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Summit Instruments manufactures hand-crafted sensors that measure acceleration, rotation and position for defense, aerospace applications
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Sunday, Oct 11, 2009
It's not easy to sum up what Summit Instruments Inc. does.
''I still get family members who say, 'What is it you make again?' '' owner Don Gudaitis said.
But the ramifications of his products — helping fighter pilots release their missiles, making cars safer, stabilizing images televised from a blimp — usually evokes an understanding nod.
Summit Instruments makes sensors that measure acceleration, rotation and position. The tiny hand-crafted systems collect and transmit data so that engineers can spot problems and correct their designs.
That's no small thing for Summit Instruments' top client: the U.S. military.
When aircraft flying close to the speed of sound try to release a weapon or rocket hanging from its body, the unit doesn't necessarily just fall away, explained Mark Hetrick, who demonstrates Summit's products for customers.
''There are strange air dynamics at work,'' he said, which can have disastrous results, such as an explosive item smacking back into the fuselage.
So each time the military wants to attach a new weapon or other item to a plane, it has to be tested in a variety of ways to determine the safest position for release.
That's where Summit Instruments comes in. Their sensors are used exclusively in the testing procedure. Accelerometers and gyros measure activity and microscopic transmitters send information to the ground so computers can get an accurate picture of what happened with each release.
Sensors can be programmed to do other jobs as well, Hetrick said. For instance, it can warn if the noise, wind or vibration from an open weapons bay can detonate the sensitive load. Or it can help place missiles that are expected to fly through the door of a specific building while leaving a neighboring structure unharmed.
Summit sensors are also used on Black Hawk helicopters to monitor body vibration, which is fed into a computer and helps determine when the helicopter needs fixed before something breaks.
''We've sold a lot of products for the new Joint Strike Fighter and they have thousands of tests scheduled to certify that plane,'' Hetrick said.
In addition to working with the Navy and Air Force, Summit's aerospace applications are used by the Royal Australian Air Force, Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
''We've been really fortunate to be able to work with all these suppliers to improve the safety of our troops,'' he added.
Anything that moves can benefit from sensor testing, Hetrick said.
Summit's sensors can do ''event detection,'' the way a decelerating car knows to activate an airbag, or measure movement, like understanding how a crash test dummy behaved on impact.
Only a few of Summit's customers are automotive-related, however, and Hetrick said that's been a good thing considering the decline of the industry.
''They've suffered lately and since we aren't so tied into that market, it really hasn't hurt us. Our business is holding up pretty well,'' Hetrick said.
Gudaitis said Summit Instruments has seen its revenue grow from about $1 million five years ago to $4 million last year.
Meanwhile, the staff has grown from four people at the start of the decade to 19, including four new technicians added last year.
The primary component of Summit's sensors are circuit boards, which are manufactured at Summit's Bath Township facility.
The building of a circuit board is mostly automated, operations director Bob Visger said.
A machine can be programmed to use tiny stencils and squeegees to apply soldering paste and electronic parts to boards that measure a couple of square inches.
But there is usually custom work that must be finished by a technician, using soldering equipment and microscopes that help them see components that can be as small as a grain of sand.
Summit isn't worried about competition from overseas, Visger said.
More common circuit boards are made in Asian countries, but ''we're not doing 10,000 a year. We might do 10 a week, but ours are high quality and highly engineered,'' he said.
And every single unit goes through a battery of tests.
''That's another difference between us and, say, Malaysia. They may go and build 2,000 widgets and statistically test 2 percent of them. We do 100 percent inspection and testing,'' Visger said.
The simpler of Summit's sensors can take a day to make and cost $300 or more. More complicated systems can cost up to $25,000 a unit and take several weeks to complete.
Summit Instruments was founded in 1991 by Gudaitis and then-partner Arne van der Heyde. For many years, it was purely a consulting business.
''Most engineering businesses start out that way because all you have to sell is your time,'' Gudaitis said. ''The problem with selling time is there's only so much of it.''
To grow the business, the pair knew they would have to start creating product. Early customers were commercial companies like Packard Electric, General Electric, Alcoa, Westinghouse and Monsanto, he said.
But they had their eye on defense applications for the military. Gudaitis said 2000 was a turning point, when the Navy finally decided Summit had developed an accelerometer that it could use.
Gudaitis said that while most of Summit's payroll is supported by the military, he's been trying to keep the customer base diversified.
''When I look at a business, it's so analogous to a family,'' he said. '' . . . I can't do things just for me, I have to think about what's good for them.'' And that means thinking about the future health of the business.
Gudaitis said he has been watching the growth of the advanced-energy sector with interest and has been designing gyroscopes for wind turbines.
