Partnerships Drive Innovation for a Brighter Manufacturing Future

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

When Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) opened its greenfield facility in 2023, it did so with careful attention to choosing its suppliers. In this discussion, Collin Peters, electronics business director for North America at MKS’ Atotech, and Justin Kennedy, manager of engineering at SEL, explore their unique partnership that includes collaborative efforts to develop innovative solutions like the Uniplate® PLBCu6 line.

With SEL’s commitment to sustainability and MKS’ Atotech’s extensive industry knowledge, Collin and Justin reflect on how such a partnership enhances operational efficiency and supports the advancement of power system technology.

Barry Matties: Justin and Collin, it’s nice to meet you. Collin, what does it mean to be a supplier to SEL?

Collin Peters: SEL is a standalone in this business because of the expectation that their relationship with their vendors will be different from the one their vendors have with their other customers. From the procurement side, they are very proud of that. It’s not necessarily a challenge for vendors, but rather that there are alternative ways of doing business, maybe a way that better suits one company and one philosophy. At MKS in the Atotech Group, we strive to be flexible, giving the customer the experience and the relationship they need.

The Uniplate PLBCu6 line is part of that. A lot of industry knowledge and experience went into the design and engineering of that line. We worked closely with the SEL engineers to design the touchpoints they needed to meet their unique requirements and expectations and directly address what's important for SEL, such as zero liquid discharge (ZLD).

That is important to SEL, and they are very proud of it. We worked in tandem with them to achieve ZLD, which, in this case, was the cascade rinsing down to the concentrated rinse.

Matties: What is it like for SEL to have a partner that takes these steps and works so closely with them?

Justin Kennedy: One of the benefits is their years of experience. I found it interesting that since MKS’ Atotech is based in Europe, it has kept a lot of consolidated world knowledge in Europe. Because so much of the industry has been removed from America for the past 25 years, we are challenged by a gap in knowledge. We knew that with a global partner like MKS’ Atotech, we could leverage their worldwide experience.

One of the best things is their education catalog. We leveraged MKS’ Atotech’s technology and used its educational videos to become proficient more quickly. Their American representatives were good at making sure we focused on becoming educated on the line itself. That made the transition to taking ownership and running that line a lot easier, as was intended. Kudos to them for that.

We used their educational resources to train our staff engineers up to a certain level of proficiency. It was almost like going to school. Now, we have Plating 101 through Plating 401. Having that education available has been helpful.

They’re also very open to us visiting them and getting trained, even going to Berlin and seeing their department there. Overall, it was one of the critical successes with MKS’ Atotech, and I appreciate that.

To continue reading this interview, which originally appeared in the August 2025 edition of PCB007 Magazine, click here.