DEL MAR -- American manufacturing still has plenty of life in it, judging from the activity at the Del Mar Electronics show last week.
Representatives from all over California crowded into about 600 exhibit booths -- a near-sellout -- at the Fairgrounds Wednesday and Thursday to show off their company's products and services.
Conversations with several of these companies on Wednesday yielded a much different picture from the typical mid-20th century large manufacturer with thousands of employees on assembly lines. These were mostly small businesses, some family-owned.
Nimbleness, in a word, is how these companies compete with foreign manufacturers. They offer quicker service and a willingness to tackle difficult projects, and take the time to cultivate close ties to their customers.
You order it, they make it
Jeremy Roswell, an engineer at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, said he found that kind of responsiveness from Forecast3D in Carlsbad. The company makes three-dimensional plastic and metal prototypes as well as finished products.
"We build underwater acoustic arrays, and what we were looking for was a polyurethane holder for a specific instrument," Roswell said. "They can make anything out of almost any kind of plastic. You request it and they'll pour it for you."
"These are great products," he said. "The variety is just amazing."
Roswell was interviewed at Forecast3D's booth, where he had stopped for a face-to-face chat with Todd Chezum, Forecast3D's business development representative.
Chezum said the company's capabilities go from "prototypes to production."
"Jeremy would come to me with a 3D CAD (computer-aided design) file, I take his file, and I build it," Chezum said. "I make his file a tangible part."
Temecula-based Tamura Corp. of America does its manufacturing at a maquiladora in Tijuana.
Craig Simpson, a field sales representative for Tamura, said the company moved to Southwest Riverside County from Long Beach about 15 years ago, in part for the lower price of land, and partly for more convenient maquiladora access.
"It's actually easier to get there from Temecula than it is from Long Beach," Simpson said. The company has nearly 40 employees, he said.
Tamura is the American subsidiary of Tamura Corp., based in Japan.
Turnaround specialist
Hughes Circuits of San Marcos makes all kinds of printed circuit boards. These boards provide the connections between individual electronic components, such as capacitors, memory chips or resistors.
From cell phones to vending machines, nearly every electronic device has a circuit board inside, said Jerry Hughes, the company president, speaking behind an array of variously colored boards. The 10-year-old company, which employs about 75 people, does circuit board design, layout, manufacture and assembly in San Marcos.
"I've been making printed circuit boards since -- I hate to say it -- 1962," Hughes said. "So I grew up in the industry, and decided to open my own company."
Steve Hughes, son of Jerry Hughes and vice president of the assembly division, staffed the booth with his father.
Customers include "every kind" of company, Jerry Hughes said, such as aerospace, biomedical and defense companies. Hughes Circuits can manufacture to "milspec," or military specifications.
"We're local, and we can provide quick turnaround," Hughes said. "Not everybody needs mass manufacturing where it's cost-competitive to go offshore.
"We do the type of printed circuit boards that most people don't want to do, such as boards that are very thick," he said. "We do boards with heavy copper substrates; and with Teflon on one side and FR4 (a flame retardant) on the other side."
Top notch
Hughes customer David Dirdo, chief technology officer of Pacific Microwave Research in Vista, said he was impressed with the quality of their work.
"They're top-notch guys," Dirdo said. Pacific Microwave buys Hughes' boards for RF (radio frequency) circuits, standard digital components, and many other types of circuitry.
Oceanside's Santourian Manufacturing Inc., another family-owned company, specializes in sheet metal fabrication.
"We're a precision sheet metal machining and welding assembly house," said office manager Kristen Henley. The 28-year-old company has 25 employees. Founded in San Marcos, it has been in Oceanside for the last 12 years.
Aerospace and health companies are major customers, as well as "whatever comes through the door," Henley said. "We try to do a little of everything."
Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at 760-739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com. Read his blogs at bizblogs.nctimes.com.
