Our Year in Review 2020

December 31 2021 SilcoTek

Father-Time-Baby-New-Year

Yes 2020 was a lousy year, but we did get some things done!  Read about our achievements in our year in review.

Our Year in Review 2020

I think for all of us 2020 started out with high hopes and confidence, but COVID-19 put a damper on expectations throughout the economy.  Team SilcoTek® did manage to get lots of things done and finish with a pretty good year overall, except for COVID that is.  Here are some team highlights for 2020.

 

SilcoTek honored as one of Pennsylvania's Best Places to Work

SilcoTek ranked 6th out of 49 small companies who won the designation of “Best Place to Work” in Pennsylvania in 2020.  A total of 100 small, medium, and large sized companies were deemed winners and invited to an award ceremony where the final rankings were revealed.  SilcoTek was named a Best Places to Work winner in 2018 and 2019.

best company 2020

Continued Growth

  • SilcoTek continued our trend of growth into new markets.  We welcomed many new customers and applications to our coating family. 
  • We also focused on expanding sales to new applications within existing customer's products or new applications.  We'll be continuing our efforts in 2021.
  • The basis of our growth is exceptional products and customer satisfaction, we continue to create fans of our products and service.

New, Refined and Improved Processes

  • Our R&D team rolled up their sleeves and refined our SilcoNert® 2000 process and applied our work to improving aluminum.  The refined process is called SP-12, and the refinements have paid off in improved appearance and performance when coating aluminum.

Learn More About the SP12 Process

  • More consistent processing of coatings.  Our Engineering and R&D Teams continue to improve our processes and process controls.  Making this year the best year for quality consistency in the history of the company.  
  • Our R&D, Engineering, and Manufacturing Teams continued development of new coatings and building the process capability for expanded production of Notak®.  We began processing Notak for select applications and continue to expand our process capabilities for Notak.

Learn More About Notak

Outbound Marketing

  • We stopped attending most trade shows due to COVID but we did participate in virtual tradeshows.  It's not the same a being there but it allowed us to connect with customers.
  • We expanded our virtual presence with lots of virtual customer visits and meetings.  Interest in our coatings continues to grow and our established customers continued to request educational pieces or to participate in their team meetings to discuss coatings and coating opportunities.
  • Our opt-in campaign was a success.  We took the time to ask our readers if they wanted to continue to receive our emails and blogs.  We got a tremendous positive response. 
  • Traditional outbound marketing continued to play a significant role in connecting with our customers, as well as reaching out through LinkedIn and other social platforms.
  • We're planning of offering more interesting and compelling content, like Webinars, Application Briefs, Technical Insights, and E-books in the coming year.  Marketing and Sales will also be presenting more specific, customer targeted content in 2021.

Inbound Marketing

  • We continued to expand website content and relevance.  Our technical blog posts gained record readership and interest. 
  • SilcoTek began to reach out and engage with our customers through a new website chat feature.  Customers can now dialog with our Technical Staff, Sales Team, and Customer Service Team through our online chat feature.  It's a quick, easy and secure way to discuss your application with a qualified coating expert.
  • For those who wish to select a coating online, we added a new automated coating selector tool to our site.  It's an easy way to find out which coating is best for your application.

Go to Our Coating Selector Guide

  • The Marketing team is also making it easier for our readers to access our content by taking down form gates to Technical Insights, Whitepapers and other technical literature.  Removing forms will make it easier for a customer to get the information needed to select and evaluate our coatings, the marketing team started the process of eliminating all but the most necessary forms from our site in 2020 and will complete the process in early 2021.  Rather than requiring the reader to fill out a form before getting technical information, like whitepapers, we'll direct you right to the paper, no more form to fill out!  If you like our content, readers can voluntarily complete a short subscription form.  You'll still need to fill out a form to register for a webinar (because we'll send you the video and any materials you request) and we'll ask you to fill out a form to view a latest e-book or other large piece, but that's about it!

Subscribe to our emails and blog.

Manufacturing Refinement

  • Our manufacturing team continued to produce great coatings even during COVID restrictions.  Our facility is a critical operation that contributes to analytical testing quality in biopharma and other fields.  This distinction allowed our facility to stay open during peak restriction periods.  Being a qualified critical operation has its benefits, our customers can place and receive orders reliably and keep their supply chain open and operational.  
  • Despite the pandemic, our operations were able to continue to improve, streamline, and expand our manufacturing processes.  Our Engineering team continued to utilize statistical techniques to improve process performance and build higher quality into our coatings.  
  • SilcoTek® is always working on expanding process capabilities, tooling quality, and part form factor requirements.   For 2021 the Manufacturing and Engineering Team will expand coating manufacturing capabilities further.
  • Our IT, Customer Service, and Manufacturing team invested a lot of effort into incorporating the latest revision ERP system into our operations.  This will enable our systems to grow and provide better customer service in the coming years.  

Certifications and Patents

  • Dursan non-reactive coating passed the demanding USP class VI testing.  The goal of the testing is to be sure no toxic materials will be extracted when a product comes in contact with human tissue or injectable drugs or other products manufactured relating to healthcare, pharmaceuticals, or medical devices.  Class VI testing has the most stringent criteria and involves 3 tests that evaluate reactions for toxicity in tissue.  Passing the test means the material is not toxic and does not leach potentially harmful substances into fluids or tissue. 

Read more about Dursan and USP Class VI.

  • SilcoTek will receive patents relating to coating HPLC flow paths.  Our coatings make HPLC flow paths more resistant to chelating agents and protein compatibility.

2020 was a difficult year but SilcoTek showed superlative team spirit by coming together and continuing to provide outstanding product quality and service to our customers.  Our Best Company ranking also shows our commitment to the organization and our customers.

The SilcoTek Team wishes everyone a happy, healthy, and profitable New Year!  To get the latest in coating technology updates, subscribe to our emails, newsletter, and blog.  Or follow us on LinkedIn.

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