Manufacture of flexible electronic circuits, special types of circuits that can be shaped & moulded according to requirements. Here, personnel working in a class 1000 clean room use soldering irons to align outer protective coatings over the circuits. Made of a polyester (plastic) laminate, flexible circuits are typically used in circumstances where weight, space-saving or the nature of a component makes the use of a normal rigid printed circuit board impossible - in the nose-cone of a missile, for instance. The first flexible circuits directly replaced complex, traditional wiring looms.