Qualtech Systems, Inc. Announces Order from FEI Company

Wethersfield, Connecticut. 15-August-2004 - Qualtech Systems, Inc. (QSI) today announced the delivery of the TEAMS® tool set to FEI Company, Hillsboro, Oregon. Using the TEAMS solution, FEI aims to reduce machine cost-of-ownership and worldwide service operation cost. TEAMS will be deployed with FEI field service engineers (FSEs) throughout the world to help ensure a high standard of troubleshooting proficiency across the organization.

"If one of our machines sits idle in a factory our customer stands to lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per day", said Bill Vawter, FEI's Director of Quality Process Management, "Our number one goal is to ensure our tools are up and running as quickly as possible. With TEAMATE® running on a laptop PC a service engineer simply enters the symptoms exhibited by the machine. Using these symptoms and a logical model of the machine, the software performs diagnostics and optimally guides the engineer through the troubleshooting process to find and fix the problem faster and with greater accuracy than would have otherwise been possible."

Using TEAMS®, FEI engineers will create graphical models of their machines that describe field replaceable unit (FRU) failures, how the failure propagates, the symptoms that would be exhibited, and the means of detecting and isolating these failures. The models will be exported to TEAMATE®, a standalone application that is installed in the FSEs' laptop. TEAMATE® uses the diagnostic information from the TEAMS® model, as well as rich media such as schematics, documents, and videos, to dynamically guide the FSE through a quick and cost effective diagnosis, repair, and repair verification. All the maintenance steps and time used by the FSE are logged by TEAMATE® along with the outcomes/results for later analysis, plotting, reporting, and knowledge-base/model refinements. The FSE can enter resource constraints and any additional issues/comments that might have come up during the maintenance session. These logs can be uploaded to TEAMS-RDS® (the Remote Diagnostic Server "RDS") on a regular basis, providing valuable feedback to the Systems Engineers who maintain the models. RDS provides a large-scale, remote diagnostics and health management solution that includes TEAMATE® and the associated knowledge base, TEAMS-KB®.

Mr. Paul O'Mara, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Operations and Service adds, "The feedback mechanism provided by TEAMS-RDS® is a strong selling point, and one of the reasons why we went with the QSI solution. The field logs that are collected over time will enhance and refine our diagnostic support, help us improve the management of support assets, and help refine our FSE training program. The data and models will also help us improve the reliability and maintainability of future products".

About FEI: FEI's Tools for Nanotech(TM), featuring focused ion- and electron-beam technologies, deliver 3D characterization, analysis and modification capabilities with resolution down to the sub-Angstrom level. With R&D centers in North America and Europe, and sales and service operations in more the 40 countries around the world, FEI is bringing the nanoscale within the grasp of leading researchers and manufacturers and helping to turn some of the biggest ideas of the this century into reality. More information can be found on the FEI website at: www.feicompany.com.

About Qualtech Systems, Inc.: Qualtech (QSI) is a recognized leader in software products and engineering services for advanced diagnostics and systems health management. QSI products enable OEMs & Maintenance organizations to reduce the cost of design, development, and life cycle support of complex systems. The company's products have demonstrated troubleshooting time reductions of over 75% while increasing system availability by more than 30%. Recognized by NASA and Aviation Week for technology innovation, QSI's software enables equipment manufacturers and support organizations to generate new "aftermarket" service revenues and distinguish themselves with state-of-the-art "telemaintenance" capability. For more information visit www.teamqsi.com or try this link to a brief audio/video presentation - http://www.teamqsi.com/swf/flash_demo.html.