TESTRA CORPORATION
1201 N. Stadem Drive, Tempe Arizona 85281 Ph (480) 966-8428 Fax (480) 895-3589
BACKGROUND
Testra was founded in 1988, by Thomas W. Hart, Jr.- President and John R. Hart - V.P Engineering. The company is located in our own 3000 sq. ft. building in the Apache Industrial Park, Tempe, Arizona. We are a small company that has specialized in the development of coordinated motion control electronics for rotary and linear stepper motors. We plan on getting much larger with our new product line. The company has chosen to primarily work with original equipment manufactures, doing joint product development using our technology, and then manufacturing the product for the OEM. We have delivered thousands of motion control systems to OEM customers. We are now in 1999 introducing a new product line, the SyncroStep SS-xxxx series of motion control systems for stepper motors. This is the culmination of a two year development effort.
Our overriding philosophy in development of this system was to come up with a state of the art system, that could be mass produced at a low cost, and yet would provide solutions to a wide spectrum of motion control requirements of the OEM. A major requirement of the design was to have totally standard hardware package to allow for the mass production requirements, and have the flexibility required by the OEM be made available through soft enhancements.
The product resulting from this development effort is the SS-4544 system, based upon a patent that we have obtained for synchronous control of current in an inductive load, and other company trade secrets. The system is physically 1/3rd the size of our prior product offering, higher performance, more features, greater flexibility, and lower cost.
MANUFACTURING
Our business model calls for our manufacturing to be done by a contract manufacturer.
The product contains two printed circuit assemblies, one being a switching power supply fabricated on a two layer PCB with through hole technology, and the other the being the motion control electronics and drivers fabricated on a four layer PCB using mixed surface mount and through hole technology. The package uses a custom extrusion, plus a few pieces of fabricated sheet metal. Currently we do the purchasing and kiting. Finished units are returned to us. We do the final test and ship the product. As volume builds up, the in house functions will be transferred to the contract manufacturer.
SERVICE & WARRANTY
Our standard warranty is one year parts and labor, FOB Tempe, Arizona. We can also do exchange programs, whereby we will ship out overnight a replacement unit. Attempts to repair in the field will void the warranty. Out of warranty units will be repaired on a flat rate basis, except in the case of obvious damage caused by misuse, or mechanical damage from mishandling.
All repair work is done at the plant. Each unit has both bar code and electronic serialization. This serial number links to a database, which has all records regarding the individual unit, including manufacturing, testing, warranty, service history, revisions, software and firmware version. We plan to eventually have this data base customer accessible over the Internet so that status may be tracked.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
As far as we are concerned, this is our most important product. Our customers success make us successful, so we look at this as a partnership. Our philosophy is to concentrate on a small number of OEM's and experienced distributor/system integrators. We will assist the customer in his application to insure his success. We can also contract for development of software, firmware, and special hardware features to be used in the OEM's application.
LICENSING & SECOND SOURCING
We recognize the commitment that an OEM makes when he decides to use a product in his system, especially a sole source item. We are committed to insuring a continual product flow to satisfy the customer requirements, even in adverse circumstances. There are several choices available for this insurance.
1. A conditional license may be granted, in which the customer may manufacture the system itself, in the event that Testra is no longer able or willing to supply the product. A complete production documentation package would be kept in escrow for the customer, to be used in that event. The OEM would have the right to use our contract manufacturer to facilitate the changeover.
2. We are planning to set up a second source, so that an identical product will be available on the market from a different vendor. This vendor most likely will start out as one of our customers.
3. An OEM may purchase a manufacturing license for the product.