Electronics manufacturing services provider MC Assembly is working with Maine-based Pika Energy to manufacture components of the company’s solar inverter product lines. Pika Energy selected MC Assembly in 2016, seeking a New England-based manufacturing partner to meet the company’s increasing production needs.
“We looked to MC Assembly when we sought to scale up our manufacturing to meet increasing product demand,” said Chip Means, Pika Energy’s Director of Sales Development. Means said MC Assembly’s location just two hours from Pika Energy’s headquarters was a strong quality in the relationship from early on. “We mutually identified the advantage of working closely, geographically, as partners,” he said.
“We have built a strong relationship,” said Gary Tarallo, Director of New Business Development for MC Assembly’s Boston Facility. “It’s truly a partnership, as we both look at how we support each other as a win-win.”
Pika Energy develops clean power electronics solutions for residential and commercial sectors. Its patented technology takes an input from clean energy sources and distributes power that can be stored in a battery, used in a building or sold back to the grid.
MC Assembly started ramping up to volume production in October at its Boston facility. “There was a lot of collaborative work between both our engineering groups getting it set up and going,” said Thom Hansen, Director of Operations at MC Assembly’s Boston facility. “We worked collectively on engineering changes as they came about and made sure we were both on the same page.”
Hansen said Pika Energy’s products need to comply with specific utility grid standards. To ensure reliability, MC Assembly used its standard robust inspection and testing process. “The best things we can do to ensure reliability is to provide layers of verification,” Hansen said.
— Solar Builder magazine
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