Catching up with Winonics’ Mark Eazell

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Eazell: Well it certainly gives us the ability to provide most types of circuits to our industry, sort of one stop shopping, you might say. And also with our multiple company resources we have outsourcing available at our sister companies if needed in an emergency. Having three shops means that we can do just about anything from flex and rigid-flex to microvias to fine line medical products. We can handle defense and aerospace boards as well as value-priced commercial boards and of course quick-turn prototypes. It does give us a distinct advantage over other shops. We like to say that we have all the advantages of a large company but with the ease and flexibility of a small company.

Beaulieu: Going along that line of thinking, what makes your company outstanding? What are the differences between you and your competition?

Eazell: Like I said we can build just about every technology board and provide any type of service our customers need. I also feel that other advantages are our engineering support, our quality and on-time delivery, all of which really set us apart. I’d like to mention here that just about the most important advantage we have comes from having a great team. Our employees really care about our customers’ needs and always do their best to make those needs a reality. This is a very customer-focused company.

Beaulieu: I like that. This is a people business; people tend to forget that. Let’s go to the future. In what direction are you heading? Where would you like to be next year at this time? In five years?

Eazell: Winonics will strive to keep up with the ever-changing PCB designs in the future, both in the demands for new equipment and new materials.  The industry seems to be moving towards higher speeds with finer lines and spaces and also more RF designs. Our main focus is on process and equipment to improve quality and throughput.  We continue to evaluate our customer material requirements for additional certifications as well. In the past year or so we have invested in a number of key pieces of equipment, including most importantly an Orbotech LDI machine, a fully automated PAL electroless line, a Chemcut SES line, another Emma flying probe tester and just recently a new Excellon Cobra 10 Watt UV/CO2 laser drilling machine. We will soon be adding another LDI machine to keep up with the increase in demand for HDI requiring buried, blind and microvias. Many of our customers are looking for ways to achieve lower costs in their designs and they are looking at the use of hybrid boards, built combining FR-4 with either Fr408 HR, Megatron 6 or Rogers. We are taking that trend very seriously and making sure that we are at the head of that curve as well.

Beaulieu: Mark, why else should customers want to do business with Winonics?

Eazell: That’s easy; Winonics provides a reliable and competitive printed circuit board, built fast in America by caring employees. We provide the upfront engineering support to help our customers get their boards built right the first time and in doing so our customers save time and money in getting their product to the market fast.

As you know Dan, this has been and continues to be a tough business, what with most of the printed circuits being built offshore for lower prices. But for those of us who have survived making boards here in America, we have to love what we do and do it faster and better to help our customers survive. Because without our customers where would we be? As someone I know says, “It’s only common sense.”

If the PCB industry is going to survive here in North America we will need more companies like Winonics and the other companies that make up JR Controls—companies that are willing to change with the times, understand their customers and where their needs are going and then be willing to invest in equipment, technology and people to keep up with those needs.

Beaulieu: Thanks for your time, Mark.

Eazell: Thank you, Dan.

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