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KIMCHUK INC Continues Juki Partnership to Strengthen Its Quality & Customer Focus
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Danbury, CT-based KIMCHUK INC began as a machine shop 51 years ago but sold all other divisions to focus on electronics in 2004.

Danbury, CT-based KIMCHUK INC began as a machine shop 51 years ago but sold all other divisions to focus on electronics in 2004.

In business for more than 50 years, KIMCHUK INC is a fast-paced, technologically advanced, high-product mix electronics firm specializing in electronic and electromechanical contract manufacturing services and engineering design. Committed to excellence, the company believes that its success depends on customer satisfaction, which is achieved by safely producing reliable products, delivered on time, at competitive prices. “Quality is a vital element in accomplishing this goal through employee involvement and continuous improvement at all levels of the organization,” said Steve Sconzo, Director of Manufacturing, at KIMCHUK INC.

KIMCHUK INC began itssuccessful entry into the industry in 1964 as a machine shop which was formed by William Kimbell and Nicholas Sachuk which created the name KimchuK, Inc. In 1971 James Marquis joined the corporation for the purposes of expanding KimchuK into the areas of product design development and contract manufacturing.  Mr. Marquis established an electronic division in the Danbury, Connecticut area while William Kimbell continued to manage the mechanical division in Stamford.

In 1975 KimchuK Electronic Division purchased its first building in Brookfield, Connecticut.  Additionally, William Kimbell decided to allow the precision machine shop to go into attrition while he expanded its facilities into the precision sheet metal area.  The precision sheet metal better suited the types of business that the electronic division was initiating. The growth rate of the company was quite significant during the latter years of the 1970s.

The division continued growing significantly and the through the 1980s and 1990s, the company continuously expanded and moved into larger facilities. The mechanical fabrication division also grew and was relocated into a larger facility. Also in the 1990s, the electronic division invested heavily into surface mount technology and automatic testing. It also instituted a formal continuous improvement process in which a full-time programming group was employed to improve the efficiencies of the manufacturing processes. In 2004, KIMCHUK INC sold the mechanical fabrication division, and continued the expansion of the electronic division.

KIMCHUK INC’s Director of Manufacturing Steve Sconzo said that the purchase of Juki equipment has helped the company increase throughput and placement accuracy

KIMCHUK INC’s Director of Manufacturing Steve Sconzo said that the purchase of Juki equipment has helped the company increase throughput and placement accuracy

Today, the Danbury, CT-based company continues to maintain a high-quality, customer-driven organization that offers a full range of services from engineering design and packaging to state-of-the-art manufacturing, testing and supply chain services to customers in the hi-rel industries of military/aerospace, medical, safety and security, energy, commercial and telecom. To remain competitive in these arenas, KIMCHUK INC must partner with companies much like itself: those who value quality, innovation, technological advancements and customers. It is these qualities that brought KIMCHUK INC and Juki Automation Systems together in 2008, with the first purchase of a KE-2080E mounter system. The sale was facilitated through Dave Wilson of Competitive Edge Solutions (CES), one of Juki’s manufacturers’ representatives.Recently, KIMCHUK INC purchased three more systems – two KE-2080E flexible component mounters and a FX-3 high speed chip shooter – all through CES because Sconzo and his team remain impressed with Wilson’s knowledge and level of customer interaction. In addition to the above shared-qualities, KIMCHUK also found that after evaluating numerous other machines, Juki was the best overall choice with the most affordable price point.

“The machines all have exceeded our expectations,” said Sconzo. “To date we have not had any parts we were unable to place.” He added that throughput, placement repeatability and reliability all rate very high. Additionally, the low cost of ownership, part traceability, feeder set-up verification, increased inventory counts, offer a vast improvement in placement accuracy and repeatability combine to provide numerous benefits. He also said that the company intends to purchase future systems from Juki.

KIMCHUK’s  two production lines, which includes   Juki systems KE-2080E mounter and FX-3 chip shooter.

