SMT007 Magazine

SMT007-June2020

Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1253723

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 9 of 91

10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2020 Then AT&T came to Sono-Tek in the very late 1980s as a result of the problems with the ozone layer and how it related to the elec- tronics manufacturing industry. Sono-Tek was chosen to see if we could lead the industry in applying no-clean spray fluxes onto PCBs for high-volume manufacturing, and we excelled at that during the initial testing; for a while, the company focused on the spray fluxing elec- tronics business. But in 2000, we learned that you don't want to have all your eggs in one basket because it was a pretty bad downturn in the electronics business that coincided with the end of the Y2K scare and the meltdown of the dot-com bust. Sono-Tek was able to sur- vive that, and then we got highly diversified. Now we serve many industries, and we serve around the world. I joined the company in 2000 after my service to my country was completed with the U.S. Navy. I was a nuclear engineer on a fast attack submarine, and when I met Dr. Berger, I was fascinated with his mind and the way he was able to create equations out of thin air to solve problems for our customers, we have always provided unique solutions; he surrounded himself with a team of people that thrived in that environment. We still have many mem- bers of the original team that he put together. Navigating the Current Supply Chain Feature Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 Robb Engle, executive VP of Sono-Tek, and I discuss what the company has seen as far as supply chain challenges and changes to respond to in the past few months in response to COVID-19 and its related effects. Nolan Johnson: Robb, what is Sono-Tek's busi- ness, and what is your role with the company? Robb Engle: Sono-Tek is the originator of ultra- sonic atomizers. Based on that proprietary technology, we build turnkey coating systems around that technology and sell and service them to many different industries around the world: electronics, semiconductor, medical, a lot of high tech research, defense contracts, and anything that you can imagine where a thin repeatable coating that is expensive or a high amount of reliability is warranted. The company was founded in 1973 based on the original inventor of the ultrasonic atom- izer and spray nozzle. The company bounced around on grants for a number of years until it started breaking into the medical field, spe- cifically with putting anticoagulant coatings inside blood collection tubes. Robb Engle

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of SMT007 Magazine - SMT007-June2020