Thermoset Mold Builder Takes on EV Market

Could you give us a brief history of Neu Dynamics?

Kevin Hartsoe, President, Neu Dynamics/NDC International: Neu Dynamics was founded in 1972 as an engraving and stamping die shop that eventually became a specialized mold builder for the semiconductor industry, designing and building thermoset tooling.

It started after AT&T developed the first semiconductor and discovered that they needed to put plastic around all the electronic components. As the need grew, several companies spawned into moldmakers and press manufacturers serving this industry.

The big transfer mold press company in the U.S. back then was Hull Corporation, which did not sell tooling, so several local shops started making molds for semiconductors. Neu Dynamics was one of those shops. We sold molds to Motorola, AT&T, Bell Labs, Spill Semiconductor and the like.

We were building molds in the U.S. that were shipped to Asia to run parts. As Asia started advancing and making its own molds, the semiconductor industry in the U.S. fell apart for mold building.

When I bought Neu Dynamics in 1999, we were 100% focused on semiconductor molds/encapsulated electronics. Since then, we branched out into several different areas. In 2003, NDC International  was launched to develop turnkey systems (presses and necessary peripheral equipment, such as manual wire bonders, automation equipment and pick-and-place machines) for electronics manufacturers that span a very broad customer base.  

For example, we have a medical customer in California that makes pulse oximeters and a Midwest automotive company that makes side view and rearview mirrors.  Since 2003, NDC International has developed an installed base in the U.S. of around $60 million dollars in molding and automation equipment. 

Fast forward to 2013, and we launched into production thermoset molding services. Today, we have five molding presses. NDC International operates under one roof with Neu Dynamics.

In 2018, a new partnership was formed with Boschman Advanced Packaging Technology (Duiven, Netherlands). Boschman specializes in package development services and the development and supply of advanced transfer molding and sintering systems for electronic assembly industries globally. This includes film-assisted molding, a cluster of unique technologies that use double films in the mold before the lead frames or substrates are encapsulated. These molding presses feature dynamic pressure control—originally developed for film-assist molding—which allows molding around a live semiconductor die while keeping specific areas from being exposed to the epoxy molding compound.

Universal tooling is a convenient, cost-effective way of doing R&D work, which is key in the U.S. Boschman recently added the Unistar HV, a high volumetric compound molding machine well suited for larger shot volumes, including rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) market applications.

We believe that our partnership with Boschman has given us a leg up on the competition because they build the servo-driven molding processes, and for specific projects, we offer the tooling support. We provide prototype molds at Neu Dynamics and transfer that knowledge to Boschman for a successful production system.

Neu Dynamics supplies solutions to customers here in the U.S. and those solutions not only turn into molding projects but machining projects as well. Some customers who buy molds from us have also contracted us to machine parts.

 

What is a key difference between a thermoset mold and a thermoplastic mold?

Hartsoe: Mold design is a big difference. For example, we built a 364-cavity mold for one of our automotive customers that used a clear thermoset material (no fillers). This means we had to hold 0.0001-inch tolerance on our heights on the parting line. The large mold was about 19 x 24 inches.

Thermoset molds, for the most part, require very high-precision tolerances.  Because the material used in these molds is very abrasive, excessive flash becomes a concern. We make sure that our vents are designed to allow just the air to get out of the cavity but not flash. When a thermoset material hardens, it is extremely hard.

With thermoplastic molding, molten plastic is injected into a cold mold at very high pressure (15,000-20,000 psi). With thermoset molding, a thermoset epoxy material is preheated before being placed into the mold press. The material is then transferred into the mold cavity at a pressure of 100s of psi versus 1,000s like the thermoset material. With the lower transfer pressures of thermoset molding, ‘sweeping the wire’ or ‘sweeping the chip’ is kept to a minimum when molding semiconductors. To avoid the wire sweep, the material is pushed into the mold cavities with a very slow and gentle process.

Also, the scrap from a thermoset process is not reusable as it goes through a glass transition under heat, and cannot be reused. It moves from a powder, or puck form, into the cavity. The runner system material is scrap material.

How would you describe Neu Dynamics’ niche?

Hartsoe: We are a 24-person team who gets to see a lot of first-off stuff. Our sweet spot is 600 to 1,000 parts a year. We do a lot of low-volume work.  We can mold two to three parts and up to 250,000 parts. Electronics encapsulation (or putting plastic around electronics) makes up 65% of our work.

We are in a unique position to take on work like this because we offer a solution—we have the molds, the presses, the automation, the right partners and know-how to mold the parts.

 

What is an example of an interesting first-off project?

Hartsoe: Electronic encapsulation work for various motor manufacturers. EVs are spreading like wildfire, and companies are continuing to develop electric and hybrid vehicles that are more energy-efficient, more powerful and offer lower operating costs. I’ve read that the EV market in the U.S. is scheduled to grow 29% a year, year over year, for the next 10 years.

We also designed and developed a mold for an automotive customer for a device that has resulted in (8) 364 cavity molds. This device is an optical light sensor.

Our automotive work started back in 1998 and has since exploded into a lot of business for our thermoset molds. Since the spring of 2018, we have experienced a huge increase in overmolding, which demands a certain level of expertise.

Neu Dynamics is part of this exciting new technology. We like to say that we are “your choice for the EV market and electronic encapsulation technology.” Others call this technology overmolding or insert molding.

 

Can you explain EV market work and how Neu Dynamics/NDC International fit in?

Hartsoe: With the growth of the EV market in the U.S. and worldwide, there is a need for tooling and systems that are used in manufacturing EVs—everything from device encapsulation to silver sintering die attach.

This is where our 45+ years of relationships with the electronic and semiconductor market come into play. We offer turnkey systems. Boschman is a perfect example of this. Their expertise in film-assist molding and silver sintering is used in power devices.

In a nutshell, Neu Dynamics offers mold manufacturing and molding services. On top of proving out the molds and the process at our facility, we offer turnkey molding/production systems. Our competitors only offer tooling and prototyping in Asia.

We offer low- to medium-volume contract thermoset molding and our full transfer molding lab can handle a variety of molding processes and applications.

What is key to Neu Dynamics’/NDC International’s success in the EV market?

Hartsoe: Our experience. We have almost 48 years of experience building thermoset molds, including a design engineer who has been a mold designer in thermoset and injection molding for 30 years.

What blew one of our big customers away was that the first prototype mold that we built produced the first part successfully—no leakage, we filled all the cavities. This level of quality I can only attribute to our team’s experience.

 

With this market exploding, what projects are in the pipeline?

Hartsoe: Currently, we are working on a project for a large customer. This is a huge opportunity for us as each molding cell will use up to 50-60 molds. We are also quoting four additional systems for electric adventure vehicle manufacturing.

We are in a unique position to take on work like this because we offer a solution—we have the molds, the presses, the automation, the right partners and know-how to mold the parts.