The SMT capital equipment market is currently soft as few electronics manufacturers are expanding their production capacity. The same manufacturers, however, are focused on reducing their production cost, as well as improving quality, documentation or traceability. KIC has been expanding its product range of thermal process tools to accommodate growing demand in this area. Additionally, the company has recently entered the fast growing solar cell manufacturing industry with the SunKIC Profiler and Spectrum Process Optimization software.
This move to a larger, state-of-the-art facility in the midst of an economic downturn is a tribute to KIC, its customer service and the innovative product ranges that it offers.
�Our new facility is larger and provides a layout that is more suitable for our needs in production as well as R&D,� says David Nason, Operations Manager at KIC.
KIC's new worldwide headquarters will house the majority of the company's production and R&D, as well as administrative services. In order to be central to its customer base, however, KIC also has built up R&D, sales and customer support centers over the past several years in several key international locations such as Europe, China (three separate facilities) and Singapore, in addition to its R&D facility in Oregon.
In January 2009, KIC's world headquarters will be located at 16120 West Bernardo Dr., San Diego, CA 92127.
Based in San Diego, KIC is the industry leader in automated thermal management tools and systems for reflow, wave, cure and semiconductor thermal processes. The company pioneered the development of oven profilers and process development tools, and then worked to create the next generation of thermal systems to help manufacturers optimize and monitor thermal processes.
In addition to KIC Explorer, products include the KIC 24/7 continuous monitoring system, the KIC Vision automatic profiling system and more. With the introduction of cutting edge tools, the company continues to stay on the leading edge of process optimization and real-time thermal management systems, and has won numerous industry awards.