Gordon Bourns, CEO of the company, says, “When my parents, Marlan and Rosemary Bourns, began working in their tiny garage in 1947, they could not have envisioned that their products would someday be found in automobiles, cellular telephones, notebook computers, and implanted x-ray sensors for cancer treatment. However, they succeeded by tackling some of the most challenging sensor and electronic component requirements of their day.”
He added, “After more than 65 years in business, Bourns continues to grow because of the company’s continued commitment to providing value for our customers. Bourns invests in innovative new products through development within Bourns and through strategic acquisition of companies or product lines.”
Continuing, Gordon elaborates, “I believe the electronic components of the future will be increasingly more complex through the integration of passive and active functions to provide complete subsystem solutions. With our global manufacturing and customer support capabilities, Bourns is uniquely positioned to tackle your demanding requirements and provide you the value you expect from a trusted business partner.
Today, Bourns is a worldwide company with sales and distributor locations in every hemisphere. While its worldwide headquarters is US based, in Riverside, California, the company has manufacturing and R&D facilities strategically positioned throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. All Bourns manufacturing facilities are ISO9001 certified, and the company has received ‘Supplier of the Year’ and ‘Preferred Supplier’ accolades from such companies as Bosch, Arrow, GM, Rockwell Collins, AT&T, and Lockheed Martin.
|
Neal Christensen and Eric Henderson, long-term employees of the company, were available for the interview. The two work in and manage the machine shop. Neal says, “Most people don’t work with carbide when they are machining parts. We do here at Bourns. And though many of our machines have stood the test of time (some being more than 20 years of age), the team at Bourns takes superior care of our machines, and they last longer than most others companies could expect.”
Eric says, “Last year, it was time to evaluate the purchase of a new EDM machine. We had a few different builders’ older machines in house, so we had some background on what to expect, and we knew what was important to our business.”
Neal added, ”The cost of the EDM machine, its technical capabilities (e.g. ability to thread, and to perform a fine finish), as well as support after the sale were key factors in our decision-making.” (For those of you unfamiliar with Logan, it is approximately 80 miles from Salt Lake City, and the trip during the winter months can be difficult — therefore local support was key to the Bourns team).
|
In fact, Neal and Eric found that for one job, where it used to take 160 hours (4 weeks), because they had to manually thread each hole, the new Mitsubishi reduced the time to run the job to 70 hours, and once set-up is done, most of the job is run unattended.
“We have been very pleased with Smith Machinery and our Mitsubishi MV 1200-R EDM”, Neal says. “We like that the MV series features new improvements in machine construction, auto-threading, internal machine communication, power supply technology and operating costs, and that it also includes a new, non-contact Cylindrical Drive System.”
Eric says, “Prior to purchasing the Mitsubishi MV1200-R, our lead time to our internal customers was about 4 weeks – and today we are turning products around in 3 days.”
The fact that Smith Machinery has served the industry through four generations of the Smith Family -- supporting manufactures and job shops in Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, -- helped Bourns select Smith Machinery for their machine tool supplier.
|