CASE STUDY - SUMITOMO

Most of my customers have been previous contacts from this or that startup company with whom I was involved at some point. And true to form, one of my most gratifying interaction as a consulting company was with Sumitomo Cryogenics. In 2006 I worked at a startup in Boston doing pulsed power stuff for advanced plasma light source development. The plasma physics experiment required a pair of ISO-400 size cryopumps. These are each about the size of a standard outdoor trashcan driven by a loud industrial liquid helium compressor (size of a dorm fridge). The pumps alone were monstrously huge, not even considering the chamber they were bolted to or the power electronics I was developing. In any event, the pumps were fairly special and our usage was weird enough to require help from the manufacturer. We had many meetings with the engineers at Sumitomo and even hosted a few representatives at our facility. I learned a lot from our interactions and came to understand a lot about cryopumps and high vacuum technology. Ultimately, the physics of the experiment was working against us, and the program was eventually shuttered. We sent the pumps back to Sumitomo, and that was the end of my contact with them or their products. Fast forward 10 years and I was running Nielltronix full time. An opportunity came to my attention where “a pioneering cryogenics company” was looking for some electrical engineering help doing some design verification, root cause analysis, and some contract manufacturer reviewing and validation. There was no chance it was any other company! It seemed crazy that I would have an opportunity to help out the company that was so pivotal in the experiments that defined my early career. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was sitting in the boardroom in Allentown, PA talking to the entire team. We were discussing their wants and needs and how I might help when I said “I bet that out of all the people you’ve talked to about electrical DFM/DFMEA reviewing for the F-70 compressor, I’m the only one who’s actually had hands on the hardware and actually used the product personally.” Sure enough, the Director of Engineering and one of the senior mechanical team members piped up and agreed, since they actually remembered working with me a decade prior. Now 7 rewarding years later, Nielltronix continues to help out Sumitomo with various programs, performing design reviews, failure analysis, and other services as they need it.