EMS@C-LEVEL

Creative Electron's Global Expansion: Made in USA, Serving the World with Dr. Bill Cardoso

• Philip Spagnoli Stoten

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Manufacturing is going global, but "Made in USA" still matters. Dr. Bill Cardoso reveals how Creative Electron's groundbreaking joint venture with Unicomp is redefining X-ray inspection technology while maintaining their American manufacturing roots.

In this interview with Eric Miscoll on the show floor of IPC APEX 2025, Bill shares how the partnership creates a 1,200-employee global enterprise with facilities spanning Hungary, India, Malaysia, and China. This strategic expansion arrives just as international trade faces growing challenges from protectionist policies and tariff barriers, positioning Creative Electron to serve customers worldwide while strengthening their San Marcos, California manufacturing operations.

The joint venture combines complementary technological strengths. Unicomp brings hardware expertise optimized for Asia's high-volume, low-mix production environments, while Creative Electron contributes user-friendly software tailored for Western manufacturing's high-mix, low-volume challenges. All systems—including those based on Unicomp technology—will be American-made for the American market, maintaining the quality and warranty that distinguishes Creative Electron in the marketplace.

Behind this expansion lies a closely aligned customer-obsessed philosophy driving everything from R&D to organizational structure. Dedicated business units now focus on specific product lines, ensuring specialized attention to customer needs. For Cardoso, this represents just the beginning of an ambitious journey to grow Creative Electron into a multi-billion dollar enterprise bridging technological silos to deliver inspection solutions that work across global manufacturing environments.

EMS@C-Level Live at APEX is sponsored by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Creative Electron (https://creativeelectron.com)

EMS@C-Level is sponsored by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Creative Electron (https://creativeelectron.com)

You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.

Eric Miscoll:

Hello and welcome. I'm Eric Miskew of EMS, now show floor IPC Apex 2025 in the Creative Electron booth. So I thought we better invite the guy from Creative Electron, right you better you can tell he's got the shirt. That's got all going here. Dr Bill Cardoso with Creative Electron right, you bet you can tell he's got the shirt. That's got all going here, dr.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

Bill Cardoso with Creative Electron. So good to see you.

Eric Miscoll:

Yeah, it's been a while I know You've made a good presence at the show this year, you know, every year is a little better, right?

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

So this year I think we have a little more significant bump than we've had over the past few years. We're bringing a whole new technology. That's true and tried with our 3D AXI inline system. It's super cool New X-ray parts counters, new manual X-ray inspection machines. You know offline machines. So we are you're gonna see some big changes starting 2025 for us offline machines. So we are you're going to see some big changes starting 2025 for us huge changes.

Eric Miscoll:

And that goes to the announcement, right? Yeah, we had a big announcement. We had a big announcement.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

Drum roll please.

Eric Miscoll:

It's the joint venture with Unicomp out of China right.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

Yeah, exactly so. China, malaysia, and then we have now locations in Hungary, india. So this joint venture between Creative Electronics and Unicomp China, Malaysia and then we have now locations in Hungary, india, so this joint venture between Creative Electric and Newcom really made us a global company. A global company with a combined 1,200 people and an incredible amount of bandwidth and capacity that we can use to serve our customers where they are, when they need us and how they need us. That's the whole idea.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

I know you're much younger than I am, but we both grew up in a world where free trade was what we all wanted, at least that's our politicians. Everyone talks about free trade and free commerce of goods between, you know, friend countries, and that world is slowly going away and countries are starting to raise walls, tariff walls. So it became even more critical for us to be this global company so that we can, you know, augment and improve and fortify our US manufacturing. Our machines are made in the US and we're going to keep that widely. So you have made in the US, so we can take care of North American and South American customers from our manufacturing factory here in San Marcos, california, and then, with that, keep growing right. They have a very capable software team here. We have the best post sales service in the in the industry, which we have a three warranty right. No one's. No one else does that. So we're putting all these things together better. You know. Great technology, great value and best service yeah.

Eric Miscoll:

What would you not buy? Yeah, so you said a lot there. Let's unpack a couple of those elements.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

I know I do that sometimes. That's all right.