He said he couldn't begin to guess how much of his future business might come from a growing green economy, but ''it's nice to be in these developing areas.''
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
It's not easy to sum up what Summit Instruments Inc. does.
''I still get family members who say, 'What is it you make again?' '' owner Don Gudaitis said.
But the ramifications of his products — helping fighter pilots release their missiles, making cars safer, stabilizing images televised from a blimp — usually evokes an understanding nod.
Summit Instruments makes sensors that measure acceleration, rotation and position. The tiny hand-crafted systems collect and transmit data so that engineers can spot problems and correct their designs.
That's no small thing for Summit Instruments' top client: the U.S. military.
When aircraft flying close to the speed of sound try to release a weapon or rocket hanging from its body, the unit doesn't necessarily just fall away, explained Mark Hetrick, who demonstrates Summit's products for customers.
''There are strange air dynamics at work,'' he said, which can have disastrous results, such as an explosive item smacking back into the fuselage.
So each time the military wants to attach a new weapon or other item to a plane, it has to be tested in a variety of ways to determine the safest position for release.
That's where Summit Instruments comes in. Their sensors are used exclusively in the testing procedure. Accelerometers and gyros measure activity and microscopic transmitters send information to the ground so computers can get an accurate picture of what happened with each release.
Sensors can be programmed to do other jobs as well, Hetrick said. For instance, it can warn if the noise, wind or vibration from an open weapons bay can detonate the sensitive load. Or it can help place missiles that are expected to fly through the door of a specific building while leaving a neighboring structure unharmed.
Summit sensors are also used on Black Hawk helicopters to monitor body vibration, which is fed into a computer and helps determine when the helicopter needs fixed before something breaks.
''We've sold a lot of products for the new Joint Strike Fighter and they have thousands of tests scheduled to certify that plane,'' Hetrick said.
In addition to working with the Navy and Air Force, Summit's aerospace applications are used by the Royal Australian Air Force, Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
''We've been really fortunate to be able to work with all these suppliers to improve the safety of our troops,'' he added.
Anything that moves can benefit from sensor testing, Hetrick said.
Summit's sensors can do ''event detection,'' the way a decelerating car knows to activate an airbag, or measure movement, like understanding how a crash test dummy behaved on impact.
Only a few of Summit's customers are automotive-related, however, and Hetrick said that's been a good thing considering the decline of the industry.
''They've suffered lately and since we aren't so tied into that market, it really hasn't hurt us. Our business is holding up pretty well,'' Hetrick said.
Gudaitis said Summit Instruments has seen its revenue grow from about $1 million five years ago to $4 million last year.
Meanwhile, the staff has grown from four people at the start of the decade to 19, including four new technicians added last year.
The primary component of Summit's sensors are circuit boards, which are manufactured at Summit's Bath Township facility.
The building of a circuit board is mostly automated, operations director Bob Visger said.
A machine can be programmed to use tiny stencils and squeegees to apply soldering paste and electronic parts to boards that measure a couple of square inches.
But there is usually custom work that must be finished by a technician, using soldering equipment and microscopes that help them see components that can be as small as a grain of sand.
Summit isn't worried about competition from overseas, Visger said.
More common circuit boards are made in Asian countries, but ''we're not doing 10,000 a year. We might do 10 a week, but ours are high quality and highly engineered,'' he said.
And every single unit goes through a battery of tests.
''That's another difference between us and, say, Malaysia. They may go and build 2,000 widgets and statistically test 2 percent of them. We do 100 percent inspection and testing,'' Visger said.
The simpler of Summit's sensors can take a day to make and cost $300 or more. More complicated systems can cost up to $25,000 a unit and take several weeks to complete.
Summit Instruments was founded in 1991 by Gudaitis and then-partner Arne van der Heyde. For many years, it was purely a consulting business.
''Most engineering businesses start out that way because all you have to sell is your time,'' Gudaitis said. ''The problem with selling time is there's only so much of it.''
To grow the business, the pair knew they would have to start creating product. Early customers were commercial companies like Packard Electric, General Electric, Alcoa, Westinghouse and Monsanto, he said.
But they had their eye on defense applications for the military. Gudaitis said 2000 was a turning point, when the Navy finally decided Summit had developed an accelerometer that it could use.
Gudaitis said that while most of Summit's payroll is supported by the military, he's been trying to keep the customer base diversified.
''When I look at a business, it's so analogous to a family,'' he said. '' . . . I can't do things just for me, I have to think about what's good for them.'' And that means thinking about the future health of the business.
Gudaitis said he has been watching the growth of the advanced-energy sector with interest and has been designing gyroscopes for wind turbines.
He said he couldn't begin to guess how much of his future business might come from a growing green economy, but ''it's nice to be in these developing areas.''
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
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