Sleek Co., Ltd. - SMD fuses, glass-tube fuses

Sleek Co., Ltd. promotes itself as the most innovative maker of fuses and a major supplier of SMD (surface mount device) fuses worldwide. The company has earned such enviable titles through ample efforts made over the 15 years since its establishment in 1993.

In the heyday of Sleek's establishment, Asia boasted no world-class fuse makers. Although the global market has matured considerably, brimming with low-priced products and suppliers, company president Steve Yang has always insisted on embracing a totally different mindset to run this traditional business, which always tended towards big-volume production and reckless price-cutting competition. Determined to buck conventional wisdom and practices, Yang has over the years aimed to mold his firm into a global leader technologically, qualitatively, and in terms of innovation, which in turn would enhance profit margin. The bold executive has not only achieved considerably to advance his field, but is also ambitiously engaged in R&D of several pioneering items that are expected to shake the line in the near future.

Aiming to Set Standards

Yang says that Sleek's corporate strategies and direction are not only critical for the company but also important for the industry-"Sleek aims to lead the field in setting up new standards and specifications for new fuses by the end of 2008 or early 2009, which is realistic because all the company's products have been market leading, as well as steadily widening applications of SMD fuses."

Already a technology and innovation leader in the line, Sleek insists on complete in-house production to maintain the highest precision and quality. Currently, Sleek runs 22 glass-tube fuse production lines with total daily capacity of 500,000 units, and one SMD fuse line turning out 300,000 units daily. "Sleek stays away from volume orders to focus on niche markets, for sizable profit margins are critical for the company to engage in new-product development and innovation," the president claims.

Self-developed Machine Tools

"We built all our own production machine tools," Yang proudly says, "and they are the most efficient of their kind worldwide. Each machine turns out 23,000 glass-tube fuses each shift, meaning that each worker, simultaneously operating four machines, has a daily output of about 80,000 units. Also Sleek also develops all its own test and inspection instruments.

"Sleek never builds fuses that are defective, for the potential risks are huge if overloads are not cut off to appliances," Yang boldly points out. "The fact that our products are covered with NT$20 million (US$655,737 at US$1: NT$30.5) in liability insurance shows that we are even-more cautious than most customers."

World Firsts

Sleek has over the years developed many innovations that are world firsts. The company's significant innovation and technology will not be easily matched by rivals, especially considering Sleek has ample products that are feasible to be commercialized.

One of Sleek's early achievements is the pioneering 3.6x10mm glass-tube fuse, which stunned the global market for its better protection but compactness. The company followed up by receiving the world's first UL and VDE certification for such fuse, while many of its other fuses are patented in industrially advanced nations for design, special material, production technique, functions etc.

First Element-wire SMD Fuse

A turning point that further pushed Sleek towards being a tech-leader in the past few years is the successful development of the world's first SMD fuse with built-in element wire, which effectively cut the cost of a circuit board and upgrade the safety, durability of products protected by such fuses. Many years of prosperous development has made Sleek the global leader in the SMD-fuse segment in terms of production volume, quality and function, all of which allow the company to command the highest unit prices.

"Sleeks sells not merely fuses but overall tech support," Yang proudly claims. "A leading LCD monitor maker turned to us for development of a new fuse that is compact and more burnout precise. Sleek found that all available SMD fuses adopted tin solder, which offer highly inaccurate burnout protection. So Sleek tapped its expertise in material science to invent the world's first SMD fuse with built-in wire element, overcoming the just mentioned fault.

Having patented such wire-element SMD fuse in the U.S., Taiwan, mainland China, Japan and German, Yang says that even after the patents expire in 10 years, most rivals still would be technologically challenged to easily duplicate such innovative product.

Cutting-edge Projects

Fueled by ambition to lead the industry, Sleek is engaged in several cutting-edge projects that are expected to greatly motivate company growth, for which new land has been bought and plans to set up a second facility is in the works.

One such revolutionary item, another world's first, Sleek plans to demonstrate in the near future is a patent-pending SMD circuit controller, or the intelligent SMD fuse, that features multi-functionality in one tiny device measuring 5x3mm, including current overload cutoff, thermal and voltage protectors, and state-of-the-art design enabling a special sensor to be integrated in a fuse for shutdown under preset conditions.

"The SMD circuit controller will push the global fuse sector a giant step forward," Yang claims excitedly. "The wide-ranging protection provided by such intelligent fuse will eliminate battery explosions, so just imagine the application possibilities." Most fuses currently adopted in battery systems, according to the president and R&D chief, only provide thermal rather than current protection, the major reason for overheating and explosion.

Another innovation to be revealed soon, according to Yang, is a simplified and miniaturized model derived from traditional counterparts measuring 8x6x8.5mm, which will be downsized to only 6x2x3mm due to structural design changes.

In addition, Sleek plans to launch a new product showing the firm's considerable R&D capacity-a waterproof automotive blade fuse with 100M water resistance. According to Yang, Sleek developed such high-end fuse according to a major automaker's specifications and commercialized products will be adopted in military vehicles.

"Sleek's core, most valuable advantage lies in its ability to understand world-class engineers' ideas and realize them into marketable products," Yang claims.

First In-house TUV Lab

Besides being an innovative fuse developer, Sleek also sets another record for running the world's first in-house testing lab approved by UL and TUV, which, according to Yang, enables the company to right away certify new products supervised by TUV or UL personnel.

"Operating in-house testing lab greatly shortens the product-certification period to only seven days," Yang explains. "Insisting on adopting only top-end testing and inspection instruments exceeding required precision levels also bolsters our R&D strength. For example, the lab certified a 20A ceramic fuse developed for cellphone base-stations, the highest rating of its kind, which also enables the lab to add another R&D tool to its portfolio."

"Sleek always aims to maximize its quality and efficiency," Yang continues. "Although the fuse-manufacturing business is often labor intensive, but we try our best to streamline production, using the costs saved to upgrade material and overall quality."

Clear Vision

With clear vision and a roadmap, Sleek looks forward to an even rosier future. "The bottom-line is simple-we would not survive if our major rivals can match our quality, cost control, technology advancement etc.," Yang says.

Unabashedly, Yang points out Littlefuse, an American pioneer with global deployments and 80-plus years of experience, as its main rival, as well as stating overwhelming confidence in the company's ability to further climb up the industrial rankings in the next few years.

Predicting to make quantum leaps between 2009 and 2010, Sleek expects triple or quintuple revenue growths due to working on a range of new, unmatched products. The company has seen steady 100% and 200% sales growths in the past 15 years.

"Sleek is all about engineering total fuse solutions, not just products," stresses Yang. "Given fully detailed specifications, Sleek can offer comprehensive test reports, best-quality solutions, and fuses with guaranteed life under set conditions, which is unheard of worldwide."