Asymtek Celebrates its 25th Anniversary

Asymtek, a Nordson company (Nasdaq:NDSN) and leader in dispensing, coating, and jetting technologies, announces the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. Established in 1983, Asymtek has become a leader in providing automated precision fluid dispensing and conformal coating systems worldwide. Asymtek's systems are known for technology leadership in dispensing, closed-loop process controls, and patented processes in jetting and coating. Customers include the leaders in semiconductor packaging and printed circuit board assemblers in a wide range of industries. The company celebrated the anniversary on June 6, 2008 at its all-employee meeting.

Asymtek was founded by Robert Ciardella, Alec Babiarz, and Philip Maiorca, who worked together at Hewlett-Packard in research and development of computer peripheral products, including ink jet printers. They identified what is now called "benchtop automation" and aimed their efforts at the electronic assembly and semiconductor packaging markets. Their first benchtop motion system was sold in 1984. A year later a dispense head was added and the first automated dispenser was created. A major breakthrough came in 1992 when Asymtek released its patented jetting technology. Jetting has now become the standard in dispensing and has enabled many of the microelectronics and emerging technologies we have today.

Nordson Corporation acquired Asymtek in 1996, after it had been Asymtek's customer for over nine years. "The partnership effectively brought together the two companies' dispensing process knowledge and technology to offer a wider range of production solutions," explained John Byers, Asymtek's president.

Over the years, Asymtek earned many industry awards that recognize its dispensing innovations and customer service. These include Intel's Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement Awards (5 consecutive years), Circuits Assembly's Service Excellence Awards (5 consecutive years), SMT and SMT China's Vision Awards (2 consecutive years), Global Technology Awards from Global SMT & Packaging magazine (3 consecutive years), Advanced Packaging Awards, EM Asia's Innovation award, Semiconductor International's Editors' Choice Awards for Best Product (two consecutive years), EP&P's Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing Awards, and the Milton Kiver Award. (For a complete list, see: http://www.asymtek.com/news/awards.htm).

Asymtek still manufactures its products in the United States and stays competitive by adopting lean concepts for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing departments, using common platforms and software, encouraging employee ideas, and by focusing on technology and total cost-of-ownership rather than compromising product or service quality. Asymtek is also known as a great place to work, due in part to its strong, defined company values that permeate the organization. Seven employees have been with the company for 20 years or more, and over 70 employees have worked at Asymtek for more than ten years.

Byers believes that in the next 10 to 25 years Asymtek will continue its growth in markets like solar and fuel cells and develop increasingly different types of products than its core base of SMT and packaging electronics. "Asymtek will still be investing in technology and worldwide intellectual property far into the future," he stated. Babiarz sees a demand for even faster dispensing in increasingly smaller amounts as end products need smaller, more precise amounts of fluid dispensed. He also believes that Asymtek will grow with the materials industry. "Technology and innovation will continue to drive Asymtek," said Babiarz, now Asymtek's president of new business development. "With the support and global infrastructure of Nordson, we look forward to the next 25 years."