Capacitor builder invents its way to success

POWERFUL PIECES: Sandar Osorio assembles capacitors for East Providence-based Evans Capacitor, a producer of electronic components with exacting customers in the aerospace and defense industries. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
POWERFUL PIECES: Sandar Osorio assembles capacitors for East Providence-based Evans Capacitor, a producer of electronic components with exacting customers in the aerospace and defense industries. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

The brainchild of cousins Dave Evans and Charlie Dewey, the Evans Capacitor Co. in East Providence has been inventing, developing and producing unique, high-energy, density capacitors since it opened its doors in 1996. Today, Evans Capacitor’s hybrid capacitors have established a niche for very high-power, high-reliability pieces with aerospace and defense applications.
A capacitor is a device used to store an electric charge, consisting of one or more pairs of conductors separated by an insulator. Evans Capacitor sells directly to every major aerospace and defense company in the country, as well as overseas.
“Dave has a considerable patent portfolio in capacitor materials and methods,” said Dewey, Evans Capacitor’s CEO. “He has developed unique capacitor designs that utilize this technology to provide our customers with enabling solutions to their power needs.”
In fact, the Tantalum Hybrid Capacitor that company president Evans developed ultimately became the enabling technology for advanced phased-array surveillance radars for defense. It is one of Evans Capacitor’s highest volume products, with sales to companies including Northrop, Lockheed and Raytheon.
“Our focus is sharp, and we are innovators,” Evans said. “Some [of our capacitors] are used in defense applications and on missions in space. We must build them all like our lives depend on it.”
With 29 employees, more than 100 customers from the giants of aerospace to small development houses, and $13.4 million in revenue in 2013 (a figure expected to grow by as much as 20 percent this year), business at Evans Capacitor is strong.
In just the past 12 months, Evans Capacitor won a contract with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on a new, high-power laser program – a huge gesture of approval for Evans Capacitor’s newest model of hybrid capacitor, called the TDD. Livermore tested the devices and determined them to be the highest-power density capacitors available and the key to Livermore’s pulse power requirements.
The company has also passed several key qualifications with customers in the oil and gas exploration markets and is developing a family of high-temperature hybrid capacitors specifically designed for the environments of oil and gas exploration and drilling tools. In addition, Evans Capacitor passed two new qualifications with NASA for use of hybrid capacitors in space systems.
“We are able to manufacture our products here in Rhode Island because we have a unique, niche product that has little labor content compared to the high material cost and value,” Dewey said. “We are able to highly train and compensate our employees because the product value is so high.” Believing the United States needs to give up on “targeting” industries for government incentives, Dewey said any resurgence of manufacturing in the U.S. will come only with high levels of technology and automation, using skilled labor coupled with a strong vocational training program across the nation.
“Many high school graduates would be happier and more successful in training for jobs with direct participation in the new manufacturing and technical businesses looking for talent,” Dewey said.
Evans Capacitor is proud of its devotion to its customers. The company is constantly developing and designing new models and improvements specific to its customers’ requirements. It now makes hundreds of specific parts, all capacitors, but all with different ratings, sizes and features, so that customers can select the perfect fit for their electronic systems.
For example, Evans Capacitor worked with Raytheon over the course of several years to invent, develop and produce a capacitor for a system that enabled the company to fully use new high-power technology that Raytheon was developing at the same time.
“We meet with our customers, and they tell us how important their products are, whether in making that aircraft world class, or in protecting the lives of our military,” Dewey said. “By continually improving our products and augmenting the line with newer, better models, we stay well ahead of the competition, and positioned for the future.”
The company promotes an open, fun and efficient workplace and all employees understand the importance of quality in the products they make. With Evans Capacitor’s products used in some of the highest-value electronic systems produced in the world, every employee is encouraged to question management and engineering at any time about materials, parts and processes.
“Everyone is comfortable with our No. 1 rule, ‘If you have a question or concern, stop and ask,’ ” Dewey said. “Dave spends considerable time every day on the production floor and is often the engineering authority for questions or concerns raised by employees. We have tried to be very generous with sharing the success of the business.”
The company is a private S-Corp, more than 90 percent owned by employees and directors. Employees are stockholders in the company, receiving stock once they complete an initial training period.
For Chris Rucker, an assistant quality manager who has been with Evans Capacitor for more than 10 years, the company provided a great foundation for the future. “When I started, I worked as a foot press operator,” Rucker said. “I was single, bouncing from job to job before that. Ten years later, I’m married with two children and a career with a future.”
Rucker is proud of his work and in knowing that it plays a crucial role in saving lives. “A few years ago, I was lucky enough to attend a conference in Orlando for Lockheed Martin suppliers,” Rucker said. “I listened to guest speakers from the military tell us how much they depend on the work we were all doing.”
The Evans Capacitor team cares deeply about the products it creates, and about each other. “When I started there were 10 of us,” Rucker said. “We’ve tripled that since, and with every new team member the same dedication and pride in the work that they do is clearly on display. It also helps that we make the best capacitors in the world.” •

No posts to display