anton Shabalin, by specialists of the foil production division and the technical control department. The guests were able to witness equipment in operation: ED Cells, Treater (foil coating apparatus), slitting and cutting machines.
For Alexander Egorov, Chief Designer of the Moscow plant «Electromash», visit to KMEZ was not the first one.
“We have been keeping our finger on the pulse of the copper foil electrodeposition division since the decision was made to build it,” he says. “Our interest is easy to understand. JSC «Electromash» produces foil-clad fiberglass laminates for printed circuit boards and uses European foil of two brands, the Chinese one is unacceptable for us. Products from Europe guarantee high quality and consequently dictate an equally high price. Recently, demand for it extremely increased, which lead to delays in delivery times, sometimes by several months. Kyshtym foil will allow us to solve logistic problems. What I saw in the production division today convinced me that sooner or later domestic products will catch up with European ones in quality — all the conditions for this have been created. We are looking forward to the high temperature elongation foil, from which we will be able to produce thin and very thin laminates for multilayer PCBs.
The first Kyshtym samples have already been studied and examined in the laboratory of IK Maslovsky LLC in Voronezh. According to the Commercial Director Alexei Repin, now the enterprise is waiting for commercial foil in order to manufacture a small batch of products from it and make conclusions on how usable it is and what needs to be «tightened up». Domestic copper foil should replace the one that Voronezh purchase from Taiwan today.
The foil produced in Kyshtym is analysed daily by the own laboratory of JSC KMEZ, equipped with the latest technology. The Head of the Central Plant Laboratory Yaroslav Andreev and the Engineer for the Introduction of new equipment and technology Denis Trapeznikov demonstrated laboratory instruments from leading world manufacturers to the visitors, using this equipment specialists test physical and chemical parameters of products. Customers interest was caught by a pickling bath, a hydraulic press and a Japanese peeling machine for tests on coating adhesion. Of all Russian plants, only KMEZ possesses such a machine. There were a lot of difficulties with its adjustment, but now it provides the laboratory specialists with accurate and objective information, making it possible to introduce some adjustments in production process.
The receiving party did not hide the fact that not all problems with the quality of the foil and the operation of the equipment were solved. Stabilization of the technology and products parameters is a slow, difficult process that requires time and joint efforts. Alexander Shestakov, Director of the Moscow Scientific and Technical Center «Electrolyzed and Foil-Clad Materials», is convinced that KMEZ will manage to produce competitive foil of proper quality.
