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1995
1) WHEN: Started with fasteners in 1974.
2) WHERE: Started at home in garage.
3) HOW: I bought a drill press, spray mist cooler and a small compressor on credit cards. I talked with Randy Colwell, Bob Huke, Lou Boyd and Lee Vaughn about what I was doing and received immediate assistance on procuring screws and technical information/education on fasteners.
4.) WHY: Vented screws were being used in semiconductor processing equipment. These parts were not available commercially, so each company was making their own. Working as a design engineer in this industry, I started my part-time business to earn extra money for a family vacation. It started to grow and I got laid off, so it became a family business.
5) WHAT EVENTS WERE HAPPENING: My career started in 1955 doing equipment design for the Dew Line Project. I moved to California from Wisconsin in 1960, where I went to work for Varian Associates building equipment for NASA to accomplish John Kennedy's edict of having a man on the moon before Russia. During this period, many new products evolved and vacuum became a widely used tool in the semiconductor evolution.
6) GROWTH: As the business grew, the Silicon Valley became too small for the growing demand for computer chips. During this period, computers became more and more sophisticated (speed and power), which required better and better components for use in the vacuum chamber. By saying "better", I mean relative to the environment needed for semiconductors.
7) During this period, I was the manufacturing, marketing and distribution for vacuum fasteners. Companies who needed my product did not know I existed and distributors did not know what vacuum engineers were talking about. Steve Brachini suggested I join the Western Fastener Distributor's Association, got us the invitation to join, and we did.
8) PEOPLE: Other people from the fastener industry who have influenced U-C over the years are Larry McBride, Jim and Bobbie Barnhill, Brian and Charlene Sandberg, Bill and Irene Hays, Ron and Cindy Olander and several others.
9) CHANGES IN BUSINESS: The important thing about the semiconductor business is that a small percentage of parts are critical items which go in a cleanroom. This is the niche business that U-C functions in. The cleanrooms require many different items that must be ultra clean. Precision cleaning companies are all over the world for distributors to use as a subcontractor.
The important thing to understand is what Class 100 cleaning is and why it is necessary; that is where U-C can be of help to WAFD. We have had one plant tour for WAFD for educational purposes, and we have an open invitation for any member to come and tour our plant for knowledge anytime, so that you can offer clean parts in your area of the country as needed. The semiconductor industry will be very large in the near future, and anything we can do to help you meet the demands for components, we will try to do. |
