Trouble in Your Tank: Causes of Plating Voids, Pre-electroless Copper
Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: ‘Growth Hacker Marketing’
Happy’s Tech Talk #38: Novel Metallization for UHDI
Ventec USA Prepares for Growth
April 17, 2014 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
IPC APEX EXPO 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, gave me the opportunity to catch up with Ventec USA President Jack Pattie and to meet the recently-appointed General Manager of the Ventec Fullerton Southern California facility Ray Young. The pair also gave an update on current developments and future company plans.
Pete Starkey: Exciting times, Jack!
Jack Pattie: Yes, Pete, lots going on. We’ve had two years of strong business development, with a growing demand for our high-performance copper-clad laminates and prepregs, and we’ve already put a lot of energy and investment into our Elk Grove Village facility in Illinois. There’s a strong leadership and management team in place, with Denis McCarthy as operations manager and Brian Jubie as technical sales manager, and we’ve relocated to larger premises, double the size of our previous building.
We've made substantial investment in additional equipment for panel-cutting and packaging, including a Yow Shi diamond blade panel saw, increased capacity for prepreg tooling, and increased prepreg storage. And supporting the distribution operation, there’s new inventory software to streamline documentation and give us improved inventory tracking and forecasting ability. It’s all up and running!
Starkey: And now it seems your Fullerton, Southern California operation is a major focus of activity.
Pattie: The Ventec product range has an established worldwide reputation in the mil/aero sector for technology, quality, and reliability, and we want to further develop this is in Southern California. Our service and distribution model is specifically geared to address the substantial market opportunity that exists for us in the area.
We are committed to doubling the size of the business and the first major step we've taken is to put the right management in place. The West Coast market has got some pretty unique characteristics compared to other major PCB regions in North America. We have very strong market share in all major North American PCB regions; however, our greatest area for growth is Southern California. To take advantage of that opportunity, we sought out local talent and leadership. In addition to securing a strong leadership team, we have committed to a major expansion of our Southern California facility. This includes doubling the size of the current facility, a new Yow Shi panel saw, two new prepreg cutting areas, increased prepreg storage, increased lab capabilities, and new inventory software.
Pete, meet Ray Young, the recently-appointed general manager of the Fullerton operation.
Starkey: Hello, Ray. It’s great to meet you in person.
Ray Young: Thanks Pete. It’s good to be part of the Ventec team.
Page 1 of 2
Share on:
Suggested Items
RF PCB Design Tips and Tricks
05/08/2025 | Cherie Litson, EPTAC MIT CID/CID+There are many great books, videos, and information online about designing PCBs for RF circuits. A few of my favorite RF sources are Hans Rosenberg, Stephen Chavez, and Rick Hartley, but there are many more. These PCB design engineers have a very good perspective on what it takes to take an RF design from schematic concept to PCB layout.
Trouble in Your Tank: Causes of Plating Voids, Pre-electroless Copper
05/09/2025 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankIn the business of printed circuit fabrication, yield-reducing and costly defects can easily catch even the most seasoned engineers and production personnel off guard. In this month’s column, I’ll investigate copper plating voids with their genesis in the pre-plating process steps.
Elephantech: For a Greener Tomorrow
04/16/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineNobuhiko Okamoto is the global sales and marketing manager for Elephantech Inc., a Japanese startup with a vision to make electronics more sustainable. The company is developing a metal inkjet technology that can print directly on the substrate and then give it a copper thickness by plating. In this interview, he discusses this novel technology's environmental advantages, as well as its potential benefits for the PCB manufacturing and semiconductor packaging segments.
Trouble in Your Tank: Organic Addition Agents in Electrolytic Copper Plating
04/15/2025 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankThere are numerous factors at play in the science of electroplating or, as most often called, electrolytic plating. One critical element is the use of organic addition agents and their role in copper plating. The function and use of these chemical compounds will be explored in more detail.
IDTechEx Highlights Recyclable Materials for PCBs
04/10/2025 | IDTechExConventional printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing is wasteful, harmful to the environment and energy intensive. This can be mitigated by the implementation of new recyclable materials and technologies, which have the potential to revolutionize electronics manufacturing.