24-Year PCB Assembly Manufacturer Still Going Strong with Novastar’s SMT Equipment

One of Novastar’s 1st Pick & Place Machines, and L40 – still running full tilt, 20 years later. Adjacent GF120 reflow oven, also used daily, was bought at the same time.

CMS Associates operates a 6,000 Square Foot manufacturing facility, and offers engineering prototypes, and short run/production quantities for surface mount and thru-hole printed circuit board assemblies. They have several longstanding customers, as does Novastar!

Company Owner, Jason Hunt, with long-time employee, Linda, demonstrating the easy nozzle change and feeder setups on their ‘’new machine’ (which is 13 years old).

Linda loves the software details – even on ‘Grandpa,’ their 20-year old L40 pick & Place machine.

DDM Novastar recently had the opportunity to visit one of our long-standing customers and deliver some feeders to them. We met with Jason Hunt, owner of CMS Associates, a long-time PCB assembly manufacturer. Jason took over from his dad, Joe Hunt, who recently retired, but not before taking a nice long road trip up to our new facility in Warminster PA this past December to bring us some feeders for repair. Joe and his wife were one of the first customers to visit us in our new place.

Established in 1994, CMS set up shop outside of Raleigh, NC. Soon after, they purchased an L40 Pick & Place Machine and a GF120 reflow oven from Novastar for their contract manufacturing business in Wendell, NC. They drove up from NC to PA to pick up their original machines, and they have come back often throughout the past 20 years for new equipment, accessories and spare parts (and occasionally a little service work).

CMS has expanded their production line in 2005 with the purchase of additional SMT equipment, an SPR 25 Stencil Printer, a second L40 Pick & Place machine, and a Spartan wave solder machine. All of these machines are still running on a daily basis.

Other than replacing a few spare parts over the years, CMS Company owner, Jason Hunt says, “You can’t kill those machines, they just keep on running. And with the variety and complexity of PCBs and thru-hole mixed with surface mount components, it’s critical to have machines that understand that.”

Examples of some of the boards made on Novastar machines.

CMS prides itself on being a veteran-owned, full-service PCB Contract Manufacturer in the USA who still employs the same skilled work force, many since 1995.

Jason stated that within the last 3 to 4 years, many of their customers, who left years ago to source their boards from the Asian assembly markets, have returned to the quality and affordability of their workmanship again. Great news for CMS, Novastar’s SMT Equipment and American PCB manufacturing as a whole!

He is planning on a new DDM Novastar LS40 with Vision this time, not to replace anything, but to expand their capacity. “We know the equipment, the software, the service provided by the folks who made the machines, and we wouldn’t look any place else,” said Jason.

Barbara Kirkpatrick, DDM Novastar CFO