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You are here: Home / Guest Appearance / #411 – An Interview with Chris Denney

#411 – An Interview with Chris Denney

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Due to the dual Chris nature of this episode, we’ll refer to Chris Denney as “Chris” and Chris Gammell as “Chris G”

  • Chris got started in high school working at a CM that his friend’s family owned .
  • After that he went to school and started selling AOI equipment as an applications engineer at YesTech
  • ACI – Apple Cad
  • He also worked briefly at another unnamed CM
  • He was a manufacturer rep, like former guest John Davis. These roles are quasi sales but also quasi support.
  • Found Worthington Assembly when trying to sell them some equipment and got to know the owners Neil and Rafal.
  • Giving feedback about sales
  • The sales cycle time in the assembly world is pretty long, some people spend a year figuring out what equipment to get.
  • Apex tradeshow in Las Vegas
  • Chris wanted to nerdify the Worthington process. It was originally founded in the 70s by a husband and wife and was briefly named “Moronics”.
  • Chris describes the state of CMs in US
  • Chris G has only dealt with a few CMs
  • Where WAI was a few years ago
  • Some shops are fast, some are slow
  • Chris to visit Digikey in Thief River Falls
  • How Worthington has changed over the years?
    • When they started, their reflow didn’t have a conveyor
  • What does the best CM look like?
  • Have to be efficient at quoting to make a
  • Andy Seddon, the founder of Circuit Hub was on The Amp Hour back in 2013.
  • The queue of getting quotes done
  • How do you figure out the cost of assembling a component
  • AOI – automated optical inspection
  • SMTAI show at Rosemont
  • How do I get my costs down?
  • Zach Dunham and Spencer Wright have both been on the show, they worked with Chris to get the Public Radio built.
  • “Wicked”
  • Silkscreen matters for assembly
  • Glue layers
  • Don’t use online footprints, Chris hates the 0402 footprint in EAGLE.
  • Stay in the middle of availa, that’s the best
  • 0402 are easy 0603 are best
  • Chris’s email is cdenney@worthingtonassembly.com
  • Follow them on Twitter: @WAssembly
  • Worthington is hiring! They made an intro video with CircuitHub

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