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Kinner: If only I had a crystal ball. I think it goes back to being smaller, more powerful and then lasting longer, and more reliable. It's the same key challenges and those challenges are going to remain constant, I think.
Las Marias: Tell us about some of the latest innovations happening in conformal coating or encapsulation.
Kinner: We already spoke a little bit about the two component conformal coating as a solvent-free hybrid between the resin and the coating. On top of that we've got a couple of products that have been developed by our teams in China in response to market demands there. We have high performance solvent-based polyurethane, which has a much higher temperature range than most normal polyurethane materials.
We have our first solvent-free silicone material, which enables us to have much higher operating temperatures. We have an ultra-thin fluoride polymer-based casing that's new, completely non-flammable, and gives a good level of protection for very thin film, which makes processing easier. That material has a UV tracer, which is innovative so you can inspect it visually, and normally with a really thin coating it’s hard to know it's there. So it's taking what we do with conformal coating and making it easy to inspect. One of the key things with that new technology is you don't need to mask components, so you can mechanically insert and make connections and what we're seeing is you get a much more reliable and amazing connection with these materials than has been the case previously. So the non-variable, easy insertion and reliable insertion and the UV tracer for inspection have all been really popular with our customers.
Las Marias: Would that be considered an emerging technology in your line of industry?
Kinner: I think it's a case of what's old is new. I think those types of products have been around for a while and we have had them for many years, but I think it's been done by making improvements—so eliminating the flammability, having easier inspection and solving the connecting reliability. These are our customers' pain points. We listen to what our customers say and we take notice and develop our products accordingly, so it's probably a good example of how we develop products.
Las Marias: Phil, how does Electrolube stay ahead of the competition?
Kinner: By being faster bringing products to market. I think having our two R&D teams working on projects in a controlled way and in a coordinated way helps us improve the speed of our product development. By keeping an eye on looking outwards and trying to anticipate the customer needs and really delivering products that solve customers’ problems, whether they knew they were problems or not, is a key thing for us. Giving customers solutions that they want when they want them has been very successful for us.
Las Marias: Thank you very much, Phil.
Kinner: Thank you.
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