Company History
The late Dr. Edward Funk, Sc.D., and his late wife Ingeborg founded Superconductive Components, Inc., in 1987. Dr. Funk, formerly a Professor of Metallurgy at The Ohio State University and a successful entrepreneur, envisioned significant market potential for the newly discovered High Temperature Superconductivity (HTS) material YBCO (Tc of 90° K).
Superconductive Components Inc. became a publicly held company and currently trades under the symbol SCIA. The stock continues to trade under this symbol on the OTCQB exchange.
Superconductive Components Inc. opened a subdivision, Target Materials Inc. (TMI), in 1991 to supply the increasing worldwide demand for sputtering and laser ablation targets. TMI became a full service manufacturer of high performance thin film materials, providing a wide selection of metals, ceramics, and alloys for sputtering targets, evaporation sources, and other PVD applications. TMI served the R&D as well as the Industrial and Decorative Coating markets. During this time, TMI began to manufacture targets for the Photovoltaic, Flat Panel Display, and Semiconductor industries.
The Company’s two divisions, Superconductive Components Inc. and Target Materials Inc., were merged. The Company began to manufacture complex ceramic, metal, and alloy products for the thin film battery, photovoltaic, media storage, flat panel display, semiconductor, electronic, and photonic industries. This is also when we began to manufacture Ruthenium & TCOs.
In march of 2002, Daniel Rooney was selected as the next President and CEO of SCI Engineered Materials.
The Company needed more space for its growing business, but desired to remain in Columbus, Ohio. Central Ohio is a regional center for materials science expertise due to the presence of The Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Toledo, Battelle Memorial Institute, Edison Welding Institute, NASA-Lewis, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and EMTEC. Other local organizations supporting material science endeavors include The American Ceramic Society, the Orton Foundation, Chemical Abstracts, and OCLC. As a result, the company relocated to a nearby facility with 32,000 ft2 of manufacturing and office space.
On August 22, 2007 the Company’s shareholders approved the change of the corporate name to SCI Engineered Materials, Inc.
SCI Receives a Third Frontier Grant for Rotatable TCO’s (Transparent Conductive Oxides). Ohio Third Frontier is an internationally recognized, technology-based economic development initiative that is successfully changing the trajectory of Ohio’s economy. Third Frontier works with innovative startup companies across the state, making Ohio the destination for technology entrepreneurs. This robust network of resources helps take advanced ideas and turn them into new technology businesses.
SCI received a Third Frontier Grant for Rotatable Bonding. Ohio Third Frontier is an internationally recognized, technology-based economic development initiative that is successfully changing the trajectory of Ohio’s economy. Third Frontier works with innovative startup companies across the state, making Ohio the destination for technology entrepreneurs. This robust network of resources helps take advanced ideas and turn them into new technology businesses. Find out more here: https://development.ohio.gov/business/third-frontier-and-technology
In 2017, SCI Engineered Materials™ received ISO 9001:2015 registration and had ISO 9001:2000 registration dating back to 2005.
ISO 9001:2015 specifies requirements for a quality management system when an organization:
- ) needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and
- ) aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.
The Board of Directors elected Jeremy Young as President of the Company effective January 2, 2019, and as Chief Executive Officer in June 2019. Mr. Young succeeded Daniel Rooney, who served as President and Chief Executive Officer from 2002-June 2019. Since June 2016 Mr Young had been Vice President of Operations at SCI and during during which time he also led implementation of the Company’s sales & marketing strategy. From December 2013 to June 2016 Mr Young. From December 2013 to June 2016, Mr. Young was Operations Manager for the Company after serving as SCI’s Production Manager from March 2016 to December 2013.
In March of 2020, The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19_ a global pandemic and recommended containment and mitigation measures worldwide. The Company complied with executive orders issued in Ohio and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines regarding safety procedures. These procedures included, but were not limited to wearing masks, social distancing, staggering start times, remote working, and teleconferencing versus in person meetings. During this period we maintained regular contact, via phone and other electronic means, with our customers and suppliers.
SCI Entered into an unsecured promissory note in April 2020 pursuant to the US Government Paycheck Protection Program. This program helped ensure that no employee was laid of or received a pay cut due to business disruptions related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Company’s Forgiveness Application was approved in full in January 2021.
Despite this disruption, the Company pursued additional niche markets which could leverage its expertise in custom powder solutions such as near infrared doped phosphors and short wave infrared applications for uses in the Defense industry. These applications enable extended life of phosphors for specific nighttime identification needs of military personnel and first responders.
The manufacture of products through diffusion bonding was also initated in 2020.
A Volunteer Time Off (VTO) program was implemented in 2021 which empowers employees to volunteer annually at an approved organization for up to two days. Reinvestment in local, state, and global communities is a corporate priority and considered important to the long-term success of our business.
The Company also added specialty bonding processes for Aerospace Customers in 2021
SCI resumed in-person meetings, participated onsite in industry trade shows, and continue to maintain regular contact, via phone and other electronic means, with all customers and suppliers during 2022.
The Company installed a new vacuum hot press in September 2022 which enabled SCI to increase manufacturing efficiencies and produce products at higher temperatures. This vacuum hot press has an advanced water-cooling systems with a maximum pressure rating of 75 tons and operates up to 2400 degrees Celsius which enables the manufacture of targets utilizing diverse precious metals. Each planar target can be manufactured up to 18 inches in diameter with multiple nitrogen purge cycles that ensure minimal oxygen content. Inert or forming gases can also be introduced at any pressure during the production cycle. The vacuum hot press has a retractable work thermocouple for lower temperature operations up to 1100 degrees Celsius. At higher temperature requirements, an controller receives production data from a pyrometer ensuring accurate and repeatable runs.
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