The cornerstone of Electrovac GmbH, today an internationally active company, was also set in the capital of Austria. In 1947, the two engineers Werner von Hacht and Dr. Hans Huber started to manufacture radio and mercury switching tubes and expanded their enterprise just a few years later into an industrial company. In the early 1970s Electrovac turned international with its development of passive LCD-displays.
Today, the company specializes in the manufacturing of hermetic seals and thermal management products, internationally known as “click therm”, “direct bonded copper”, “hermetic packages”, “metal matrix composites”, “carbon nanofibers”, and “oxygen sensors”. In addition to its Vienna location – currently situated north of Vienna in Klosterneuburg – the company also has subsidiaries in Germany since the 1970s and Poland since the 1980s.
Hermetic seals – internationally known as hermetic packages - are implemented predominantly in the area of long-lasting, micro-electronic components, where they secure connections between internal components and external environments with special sealing pins (isolated from the casing by a glass ring). The manufacturing program of glass seals includes single, multiple and socket seals, as well as transistor headers and special seals for sensors, flatpacks and hull casings for hybrid switches and DCB-packages.
Principle areas of application of these glass-to-metal seals range from automobile electronics to sensor technology. Typically, the seals are employed in air bag sensors and their igniters, seat belt preload devices or accelerator and pressure sensors, as well as transmission controllers. Electrovac’s Passau location has established itself as a high volume production specialist of hermetic packages for the automotive industry. Electrovac’s original facility in Klosterneuburg specializes mainly in limited-lot production.
Due to the fact that Electrovac’s statistical software, in use until 1998, was not Y2K-ready, the company decided to replace its software in advance with a software solution which could be customized to fit the company’s individualized demands. After devising a concrete requirement profile, an Electrovac team led by Mr. Helmut Horeth, the quality control supervisor, searched for an optimal software provider, one which could meet the Austrian company’s demands in price and performance best. After consulting published articles in various industrial journals and visiting a road show in Munich in that same year, the team decided on the software firm CAQ AG Factory Systems.
Initially, Electrovac was only interested in switching out its statistical software system, but soon implemented other user modules of its new software as well. This also included opting for the advantages of CAQ AG Factory Systems ERP-system software in place of a Hessian competitor’s software. Even though the Hessian company’s enterprise resource planning software included a stand-alone Q-module, it only had a limited palette of functions compared to CAQ AG Factory Systems’ specialized software for quality control.
Helmut Horeth - Quality Control SupervisorThe Hessian company’s software displayed limited flexibility in areas of illustrations, display, and evaluation of processing inspection intervals which caused recurrent problems and served therefore as a call for action at Electrovac. According to Quality Control Supervisor Horeth, these shortcomings have been completely eradicated: “In collaboration with CAQ AG Factory Systems, we defined our basic parameters and formulated a corresponding structure according to which we would use our new system. CAQ AG Factory Systems developed an individualized software solution for us with which we control 80% of our limited-lot production today.”
Electrovac saw the software’s user-friendliness in particular as an important criterion for future expansion in its CAQ-usage.
“The CAQ AG software’s interface and its user-friendliness is simply the best”, explains Helmut Horeth.
“We get from A to B in straight line. In order to use SAP correctly, for example, one has to invest a considerable amount of time. Using the CAQ AG software makes it much simpler, and the software is noticeably easier to integrate into existing processes and peripherals with its concise and straight-forward layout.”
The CAQ AG Factory Systems’ software system used in limited-lot production (glass-to-metal seals) is also employed in inspection planning for component manufacturing (die cutting, pill pressing). “The initially extensive time and effort involved in limited-lot production customization – there are numerous unique events – has been reduced to an absolute minimum.”, explains specialist Horeth. “With the die cutting components there are often procedures which are similar or even identical. Therefore, processes can be displayed and controlled with no problems. In limited-lot manufacturing – i.e. in glass-to-metal seals – the situation was much different. There, we have a number of unique events which cannot be multiplied easily for display purposes. Therefore we need specific modifications with the help of CAQ software support.”
Quality control supervisor Horeth stresses the advantages in having access to CAQ AG Factory Systems software support when faced with such difficult challenges: “In addition to having constant contact with the sales manager and the support specialist during initial adjustments in the software to comply with our needs, we still have continuous contact to both of these men. Whenever we have questions concerning technical issues we either receive immediate answers or can rely on timely responses and service appointments.” However, the CAQ AG Factory System support team not only serves as problem solvers when technical issues arise. We also receive excellent support and suggestions when it comes to expanding our software system.
The company Electrovac is convinced to have found the perfect business partner in CAQ AG Factory Systems when it comes to matters of quality control. Updating the software to take advantage of CAQAG Factory Systems software’s 9th release is a settled matter already. Here as in all areas Electrovac trusts in CAQ AG Factory Systems’ software performance to ensure a productive and successful future.
Renowned customers especially demanding in the area of quality and environmental management describe their success stories and serve as guarantors and references for software that yields high performance and is reliable and fair.
From mid-size companies to multi-national corporations, CAQ AG develops innovative, integrated software solutions that satisfy the highest demands and meet all requirements of quality management.
Furthermore, CAQ AG software supports all quality-related processes pertaining to any value added chain, production companies, and service providers. We attach special importance to compliance with standards as well as 100% release-capability of all of our software solutions without any restrictions – all this while retaining the maximum degree of customization to satisfy customer-specific demands.
Although CAQ AG software solutions are installed on thousands of systems worldwide, we guarantee that you can update your version automatically, no matter how many updates and upgrades you have installed previously. All upgrades function with minimum servicing time and effort onsite. Updates install automatically without requiring you to consult or involve our service staff. Updates neither change nor impede any customer-specific configurations. This principle ensures the full value of your investments.
In all of our efforts our most important goal is not just to satisfy you, but instead to thrill you! One thing is essential to realizing this goal – and we are very proud of our accomplishments on this front: We have a highly motivated, engaged, and competent team in which and with which working is fun!
It is a matter of course for us here at CAQ AG that our employees in development, support, customer service, sales, and management, in addition to having university degrees as well as practical experience, have completed the training courses for “Quality Manager GFQ-IHK” or “Quality Assistant GFQ-IHK” and stay up-to-date by continuously completing training programs.
