Headquartered in Upstate New York, with regional sites stationed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, Precision Valve & Automation (PVA) is a global supplier of conformal coating systems, innovative fluid dispensing solutions and precision valve technology. PVA is globally recognized as an industry leader in fluid dispensing and spray systems for adhesives, sealants and coatings. The company is a specialty manufacturer of automated and manual dispensing equipment, spray coating equipment, pumps and valves. Its selective conformal coating systems combine closed-loop process control, high levels of accuracy and repeatability for use in moderate to high-volume manufacturing environments. We recently spoke with CEO Anthony Hynes to find out what is new with the company and how it plans to keep its competitive edge throughout 2018 and beyond.
Anthony, we’ve read that you founded PVA 1992. What was your reason for starting the company? Do you feel that the company’s mission has stayed the same or has it changed over the past two and a half decades?
I saw a need in the market for people that were taking dispensing technology and marrying it with factory automation. That was a separate task and was not producing good results for customers. So the market niche was for someone to take innovative dispensing technology, marry it with factory automation, and provide it as a system that could be marketed and easily serviced over time. If you read the business plan that I wrote before starting PVA, that is exactly who we are now. The mission has stayed the same.
Can you tell us more about PVA’s latest dispensing and coating technology, such as the SJ100 Selective Conformal Coating Jet, and the VPX-2KS two-component spray valve? What type of need did you see in the industry that led to their development?
PVA is in our most aggressive product development campaign since I first started designing our dispensing valves. We are aggressively attacking application technology, and the SJ100 and PCS150 are two great examples. The SJ100 is the culmination of three years of development to bring a true non-contact jetting process to our core selective coating business. The SJ100 produces deposits down to 50 nanoliters at up to 100 deposits per second. The SJ100 meets increased demand from our customers to coat smaller devices and work around tighter keep out areas. There are other jets on the market, sure, but they are often too expensive for our customers to consider in all but the most demanding projects. The SJ100 is 60 percent lower in cost than alternative jetting solutions. This solution brings jetting to a wider range of customers that can benefit from the speed and accuracy.
The VPX-2KS has had great traction in the market thus far and is a process built around demand for two-component conformal coatings. The combination of high functional properties, improved adhesion and rapid cure times have made 2K conformal coatings a strong consideration for formulators and end users alike. The VPX-2KS satisfies the demand to have programmable metering of two component materials at the valve to avoid cross contamination and reduce mixed volume of fast reacting chemistries. The servo-controlled progressive cavity metering process provides accurate, continuous and pulse-free operation prior to atomization to produce a fine conical-shaped spray pattern.
For those unfamiliar with your technologies, can you provide a brief overview of PVA’s other products, including coating systems, fluid dispensing solutions and precision valves?
Basically, we use robotics to glue things together. That’s what we do. With that comes all of the broad dispensing devices you need to develop to satisfy a countless variety of different chemistries and how your customers wish to process them. If you mix chemistry and process together, you have millions of possible dispensing combinations. We need to continuously innovate new products that meet changing demand. Over time, we’ve been able to develop an enormous product line of devices and ways to deploy them.
As you’ve explained, PVA equipment can be used for a diverse array of applications. What industries or sectors do you hope to see expansion in, and how can they benefit from your technology?
Industrial dispensing still has plenty of room for expansion in the automotive industry, autonomous vehicles, consumer products, telecommunications, defense and more. The opportunities are endless. All these markets can benefit from a process that is highly efficient, accurate and increases quality. Beyond the technology, our customers are buying our expertise. Our experience in how to apply chemistries is just as valuable as the technology, if not more so. Superior technology mated with a poor process due to lack of application expertise doesn’t benefit anyone.
One of your engineers, Andrew Nally, invented a process that is used to reduce reflection and glare on outdoor electronic displays, which was recently awarded a patent. How will this affect PVA and what sort of future do you see for the technology?
We’ve been working in the LOCA (Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive) bonding market for quite a long time. We have placed a tremendous amount of engineering and application resources into developing our atmospheric bonding process over the past five years. Displays are everywhere. This market is growing rapidly and globally. In many cases, manufacturers requiring display technology are already PVA customers for conformal coating or dispensing processes. This process fits our market very well. The equipment is among the most complex we manufacture with a large volume of custom part handling equipment required as part of the process. We are already seeing this market positively impact growth of both our top and bottom lines.
From what we’ve heard, PVA puts the customer first, especially in terms of customization, service and flexibility. Can you share more about this with us, and how it has helped strengthen PVA?
I think what we do is put people first. That means our customers and our own employees. Customization, service and flexibility – we do it because it’s what people want. It’s the way to solve their problems. Give people what they want, give it to them at a good value, and they’ll keep coming back.
Anthony, you have been a part of the electronics assembly industry for many years. What changes are you now observing in the industry? How do these changes impact the way that PVA does business?
The biggest change I’ve seen over the years is the advent of the global economy. When I started PVA, sure there were machines in Mexico making parts coming back to the United States, and production in Europe and Asia supporting nearby countries, but it’s nothing like what we see now. Parts can literally be manufactured anywhere and moved around the globe to be put into sub-assemblies and finished products. If you think about it, that’s been a daunting task for us to accommodate as we grow. We need to be able to support our equipment in every corner of the world. That’s a big change from where we first started.
In addition to providing innovative conformal coating, fluid dispensing and valve technologies, we understand that PVA values its community as much as its customers. Can you tell us a little about the Fast Break Fund and Halfmoon Works? Why are these programs important to you?
As part of the Fast Break Fund, the company contributes monies and resources to developing educational programs that provide children with the resources necessary to succeed academically and athletically. The program provides sports summer camp scholarships to children from families with low incomes and sports clinics to children with developmental disabilities. Halfmoon Works evolved from the Fast Break Fund. Many of the Fast Break children have grown up and are young adults facing the challenges of our complex world. Taking personal development beyond sports, Halfmoon Works provides a fully equipped 3,000 sq ft facility and woodworking workshops to these and other young adults with special needs, allowing them to create and sell quality wood products.
The reason there is a Fast Break Fund is because I was underprivileged as a child. I took advantage of opportunities given to me by other people to go to summer camps and to do other activities. I’ve been working with people with special needs since I was 12 years old. It’s been a constant part of my life, it’s just something I’ve always done. It’s the reason I went to college to be a social worker. I went from social work to robots.
What do you want the industry to know most about PVA?
The quality of the employees and the environment we have here and how it leads to a successful outcome for all involved.