Since our first time exhibiting at Apex 2019 in San Diego we have not looked back. We have since sold 25 lines in the USA.
This has presented us with a very unique challenge – how to install and support our US Customers to the very high standards that we pride ourselves on, given the subsequent arrival of Covid 19 which effectively rendered our UK and factory based teams useless!
The first part of the solution was finding Dave Dye of Quick Turn Inc. This was thanks to our mutual friend Eric Overman of NTO, Dave has been working successfully with Eric on sales and support of NTO’s hasl and plating line products for several years. He has a very long history in bareboard equipment design, sales and support. Possessing a wide knowledge of processes and the related equipment. His first job in the Industry was working for his Father’s equipment company J-Dyeco in 1982. He started his own business in the early 90’s and has built a good reputation for reliability and honesty – the things we most look for in our Partners.
Dave quickly took up the mantle of on the spot Customer Service and has proved invaluable both in winning orders and after sales support. He is doing a great job.
Due to the pandemic travel restrictions we had to start recruiting a team of local Engineers sooner than planned to work with Dave in the many installations needed. Our first lucky find was Greg Held. We first met Greg in early 2020 whilst Jeff Cox and Andy Prince were still able to travel to the US. We were at Saturn Electronics near Detroit installing their Shadow LE line. Greg has been a contractor at Saturn for many years working on various equipment projects and came highly recommended (a big thank you to Yash and Randy). He was subsequently dropped in the deep end and almost single handedly completed the installation of Saturn’s DES line. However, it turned out to be a challenging install!
One of our selling points is that we build our lines to run on local mains electrical supplies, we do not use transformers. This provides the Customer with easy and inexpensive long term maintenance based on locally available electrical components.
However, in doing so we wrongly specified the motors and impellers on the main chemical pumps which resulted in incorrect current draw. It was thanks to the skills of Greg and Greg Bercusal (Saturn’s Maintenance Mgr) that this was quickly identified and steps were taken to replace the necessary pump motors and impellers. We are pleased to report that the line has run well ever since.
Greg has gone on to expertly run several more installations since.
A further great recruit has been Dave Dye’s long term friend and colleague Tito Kurday. Tito has worked for many years as an equipment and project contractor to the PCB industry. His first project for us is working with Greg and local Engineers on an 11 line install for Galaxy’s new plant in Chicago. This is in progress as the article is being written.
Our third lucky break came by way of an another introduction by Dave Dye. It came in the form of Sach, Dewey and co at AMS Products in California. It was immediately clear that they were tailor made Partners for the West Coast. Based in Vista they have gained a great reputation as a reliable comprehensive supplier to the bareboard industry. They work with several high profile Principals and have gained a good reputation for first class Customer Service. Between them they have clocked up countless man years of experience in our Industry. They have already been hands on supporting our first 2 Customers in California Royal Circuit Solutions (many thanks to Milan for giving us a great opportunity) and Excello Circuits.
So with our unique mixture of world class manufacturing capabilities and ever growing team of highly skilled English speaking Engineers it is very much a case of onwards and upwards to make our mark in the USA and beyond. Watch this space!
