EasyBraid Celebrates 25 Years
May 16, 2014 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Ralph Savage launched EasyBraid for one very good reason: He needed some solder wick in a hurry, so he decided to make it himself.
Savage chuckles at the idea now.
“I thought, ‘How hard can it be to make solder wick?’ Basically, it’s just braided copper with flux on it.”
That was 25 years ago, back when the product was nicknamed “Ralphiewick.” Now, EasyBraid has a large share of the market.
“We manufacture all of the solder wick in the U.S.,” says Savage. “We’re the last ones to manufacture it here.”
Savage has been in the electronics industry since 1973. He founded REStronics, a manufacturer’s representative firm, on April Fool’s Day 1980, and that firm continues to rep a variety of companies to this day.
This led indirectly to the founding of EasyBraid.
“We represented a company called Solder Removal Co., and we had a falling out with them. My brother ran a Far East solder and flux operation in Singapore, and we he had a lab over there,” said Savage. “I also had the assistance of a neighbor who was a chemical engineer for General Mills. It was fun to do in my garage on Saturdays.”
The operation kicked off with a fairly low-tech beginning, with Savage allocating his wife’s hair dryer for flux-drying duty. Not long afterward, EasyBraid received its first big order, from a major defense contractor.
“That was great!” Savage remembers. “But they returned it later because it turned green. You know how copper oxidizes. It all comes down to chemistry.”
An Entrepreneur at Heart
Savage has worn other hats along the way, launching Midwest Electronics Expo in 1984 to help the companies represented by REStronics. The show continued to grow until 1987, when he got a call from Miller Freeman’s trade show group.
“I got an offer well into the seven figures for the show. I said, ‘Cash?’” Savage laughs. “So that allowed me to put some money into Easy Braid.”
EasyBraid is one of only a handful of solder wick makers in the world. But solder wick is not much of a growth market.
“There are, I think, four manufacturers of solder wick worldwide. But it’s not a huge market,” Savage says. “With solder wick, I wouldn’t forecast the U.S. market to grow much more for us. It’s not a thriving, growing opportunity.”
So, EasyBraid expanded into capital equipment. After Metcal’s patent expired, EasyBraid began manufacturing a similar soldering station.
Savage points out, “Starting with my REStronic side, I’ve been in capital equipment a long time!”
Bullish on American Industry
Solder wick is certainly a niche product. Sure, American companies buy EasyBraid’s solder wick. But what about the rest of the world?
“We also get, strangely enough, a lot of export business. Asia likes to buy American, at least for this product,” says Savage. “The market share leader in this space is a public company, so they have dividends and other things to deal with. Our overhead is really minimal here at Easy Braid.”
He also says onshoring is a fact, and that more companies will be coming back to the U.S. as quality begins to trump capacity.
“It is coming back,” Savage says. “It’s going to come back here, because it’s not that much more expensive. And in China, they have all of these problems with smog and energy; they just can’t produce enough energy, and they have all of these empty buildings.”
Savage is a big believer in American ingenuity, but he’s worried about the graying of the electronics industry.
“I would hope that this industry gets attractive again to young blood. Part of the problem is that we’ve become so lean,” Savage explains. “What is in place to train the new people?”
And Savage thinks we’ve turned the corner.
“I think the worst is over. We have what we have,” he says. “Military electronics has been great for 2010-12. Medical electronics is here to stay. Certain segments will stay here and keep plodding along.”
“The U.S. culture is very pioneer-oriented. I’m not pessimistic at all,” Savage adds. “Everything is cyclical. Save money in the good times and spend it in the bad times. It’s the same with gambling: When you’re losing, don’t double down.”