EMS@C-LEVEL
As Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and SCOOP writer, Philip Stoten, continues to talk to EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) executives he learns more about their individual and collective experiences and their expectations for their own businesses and for the entire electronic manufacturing industry.
EMS@C-LEVEL
Startup to Award Winner: Exploring Stentech's Innovations with co-founder Sergio Juarez Madrid
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Unlock the secrets behind Stentech's industry-leading innovations with Sergio Juarez Madrid, Mexico GM and co-founder, as we explore the evolution of this pioneering company at SMTA Guadalajara 2024. Sergio sheds light on how their engineering team’s first-hand industry experience plays a crucial role in effectively addressing customer challenges and staying ahead of the curve.
Discover the groundbreaking technology behind Stentech's BluePrint Stencil Coating, which has earned significant accolades such as the Circuits Assembly NPI Award and most recently a Mexico Technology Award. Sergio details how this innovation not only enhances the printing process by improving consistency and stencil longevity but also reduces chemical usage. Learn how Stentech’s solutions are redefining design boundaries and supporting the dynamic needs of the electronics manufacturing.
EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)
You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.
Hello, I'm Philip Stochen. I'm here at SMTA. Guadalajara 2024 and I am on the Stentec booth with Sergio. Sergio, thanks for talking to me. You're one of the founders of this business. Give me a little bit of background as to how the business was founded and what problems you were trying to solve.
Speaker 2Yeah, the business actually I mean initially was in 25 years ago Wow in Canada. That's where the company started. Then, through acquisitions, we grow the company in the States and when I joined the company was when we opened up the Mexico business. This was through an acquisition of InterLatin and this was in February 2020. Brent Sid and myself were the founders.
Speaker 1Were the founders at that stage. So you've been at this for four and a bit years. How's it gone? What's the progress like now?
Speaker 2this has been like a really good journey. Yeah, a learning process. Uh, why? Because we have been growing like really really fast, so we we need to learn how to manage the, the bra and really excited, like every year has been a challenge and we have been successful, especially with our mindset to provide a service to the industry, solutions, and that's kind of our slogan.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I think the idea of solving problems I was talking to Brent. You know over a third of the business is engineers in terms of your headcount. There's a real desire to understand what customers are struggling with and to fix that for them. That's part of Stentec's DNA, isn't it Exactly?
Speaker 2I can really tell you that one of our biggest benefits is several of our CAD engineers. They had previous work with the industry as process engineers, so they know the problem that the customers are facing and they speak exactly the same language. It's not only a designer that, hey, you just make this for me. And they will know oh, you will have problems here, you will have problems there. I recommend you this that's good.
Speaker 1That's the key, isn't it? Because you know when you think about it, the, the print process, is where many of the quality issues start, and if you can, if you can fix things at that level, that's that's really important. One of the products that I think is really interesting is the is the blueprint. You picked up some awards for it. First, the Circuits Assembly NPI award in the US, but most recently the Mexico Technology Award. Congratulations on that. Tell me a bit about the importance of that product to Stentec.
Speaker 2Yeah, definitely. In my 25 years of experience in this industry, I think this is a really breakthrough technology. I have seen the biggest impact since any other. Like electroform or you name it, nano coal this process is known as physical vapor deposition is really pushing the design boundaries to extreme levels Printing with consistency, which is mandatory now in the industry, and you can print with less usage of chemical to clean the stencil. You have the repeatability and it has been really successful in the industry.
Speaker 1I think what's really interesting is you're putting a thinner coating on, but you're getting much more longevity out of the product, so the product's lasting longer. It means you can much more longevity out of the product, so the product's lasting longer. It means you can get in the walls of the holes and you can support much higher aspect ratios. So it really is a game-changer, not just for the performance of the line, but also working with the designers to design products for smaller and smaller components.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's really important from the design stage that our team said, hey, this is a good candidate for our technology and not just recommending the technology for every single job. Maybe the ROI will not be there, so this is another benefit of working with that. We will not recommend something that is not needed unless we think. So far we have been pushing the limit to I don't know if you are familiar right the surface area ratio of 0.50, which typically EPUBs are 0.55. And now we're working a challenging project with a customer located in Chicago and the CM in Reynosa with 0.45 surface area ratio. We haven't done the testing yet, but we feel pretty confident that we will achieve it.
Speaker 1Yeah, last question we're at SMTA Guadalajara. How's the show been and how important is this particular show for you in the Mexican market?
Speaker 2I think this show has been one of the best in Mexico. We have a lot of people visiting us, a lot of people interested in the technology and not only interested. They have people interested in the technology and not only like interested. They have already heard about the technology, so they want to know more about it and I can see the synergy this already start. We have only three months, uh, with the manufacturing in guadalajara. Okay, initially we were manufacturing everything in Colorado.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2But now we have the equipment right here in Guadalajara.
Speaker 1Yeah, which is great. I mean, it's a great story when you're not only delivering technology in Mexico, but you're manufacturing it here as well. Sergio, congratulations on the product, Congratulations on the show and thanks for talking to me. Thank you.