Luc Godefroid, Director of Sales, Henkel Electronics

Over the past year, DEK has continued our successful track record of technology leadership, launching several new products while also realizing revenue and market share gains, most significantly in solar. It's been an expansion year for DEK, as we increased manufacturing capacity in our United Kingdom and China facilities.  With this expansion has also come operational progress, improving productivity and support for our customers in many ways, not the least of which is faster delivery times.

The current macro-economic and political climate will no doubt influence consumer behavior and investment in our industries in 2012. There is much uncertainty about the global markets as we move into next year, but DEK is well-positioned to manage the cyclical nature of both the alternative energy and electronics assembly sectors.

Leveraging DEK's diversity -- we have three business units - and the strength of our non-capital equipment business, I'm optimistic about our performance in 2012.DEK will continue to focus on our core competency -- print process expertise. 

Key market segments of surface mount technology, semiconductor wafer-level packaging, LED lighting and photovoltaic cell metallization are all areas where high accuracy, high volume printing are essential to technology advancement.

As our customers require higher throughput in tandem with highly miniaturized devices, DEK is working on stencil and squeegee technology that will help stretch the physical limit of traditional stencil printing. In fact, over the past year, we've launched several new technologies that are enabling faster, more efficient processes in the age of miniaturization.

Two such examples are DEK's ProActiv system that allows manufacturers to break past traditional area ratio rules and achieve superior paste transfer efficiency; and, Nano-ProTek, a revolutionary wipe-on stencil coating that helps keep paste out of the stencil web, thereby reducing defects and raising the stability of the process.

We haven't stopped there, though. In Q1 2012, DEK will introduce yet another technology breakthrough - stay tuned! We are also investing in our most valuable asset -- our people. Next year will see continued resource dedicated to Lean Six Sigma processes, sustainability initiatives and talent development within DEK.

While there is a general sense of caution in the market as we move into2012, DEK is approaching next year like any other: we will continue to drive printing advancement in all of the sectors we serve and in new areas where superior printing techniques are required. We challenge our customers to Expect More and DEK's great people around the world are inspired to deliver innovative solutions!