Once again, Sunstone Circuits had another busy, record-setting year in 2012. Our 40th year in business brought many new product enhancements and releases, all focused on helping the design engineer save valuable time and money.
Just a few news items from Sunstone in 2012:
In January, we partnered with element14 to deliver bare printed circuit board (PCB) prototyping services to customers in the Americas through element14's Knode.
- In February, we officially celebrated 40 years of delivering high quality PCB prototypes to design engineers. Sunstone leads the industry with an on-time delivery rate of over 99%, and live on-site customer support that is available every day of the year (24/7/365) .
- In April, we announced completion of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) registration with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC).
- In September we started being offered as a PCB fabrication service through CadSoft EAGLE PCB Design Software. CadSoft Computer, part of the Premier Farnell group of companies, released an extended version of the PCB services ULP for EAGLE users.
- In October, we celebrated the completion of a newly built administration and office building and hosted an Open House. The festivities were held at our corporate
headquarters just south of Portland, Oregon.
- Also in October we kicked off the 'Share Your Story' campaign, which gave
design engineers a chance to share their PCB-related design successes online with their peers. Once a story was submitted, the design engineer was then able to send the link to family and friends, who then voted for the best project. In December, the votes were tallied, and three lucky winners each walked away with an Apple iPad, a customized iPad case, plus a $25 iTunes gift card.
- We invested in Lean Manufacturing training, and utilized skills acquired to
implement regular "Kaizen" events, companywide. This has enabled us to successfully
reduce waste by improving cycle time and eliminating overbuild on key products using "value stream mapping," "5S," and "S.M.A.R.T. goals." The additional time saved gave us the ability to offer enhanced services such as slots and cutouts, with no additional charge to our customers.
- As our growth continues, we added additional electrical test equipment, a state of the art image developer and etcher, an X-ray for the best possible registration on all multilayers, and improved in-house lab capabilities, all necessary to keep ahead of our customer requirements. We strive to be prepared not only for what our customers need now, but for what they will also require in the future.
To kick off 2013, we have just announced the offering of Slots and Cutouts on our Quickturn service, which offers a fast turnaround on high-quality, 2- to 6-layer printed circuit boards. With the new option of Slots and Cutouts on any Quickturn order, including multilayers, our customers will now have even greater confidence in the quality and consistency of their Quickturn PCBs. Design engineers will experience several added benefits from this new service:
- Reduced board design time
- A solution for oddly shaped components
- Great for custom box enclosures
- Enhanced creepage distance and enhanced high voltage control
As we enter our 41st year, we remain committed to meeting the needs of our customers by providing the best and most efficient PCB design experience from quote to delivery. We're dedicated to delivering innovative and reliable PCB solutions for our customers,
and we feel that 2013 will definitely be another very positive year with more record setting results, thanks to all of our loyal Sunstone customers and our loyal employees who make this possible.
