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Superconductive Components, Inc. (SCCI) |
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CEOCFO Current
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This is a printer friendly page! Superconductive Components, Inc.,
originally founded to do research, is moving into the manufacturing arena with a new
facility in Columbus, Ohio for the company's administrative and manufacturing operations BIO: SCI maintains an in-house powder manufacturing
facility to accommodate advanced ceramic and metal oxide materials. Their technical staff
employs several proprietary wet and dry chemistries, reactive processing, and other
techniques in order to tailor powders for optimal target performance. SCI manufactures
Superconducting and Non-Superconducting Ceramic targets for use in Sputtering and Laser
Ablation systems. They have manufactured targets up to 12" diameter and typically
.125" or .25" thick, however, they are happy to review custom shapes and
compositions and comment on the possibility of manufacturing. SCI also offers large domain
YBCO Levitators™ manufactured using melt processing techniques. Machining techniques
have been developed that enable the Levitators™ to be machined to desired shapes
without dramatically deteriorating their properties. SCI Engineered Materials is pleased to offer a wide
range of single crystal substrates for making high quality thin films. These substrates
have been sold to customers all over the globe and have gained SCI a reputation for fine
quality. SCI also offers a line of educational products for both student and mentor.
Exploring the phenomena of Superconductivity is made easy using its family of kits
demonstrating both the Meissner and Flux Trapping effects. CEOCFOinterviews: Mr.
Rooney, what attracted you to Superconductive Components, Inc., and what changes did you
orchestrate? Mr. Rooney: “I was attracted to the company because it has some very unique technologies and some real potential growth opportunities. We somewhat changed the corporate culture of the company. It was a researched based company and we changed it in a way to align ourselves to a manufacturing mentality. We have become much more market driven.” CEOCFOinterviews: Will you tell us about your basic products and services and what portion of your business each makes up? Mr. Rooney: “We produce materials for three major areas. The first part, which is about 60% of our business, is photonics and deals with the transmitting of light. The second largest area, which is about 30% of our business, would be high-temperature superconducting materials. The third area is in emerging technology, which are materials for Lithium Thin Film batteries. That makes up about 5% of our business with miscellaneous making up the remaining 5%. We see the Lithium Thin Film battery portion of the business dramatically increasing in the next three to four years.” CEOCFOinterviews: What are you producing and selling and is there a lot of competition? Mr. Rooney: “We make ceramic and metal targets, which are generally rectangular or cylindrical shapes that go into physical VAPOR deposition equipment. The physical vapor deposition process basically knocks an atom at a time off the target and coats a substrate. All eyeglasses are coated that way and integrated chips are also made that way, as well as windows that you see on high-rises. It is a well-known technology for people that are in the business, but most of the people that just use the products do not have any idea how they are made. There is a lot of competition in the industry, particularly the metals area. We do some metals and some alloys, but we are geared more toward the ceramic end of it, where there is not quite as much competition. We are very good at some of the multi-component materials that are needed in the more advanced products of today.” CEOCFOinterviews: You are moving to a larger facility, please tell us more! Mr. Rooney: “Our new facility is a little larger, but its real benefit is that we can set up manufacturing lines as opposed to where we currently are, which is a number of very small rooms that do not lend themselves toward manufacturing but were geared more toward research. The company was founded to do research on superconducting materials, and there has been a lot of research done over the years. We continue to do some and we will continue to do research in the future, but we are more into the manufacturing end of things now.” CEOCFOinterviews: How are you doing in terms of equipment, and are there expenditures that you need to make to go forward with your plans? Mr. Rooney: “There will be quite a few expenditures as we move forward. Recently, we raised about $600,000 dollars in cash from current investors, and $300,000 dollars of that was earmarked towards relocating to the new facility. We are also looking to raise additional capital, which would go toward manufacturing equipment to produce the Lithium Thin Film battery targets.” CEOCFOinterviews: Will you tell us a little about the Department of Energy contract? Mr. Rooney: “The Department of Energy contract is a Phase II SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research), so it is an ongoing development to commercialize superconducting materials. One of our subcontractors is OXFORD Superconducting Technology, and the purpose is to increase that energy density in the wires they are producing for either high-energy physics magnets or MRI applications.” CEOCFOinterviews: You have clients in forty different countries; how do you reach them? Mr. Rooney: “We have some agents and reps overseas, and a lot of people find us through the internet. We have recently hired a consultant to help us with the direct selling and we have a number of reps in the United States.” CEOCFOinterviews: What is the financial condition of the company today? Mr. Rooney: “Last year we were cash flow neutral for the year. This year, we have not been doing as well, so the first two quarters of this year have been rough. That is partly why we brought in the marketing consultant. We are already seeing some benefit from that, and orders are coming in. The person we brought in has 20 years experience in the physical vapor deposition industry, so he knows a lot of customers and brings credibility to the company very quickly. It is all a matter of getting more business, larger orders from current customers and reaching new people.” CEOCFOinterviews: Are there continuing new uses for what you do? Mr. Rooney: “There is constant innovation going on in the area of photonics. The companies are looking for more ways to focus light, split the wave-lengths, and uses different color portions of the light waves. There is an array of things constantly occurring in that area. We often are requested by companies to produce a new type of material, and we will either do that under contract or on a best effort basis with a company, to produce something unique.” CEOCFOinterviews: Do you need to keep an inventory, or do you manufacture strictly as it is ordered? Mr. Rooney: “We have an inventory of materials that turns regularly. There is the situation where we do not inventory products of certain qualities because there is not enough demand.” CEOCFOinterviews: Why should potential investors be interested, and what should they know about the company that they might not realize when they first look? Mr. Rooney: “What potential investors may not know is that the company has realigned itself toward manufacturing. We believe that the Lithium Thin Film battery area is an area that is going to take off rapidly in the next year to eighteen months, so applications like active RFID tags would be in potential use because these batteries are very small and discreet. Power supplies, battery on a chip, would be another application. With only the required chips sets up and running, you would be able to manage your energy needs by turning chips on and off as needed. Smart cards are another area where these batteries have real potential. On the heels of that, we believe that superconducting materials are finally beginning to take hold and will become a real business within the next three to five years.” CEOCFOinterviews: As CEO, how do you spend your time and where do you focus? Mr. Rooney: “A certain portion of my time is spent on fund-raising, a certain portion is spent on meeting with customers, and in the case of reorganizing the company, I spend a lot of time getting the right people in the right chairs.” CEOCFOinterviews: What do you have to show customers to encourage them to order from you? Mr. Rooney: “In the more traditional businesses right now, everyone is becoming very price sensitive. That is a big key issue in the market today. Quality and delivery is still very important to everyone, but price is an immediate factor in all decision making. With some of the developing products, if you will, price is not the biggest factor today, but it is certainly a factor we are looking at going into the future. Our plan is to take cost out as demand increases.” disclaimers |
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