As 2023 comes to an end, we at SilcoTek are taking the opportunity to reflect on our year, consider what the future will bring, and thank all our customers who help make our success possible. The collaboration opportunities and feedback from our customers is what pushes our continuous innovation efforts to bring the very best, game-changing coating technology to the world.
2023 Reflections
At SilcoTek, we know that people are what make the company successful. In 2023 we added 8 new employees to the team. From manufacturing, to human resources, to management, we are excited to have fresh perspectives and new ideas that will keep us striving to hit new goals. SilcoTek’s most influential personnel change happened back in July when former President and founder of SilcoTek, Paul Silvis, passed the reigns to long-time employee, Gary Barone, to lead the company as President and “Head Coach.” Read more about the transition here.
SilcoTek has seven core values, one of them being Innovation. In 2023, this was a priority for our research and development and engineering teams. In the first quarter of 2023, SilcoTek released a new coating technology called Silcolloy 2000. This iteration is a new and improved take on Silcolloy 1000, boasting improved corrosion protection and high temperature coating endurance. In the second quarter of 2023, SilcoTek launched a first-of-its-kind silicon nitride coating, Siltride. This brand-new endeavor is comprised of amorphous silicon oxynitride that substantially improves corrosion resistance, hardness, wear resistance, and electrical resistivity. After many years in the lab and working with customers, SilcoTek is very excited to end this year with two more coating services than we started with.
In 2023, SilcoTek employees exhibited and attended over fifteen tradeshows and conferences. We have been all over the globe, including traveling through North America, Europe, and Asia. We look forward to expanding our customer base even more next year.
It hasn’t been all work and no fun this year however. We have had many wonderful company events like sponsoring the 5th Annual Centre County Cornhole Classic and hosting the Annual SilcoTek Golf Outing. The SilcoTek team also placed 3rd in the annual Centre Volunteers in Medicine (CVIM) Battle of the Minds competition. We also collected over 1100 cans in a food drive for the local Faith Centre Food Bank. Finally, SilcoTek has just been named a Best Place to Work in PA by the Best Places Group, coming in at #26 on the list.
2024 Predictions
As a company, we have been very busy perfecting our manufacturing process and preparing to add new capabilities. Thanks to the work of the manufacturing team, we look forward to bringing some exciting new things to the table in 2024.
We plan to bring our new passivation capabilities online and commercially available in 2024. While passivation is not required as a pre-treatment to our coatings, it does create the best surface for SilcoTek coatings and often leads to better performance. We have heard our customers concerns about finding a place to passivate their parts before sending to SilcoTek for coating. By using SilcoTek for passivation and CVD coating, customers will be able to cut out the middle man ensuring there are less delays and no passivation quality concerns.
Another exciting addition to our manufacturing capabilities is our new ISO 6 Class 1000 clean room installation. Many customers in the medical and semiconductor space have requested a clean room practice to ensure minimal pollutant interaction with their parts. SilcoTek is excited to bring this new offering to life in 2024, complete with appropriate packaging, to guarantee another level of quality for our customers.
Customers who use straight tubing will be glad to hear that SilcoTek plans to finish the engineering on our new 24-foot long CVD oven in 2024. We have heard the requests for our coating technology on long sticks and generally larger parts, and cannot wait for its inaugural first run. Keep an eye on our social media channels in 2024 for a chance to help us name the new oven.
Finally, prepare for a new look on the SilcoTek website. With 2024 being our 15-year anniversary, we decided an improved website with better searchability features and functions for our customers was a good way to celebrate the milestone. We hope that our customers enjoy the new look.
Thank you again to our customers for all of the support that made 2023 such a success and for all of the input that drives our new offerings in 2024.
Do you have an idea for a project we should work on next? Let us know in the comments!