KIMCHUK’s two production lines, which includes
Juki systems KE-2080E mounter and FX-3 chip shooter.

KIMCHUK INC runs two production lines: one is a Juki line and the other is a mixed-vendor line. However, the company’s ultimate goal is line commonality (to have the same systems on both lines). As a result, each of the KE-2080E high-speed modular flexible mounter systems were placed on a line. The purpose of the company’s purchase was to enhance fine-pitch placement capability for components such as ball grid arrays (BGAs), quad flat no leads (QFNs), etc. for each of the production lines. The next step was to complete the integration by replacing its outdated chip shooter equipment with Juki’s FX-3 high-speed chip shooter. Because Cogiscan’s track, trace and control software is integrated into Juki’s FX-3 system, KIMCHUCK also is able to take advantage of excellent software. Finally, the company recently purchased a sophisticated 3D solder paste inspection system.

Sconzo and his team next to Juki’s FX-3XL high-speed chip shooter. The Juki equipment has proved beneficial to KIMCHUK INC as well as its customers.

Sconzo and his team next to Juki’s FX-3XL high-speed chip shooter. The Juki equipment has proved beneficial to KIMCHUK INC as well as its customers.

Sconzo said that both the KE-2080E and FX-3 have helped advance KIMCHUK INC’s mission by increasing throughput, enabling the company to become more competitive in pricing as well as meeting its customers’ essential and critical needs for placement accuracy. Offline set-up verification also has drastically reduced line changeover times, enabling the company to achieve higher equipment utilization. Not only have they helped KIMCHUK, but the Juki systems have benefitted customers as well because they now receive increased traceability and ease of meeting J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610 class 3 requirements.

KIMCHUK INC differs from competition in that its number one concern is to help their customers advance to the top of their markets. To do this, the company has honed its mission over the past 50 years. Based on past and current success, these five main characteristics have withstood the test of time:

•Investment minded: KIMCHUK INC’s design and manufacturing equipment is already in place. Staff is in-house, trained and certified, which frees customers’ capital for R&D or high-priority items.

• Reduce material costs: Supply Chain Management combines customer requirements for volume component discounts through strategic supplier relationships.

• Shorten development cycles: KIMCHUK INC’s in-house design services enhance communication between engineering, manufacturing and test requirements. Projects move fluidly through design and production.

• Expertise: With more than 50+ years of experience in engineering design and contract manufacturing, the company has exposure to a wide variety of products and customer techniques that makes it flexible as well as highly competitive.

• Guaranteed quality: Quality is built into each customer’s product, from design review to manufacturing and test to complete warranty programs.

Services provided by KIMCHUK INC include complete product design services from concept to Production, reverse engineering, 3D in-house printing, DFM & DFT,  simple to complex printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, through-hole, surface mount, Heatsink to PCB bonding, RoHS/non-RoHS, turnkey/consignment, automated optical inspection (AOI),Box Build to Full system integration, cable/harness assembly, materials procurement, prototype qualification, depot repair, full test capabilities with in-circuit test (ICT)/flying probe, J-Tag, functional and burn-in, and order fulfillment.  Quality driven with certifications including ISO9001:2008, AS9100C, ISO13485:2003, ITAR & FDA registered, IPC-A-610, IPC-A-620, J-STD-001 Class III including space addendum with certified assemblers and trainers.

Customer service is also an important aspect to KIMCHUK INC’s relationship with Juki. Sconzo concluded, “Juki provides us with excellent customer service. Although rare, whenever an issue is encountered the customer service team is always very quick to respond. We are always back up and running quickly. We give Juki five stars for service.”

To find out more about KIMCHUK INC, visit   Web site: www.kimchuk.com. For more information about Competitive Edge Solutions LLC, visit  Web site: www.cesolutionsllc.com. To learn more about Juki Automation Systems and its comprehensive range of industry solutions, visit Web site: www.jukiamericas.com.

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