Oneonta electronics firm expanding

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February 22, 2011

By Denise Richardson Staff Writer The Daily Star Tue Feb 22, 2011, 02:30 AM EST

ONEONTA _ Customer Electronics Inc. is expanding its market and creating a new manufacturing division.

Through its Power Systems Division, the Oneonta manufacturer will build on its bus bar, a unit that conducts electricity. The division will manufacture insulated bus bars, bus-bar assemblies and other units for use in a variety of industries, a media release issued today said.

The power industry is growing, and many avenues are open for bus-bar applications, Michael J. Schulte, sales manager at Custom Electronics, said Monday during an interview at the Browne Street plant in the town of Oneonta.

Custom Electronics, a privately held firm, was incorporated in 1964 and has produced electronics products for military, commercial/industrial, aerospace, renewable energy and oil exploration markets. The firm has about 75 employees, executives said.

In the past three years, as the firm has developed the bus bar, 15 people were added to the staff, including three engineers, about 10 production workers and three office personnel, Vice President of Operations Jonathan Dokuchitz said Monday. The firm has at least two production openings and perhaps more will develop, depending on demand for products, he said.

"We're in a growth mode with these new opportunities," Dokuchitz said during the interview Monday.

The Power Systems Division will serve military, industrial, utilities, electric-vehicle and heavy equipment manufacturers, the release said, and the firm is the only company offering two types of powder-coating application methods _ fluidized bed and electrostatic spray.

Robert Van Horn has joined Custom Electronics as president of the Power Systems Division. Van Horn, who has 20 years of experience in the field, will be responsible for expanding development of new technologies and the division's capabilities.

Ioxus, local manufacturer of ultracapacitors, is a former subsidiary of Custom Electronics and remains affiliated, Dokuchitz said. The Power Systems Division will manufacture insulated bus bars and assemblies that may use components from Ioxus, he said, thus enhancing Custom Electronics' legacy mica capacitor product line.

Also announced Monday, Custom Electronic purchased the KVX mica capacitor product line of Cornell Dubilier Marketing of South Carolina for undisclosed terms, Dokuchitz said.

Cornell Dubilier made capacitors for the power-electronics market, and the acquisition of the product line, completed last week, will expand Custom Electronics' customer base and complement the Oneonta firm's traditional military consumer pool, Dokuchitz said.

"Cornell Dubilier's product line is a natural fit with CEI's made-to-order mica paper capacitors," Michael Pentaris, chief executive officer of Custom Electronics, said in a media release. "We bring a military standard to the assembly of these components."