Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Jeffrey Blair, Director of Sales and Business Development at Sikama International:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
A: With over 40+ years of designing and producing reflow solder systems in Santa Barbara, California, Sikama International’s products have been providing reliable and trusted performance to electronics manufacturers worldwide. Our unique thermal technologies, close customer support, and unmatched quality offer significant benefits to our customers. Sikama is proud to design, develop, and manufacture our products at our headquarters, which allows us rapid innovation cycles, and offers hands-on product customization and on-site customer evaluation and product testing. We continue to grow and develop new technologies to keep pace with the ever-evolving electronics industry.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: We’re very excited to announce the availability of our EA UP1200, the first of its kind truly fluxless reflow oven utilizing electron attachment technology. This product provides significant benefits by offering safe and highly effective oxide removal without the use of formic acid or flux. We believe this product will be transformational to the advanced packaging industry.
Recommended: Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: Sikama International offers a wide variety of solder reflow systems, from our compact and highly effective tabletop 5C to our extremely capable UP1200 which offers flexible solutions for wafer bumping or other precision reflow applications. All of our products combine conductive and convective heating which provides highly efficient thermal energy transfer, all contained within the smallest footprint in the industry.
In addition, utilizing the first of its kind electron attachment technology and developed in partnership with AirProducts™, the EA UP1200 provides unmatched performance offering truly residue-free fluxless soldering for the most demanding applications. All of our products are SMEMA and SECS/GEM compatible to ensure compatibility with automated production lines.
Q: What can we expect from your company in the next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: Sikama is well-positioned to continue to keep pace with the rapid innovation being experienced by the electronics industry. We continue to invest in resources to support the additional demand and push the innovation envelope, as shown by our fluxless EA UP1200. We are also developing products that are tailored to downstream semiconductor processing and have partnered with robotic equipment manufacturers to enable turnkey solutions.
We are proud of the close partnerships we develop with our customers to allow a collaborative approach to meet their needs. Sikama is building out a customer experience center that will serve as the hub for on-site customer testing and demonstrations. We are also enabling our global network of distributors and sales representatives with tools to better equip them to be an extension of Sikama and provide the same level of customer service and support that our customers have grown accustomed to.
Sikama transitioned ownership in December 2020. The new president and CEO, Herb Weigel II, brings a vision of growth and innovation to the company, leveraging his success in guiding rapid growth at previous companies.
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Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: Sikama is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, where we design and build all of our products. Only a short walk from the Pacific and State Street, visiting customers are often surprised that a solder reflow company is so closely located to such a historic and famous coastal city. Also, the company’s name, Sikama, is the combination of the first two letters of each of the company’s founders, Sig, Kail, and Mariellen.
