Sono-Tek Corporation was incorporated in New York on March 21, 1975 for the
purpose of engaging in the development, manufacture and sale of ultrasonic liquid
atomizing nozzles. Ultrasonic nozzle systems atomize low to medium viscosity
liquids by converting electrical energy into mechanical motion in the form of
high frequency ultrasonic vibrations that break liquids into minute drops that
can be applied to surfaces at low velocity. The principal advantage of these
nozzle systems is that they use much less liquid than competitive nozzle systems
to attain the required coatings on solar cells, fuel cells, glass, textiles,
food and food packaging, circuit boards, medical devices and many other coating
applications. This advantage translates into lower costs for materials, less
costly liquid consumption, less energy required for subsequent drying operations
and less release into the environment of spray that would typically bounce back
and scatter while using competitive nozzle systems. These factors are increasingly
important to customers at a time of rising commodity and energy costs and supply
limitations.
We use our core technology – ultrasonic spray coating – to provide
customized coating solutions to a wide range of manufacturing companies, enabling
them to reduce their product costs and to develop new products with superior
features and quality. Presently, our customers are in six major industries:
electronics, advanced energy (solar and fuel cells), medical device, glass,
textiles and foods. Our diversified group of customers provides the base for
both financial stability and business growth opportunities.
In addition, our systems are widely used by leading high tech companies and
research institutions, as well as by governmental, defense, energy and health
agencies around the world.
Markets
Our growth and diversification program over the past several years has positioned
us to offer a unique and superior family of customized products to the six major
industries that we serve. All of these systems are based on our core technology
of ultrasonic spray coating. Many of these systems have been commercially proven
in 24/7 working schedules, under harsh and challenging manufacturing environments,
where they provide value in a continuous and reliable fashion.
Electronics Industry.
We serve this industry primarily in two sectors; Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
manufacturing and Semiconductor manufacturing.
We provide manufacturers of PCBs with state-of-the-art solder fluxers. Spray
fluxers are used in the manufacturing process of PCBs to apply flux, which removes
oxidation and prepares the PCB for the process of soldering components onto
it.
Our ultrasonic spray fluxers reduce the amount of fluxing chemical needed, enhance
the quality of the boards, and provide our customers with a better product at
reduced costs of operations, when compared with conventional foam fluxers and
pressure assisted fluxers.
We are recognized as a standard setter in the industry and our systems are incorporated
by various original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in their manufacturing lines
for making electronic printed circuit boards. Some examples of products that
we market to the electronics industry include: SonoFlux 2000F, SelectaFlux,
SonoFlux EZ and SonoFlux Servo.
Pursuant to an exclusive distribution agreement with EVS International Ltd (“EVS”)
for the territories of the United States and Canada, we offer the EVS solder
recovery system to our PCB customer base.
We also have a significant established customer base in the semi-conductor industry.
The semi-conductor industry utilizes our ultrasonic atomizing nozzles and XYZ
coating platforms for the application and deposition of photo-resist onto semiconductor
wafers. Certain of our semi-conductor manufacturing industry customers engaged
in the production of micro-electro-mechanical systems, “MEMS”, have
proven the ability of our technology to apply micron thick coatings to these
complex wafers.
Advanced Energy Industry.
Manufacturers of solar cells and fuel cells share two major technical and business
challenges: enhancing the energy efficiency of their products and manufacturing
their products in a cost effective way. Extremely uniform, thin layer coatings
are at the heart of the solution for these advanced energy systems’ challenges.
Our precision coating systems provide superior surface uniformity and density,
which are directly related to enhanced energy efficiency. Our systems also afford
our energy industry clients with the capabilities of saving up to 80% of the
expensive catalysts and nano-materials used in these manufacturing processes.
Some examples of our products marketed to the advanced energy industry include:
ExactaCoat FC & SC, FlexiCoat FC & SC, and SonoFlow Fusion.
Medical Device Industry.
Our ultrasonic coating technology is used by medical device manufacturers worldwide.
The leading applications for this industry are coating of arterial stents with
precise and uniform micronic layers of polymers and drugs; coating of various
implantable devices with lubricous materials and coating of blood collection
tubes with anti-coagulants. These applications are typically performed under
strict regulatory supervision of governmental agencies in different countries,
and the continuing demand for our systems from these customers is indicative
of the high quality performance that our systems provide these customers. Some
examples of our products marketed to the medical device industry include: MediCoat
I; Medicoat II; Medicoat PSI; AccuMist; MicroMist; Balloon Catheter Coater.
Glass Industry.
The manufacture of float glass occurs under extremely harsh conditions of elevated
temperatures. Our ultrasonic coating technology provides this manufacturing
process with the means to precisely and uniformly apply anti-stain, and other
specialty chemical agents, on the hot glass. Our customers benefit from an improved
quality product, enhanced productivity and significantly reduced expenditures
on annual maintenance, often resulting in a return on investment of less than
one year. Based on this equipment’s recent successful performance, our
systems are now specified by many global glass manufacturers as their equipment
of choice.
The equipment we offer to the glass industry is the WideTrack – wide area
modular coating system.
Textiles Industry.
The textiles industry is rapidly expanding to introduce high performance value
adding coatings onto fabrics, such as anti-microbial, anti-stain, flame retardant
and moisture barriers. The current manufacturing process for applying these
expensive coatings has significant waste of material, energy and water. We are
working with this industry to incorporate our ultrasonic technology; often in
combination with unique pre and post treatments of the coating materials, to
reduce the effective material usage by as much as 90%.
We have demonstrated to several leading textile manufacturers the technical
advantages and financial benefits of our WideTrack coating system for their
specific operations, and we are hopeful that these manufacturers will prioritize
the WideTrack in their future capital investment budgets.
Food Industry.
The food industry is evolving in response to greater demands for reduction of
food borne illnesses. We have successfully introduced an anti-microbial coating
system for sliced packaged meats, and we are focusing efforts on those global
food companies who will need this technology to meet the new demands. We have
also introduced our systems to other segments of the food industry for the coating
of flavors, ingredients and other additives of interest. Most of our food industry
equipment is designed on the WideTrack platform.
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