Date: Jan 26, 2015 Author: Steve Sadin Source: Chicago Tribune (
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Sachin Junnarkar explains how his new product can detect the tiniest of flaws in steel. The blue items on the top beam x-rays at steel rails.
When Sachin Junnarkar of Vernon Hills developed a precision measurement technology for heavy industry, he found help creating his business in Lake Forest.
Junnarkar's Field Viewers, Inc., is one of 18 businesses that have found a home at the Lake
Forest Business Accelerator, which offers networking and resources to entrepreneurs.
"There is a lot of support," Junnarkar said. "I get legal advice and there's always someone around I can talk to about ideas. The rent is pretty attractive and it is always good to have a business address."
An electrical engineer with a PhD from the Universite de Sherbrook in Canada, Junnarkar spent 10 years at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on New York's Long Island before moving to Vernon Hills in 2011 to take a job in the private sector.
Two years after arriving in the Chicago area, Junnarkar developed an efficient method to measure flaws in steel, like train rails and pipes. His method uses x-ray technology to assess stability, which allows the material to be repaired or discarded before going into the market place.
"This is modular technology so it can measure any size, shape or form," Junnarkar said. "It determines the integrity of the steel. Before you might not have been able to look for that."
The steel passes through the x-rays on the Field Viewer machine, where tiny flaws as small as 1/25,000 of an inch can be detected, according to Junnarkar.
"It's ten to the minus sixth of a meter," he said.
Though technology already exists to detect these flaws, it has not been done in a form where a manufacturer can bring machines into a factory to detect potential blemishes as soon as the steel is forged.
"This is faster, greener and more economical" Junnarkar said. "It is gauged to handle any size shape or form."
Junnarkar is not yet ready to disclose the price he will charge customers but said he hopes to have five machines placed this year and between 20 to 50 next year.
As an engineer with a scant marketing background, Junnarkar said the accelerator's help in placing the product was particularly valuable.
Field Viewers was chosen as one of six small businesses connected to the accelerator to have a marketing plan developed by Lake Forest College professor Darlene Jafke's entrepreneurial marketing class.
"I have already implemented some of their ideas," Junnarkar said.
The plan was crafted by Torie Pasiewicz, Rafael Turcotte and Cooper King. They relished the idea of working with a blank slate.
"We started from scratch because there was no marketing," Pasiewicz said. "We started a website to get the name out there and started working with social media. We did an advertising slick and three-fold."
The three students also helped create a logo and other marketing materials. They came up with the idea of logo stickers to go on hard hats, which are required when working in most of the plants where Junnarkar hopes to place his product. They are already on the hard hats in his office.
In a business to business communication environment, Junnarkar plans to do a lot of marketing through trade shows. The students developed the collateral materials he will need to hand prospective customers.
"If he can get the product known to the industry he will sell it," King said.
Junnarkar said he was not worried about giving up a steady paycheck to go into business for himself. He felt the product would be good for a lot of manufacturers and could only think of one way to put it in their hands.
"The only way to get this done is through entrepreneurship," Junnarkar said. "You really can't get someone else to do it."
