I’m not sure if my coating system is able to be upgraded to Lightsmith. How can I know?

Lightsmith is designed to be ultra-flexible to upgrade a huge variety of coating tools, new and old. From e-beam style vacuum coating tools, to ion beam deposition style, to magnetron-style. In many cases, we can interface to legacy components no longer supported by their manufacturers. Your system is most likely upgradable; we just need to discuss the best path forward.

What is the typical cost and lead time for an upgrade?

Since every system is unique and we cater solutions for your needs, costs and lead times vary based on amount of design needed, necessary hardware and the lead times of third-party components. But our track record has shown that we tend to be faster and more economical than many OEMs are in supplying their upgrade packages.

Is Meliora open to having a phone call so I can explain my coating tool situation and learn more?

Absolutely. We’d love to meet you and learn more about how we can help you achieve your goals for your coating floor. Send us a quick message to start the conversation.

Is a computer included with the upgrade?

Yes, as a standard, we ship a server rack-style industrial PC with dual SSDs in a RAID1 configuration.

For how long will Lightsmith store my data?

Lightsmith will keep all data on the computer drives indefinitely. If you depend on that data for your business operation, we also recommend you set up a backup policy appropriate to your needs. Lightsmith has an option to manually purge old data if you want to free up storage space on the drives.

How long will my tool need to be down for the upgrade?

Installation times vary depending on the system, but most can be upgraded in a matter of weeks, not months. One of our core competencies is in project planning. We make sure we won’t take your tool offline for upgrading until we have all the needed hardware components to fully complete the upgrade. See this Gantt chart for a better picture of how the process usually progresses.

Will I need to requalify my tool for production?

It depends on your specifications, but since a Lightsmith upgrade changed the ‘brain’ of your coating system, yes, most likely you’ll need to perform appropriate coating tests before beginning production work in earnest.

What about training?

The on-site technicians who perform the upgrade will set aside some time to give a demonstration of the basic operation of Lightsmith to anyone who may be interested. In the event you have more complex questions about features, it is also common that in the early weeks after an upgrade, we schedule a weekly meeting to serve as a touchpoint to answer questions and discuss any issues that you may be encountering.

Does Meliora provide ongoing support after the upgrade?

Yes, in the early weeks after an upgrade, we often schedule a weekly meeting with customers to serve as a touchpoint to answer questions and discuss any issues that you may be encountering.

For the first year after the upgrade, we will get involved in more or less any situation that you think needs our input.  Most often this involves answering software usage questions, but we also often help troubleshoot other system problems because hardware vs. process vs. software root causes are not always initially clear. 

See this Gantt chart for a better picture of what ongoing support tends to look like.

Does Meliora provide support remotely?

Yes, Lightsmith software is fully-compatible with nearly all remote desktop platforms. We frequently use remote access to assess customers with situations they want us to help troubleshoot.

How long is the hardware warrantee period?

We warrantee for one year from the time of completion of the upgrade (i.e. from the time that we verified it worked when we installed it). That includes our proprietary hardware as well as any 3rd party components we provided.

What if I want custom behavior in Lightsmith?

Much of the surface level tasks are written in Python, a common programming language and are open to modification if desired. Talk more about this.

However, if some large new software feature is requested that requires modifying much deeper code, we’re happy to discuss more about how to proceed with development.