Eric Miscoll:

Unicomp, though it is also X-ray right, but it is a different type of X-ray right. So more what I would say volume.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

Is that right? Yeah, that's what's beautiful about this partnership. They've developed an incredible set of technology toolboxes for the Asian market, and Asia is about high volume, high, high, high volume, low mix, right. So they developed all those toolboxes and we, on the other hand, we've been perfecting the low volume, high mix right. So we come from all these different philosophies of design X-ray machine and what we realized is like they have an incredible piece of hardware to deal with the high volume. We have an incredible piece of software to deal with the high mix. So now the beauty of this relationship is to be able to blend those two things bring the manufacturer to the US, make machines here with that incredible hardware platform and blend with our software. That's very easy to use because that's what we do, that's our DNA, right? So the ability to blend those two things is what really makes this a very successful partnership.

Eric Miscoll:

And the joint venture then allows you to sell their equipment there's some right there, right in this market and they in turn, will sell yours in their market.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

It's all our equipment now. So the machines you see here, they're going to be made in the US as well.

Eric Miscoll:

These are American machines. You mean even the Unicomp ones. Unicomp yeah.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

They're creative electrical machines. They're all brand new, creative electrical and they're made in the US.

Eric Miscoll:

Isn't that awesome. That is cool.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

That's what I said a global company. We're going where and when and how. We need a maid. That's what's beautiful.

Eric Miscoll:

Yeah, because that is different. I mean, the maid in America has been one of your distinctive products, absolutely.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

And I'm not giving that away. Yeah, we're a made-in-US company.

Eric Miscoll:

That's good to see. So does that mean creative electron machines in Asia will be made here? Still, absolutely Okay, they're all made in the US, okay, so it would all be done. All made in the US, okay, that's good. The other issue was R&D. So you talked about how big the people are in that you had two companies, different R&D teams. Is there a merging of that, some synergies there?

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

It's a good question, right? When you get to this volume of people and smart technologies. That was a challenge to figure out how we're going to blend. So we have teams from there living here, we have some of our guys going there and then, over time, blending these technologies to do exactly the tech transfer that is focused on answering the questions our customers have. Right, it's a very customer. We have a customer. We're a customer-focused company. In a customer-focused strategy, that means we're solving the customer's problems. That's what's going to drive our research and development.

Eric Miscoll:

I love the fact, as you stress repeatedly, now the global You're now a global entity. The creative electron brand is going to be as strong as ever, exactly.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

That's the idea and what makes it strong is Made in USA. That's where we are and that's a brand we want to propagate here Asia, europe and India that's good to hear.

Eric Miscoll:

Has your role, or will your role changed at all in this?

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

My role is, you know, I love technology. That's my weakness and I don't know if I'll be able to spend as much time on the floor working with machines.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

With our manufacturing guys. They're going to appreciate a lot. They'll love that Kick you out. But, as I said, as a global company, my role is going to be more in the growing. We have established business units and each business unit is going to be focused laser focused on being obsessed about a specific problem. So we have a business unit for parts counters and offline machines. We have business units just for AXI and with that we're gonna build this, integrate this organization around each one of these products. So again, so we're obsessed about our customer success and each one of them. My job is gonna be to manage that and keep growing our company to. You know, a multi-billion dollar company. Oh, that's fantastic. That's where we wanna beillion dollar company, oh that's fantastic.

Eric Miscoll:

That's where we want to be Good for you. Listen, I'm super excited. I loved when we saw you.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

I really am. Well, you should be. It's going to be awesome.

Eric Miscoll:

Yeah, I'm just in the press. I saw their joint and I knew you and I said this is a good thing and I think it's good for the industry as well.

Dr. Bill Cardoso, CEO, Creative Electron:

I think, from a from an inspection perspective, we've been very siloed for many years. We've been, you know, some people doing low mix, some people doing high mix, and this is the first drive to blend those two DNA philosophies to really make it a very impressive line of products so, on top of everything else, you're a trendsetter now too, right Trendsetter?

Eric Miscoll:

yes, that's how we do it. That's how you do it, bill. It's a pleasure Always. I wish you success. Thank you so much, thank you.