History of Elmec Manufacturing

Elmec Manufacturing was started in September 1985 to capitalize on the flexible interconnect assembly market. In early 1985 the founders recognized a lack, in their industry, of any assembly operations specializing in flexible circuits and at the same time a number of customers and suppliers having difficulty assembling flexible circuits in house. And in September, 1985 Elmec took their first order to assemble flexible interconnects. Since then Elmec has expanded to service hundreds of current customers with an ever expanding product offering of flexible interconnects.

Elmec began and continues to supply turn-key flex circuit assemblies with all components assembled and ready to plug in. Complete service is offered from computer aided design through final test. All are designed for manufacturability and Elmec’s years of experience result in delivery of a quality flex circuit assembly, built to specification and delivered on schedule.

In 1991 Elmec bought the rights and the manufacturing equipment for a flexible jumper product line originally developed by the Fortin Laminating division of Westinghouse. Flex jumpers are proving to be an extremely well accepted product with packaging engineers and manufacturing engineers alike. They are a cost effective alternative to custom flex circuits with none of the artwork or tooling requirements and nearly off the shelf delivery of one to three weeks. Flexible jumpers are an excellent interconnection for board-to-board, board-to-display, board-to-connector, board-to-sensor, or any application requiring flexibility. Flex jumpers can be manufactured on any pitch with flat, round, or stranded conductors for surface mount or through-hole applications.

In 1993 Elmec announced the availability of jumper headers which are a low cost interconnect for attaching flexible jumpers to printed circuit boards where a connect/disconnect feature is desired.

Elmec’s customer base is spread from medical electronics to computers and peripherals to diagnostic and test equipment to communications and personal electronics to military and aerospace applications. Elmec has maintained consistent growth throughout its 27 years in existence. Elmec is located in Oceanside, California’s Rancho Del Oro Technology Park, owned by the founders, and built out specifically for manufacturing flexible interconnects.

According to Elmec president Joe Phares, “Elmec’s growth is due entirely to a responsive attitude throughout the company. We recognize that our customers are our most important asset and we all do whatever it takes to support and protect that asset, always striving to exceed the customer’s expectations. And we have fun doing it!”