Futuristic-looking chairs and unconventionally shaped walls painted in purple, bright blue, goldenrod, and pale green characterize the temporary administrative offices at Spokane-based Visiontec Inc.


Beyond the maze of colorful walls is a secured door leading to the 4-year-old contract manufacturers stark-white, new 16,000-square-foot production facility. All who enter must wear smocks over their clothing and grounding straps on the bottom of their shoes to prevent electrostatic discharge from damaging the circuit boards being produced there.


Visiontec has worked to distinguish itself even in that stark-white environment, not with wild walls or funky furniture, but by installing three major pieces of high-tech equipment that will take the company from a single custom-work vendor to a one-stop shop, claims Rick Hansen, Visiontecs CEO.


We now have all we need to take a customers product idea from a napkin to full distribution, Hansen says.


To enhance its offerings further, Visiontec plans to buy a $2 million piece of equipment, to branch into the Seattle market, and to complete the renovation of its 50,800-square-foot headquarters building here, at 10920 E. Sprague, where its new production facility is located.


Those expansion plans are expected to boost Visiontecs employment to 55 from 47 by the end of the year and to 65 by the end of 2001, Hansen says. He says the company also expects its revenues to jump 50 percent this year to about $9 million, equaling its revenue growth rate of the previous three years.


Before this year, Visiontec was equipped only to make custom-cabling products and to perform some surface-mount circuitry and custom-assembly work mostly for customer prototypes. Now, the company has equipment that enables it to produce mid-range volumes of circuit boards, test them, and examine the circuitry of those that fail testing. It also can help design its customers products and procure materials for them. In short, it can provide full manufacturing services, not just prototype services.


$2 million machine


Visiontecs plant currently houses about $5 million worth of equipment, Hansen says.


The two main pieces are a prototype line, which uses a robotic arm to place up to 2,000 components an hour on circuit boards and solder them in place, and a high-speed production line, which uses robotics to place up to 20,000 components in an hour. Visiontec has owned the prototype line for several years, but bought the high-speed line from Itron Inc., of Spokane, last December.


Within the next nine months, Visiontec plans to buy a new, $2 million, high-speed big-board line, which will allow it to produce circuit boards that are up to 16 inches long and 18 inches high at extremely fast speeds. The high-speed line Visiontec recently bought from Itron, which is designed for mass production, only can produce boards up to 8 inches long and 12 inches high.


Visiontecs current prototype line can produce big circuit boards, but at much slower speeds, Hansen says. Prototype lines are set up to produce a limited number of circuit boards, so that those boards can be tested and tweaked.


In addition to the assembly lines, Visiontec bought a $400,000 device in April that can program and test completed circuit boards once they roll off the prototype or high-speed lines.


Visiontec also bought a $125,000 X-ray machine earlier this month that enables an employee to look at photographic images of the underside of the circuits that have been soldered onto a circuit board to determine if any shorts exist in the circuitry. Hansen says that machine, is the first such device in use in the U.S. He adds that Visiontec helped the X-ray machines manufacturer, England-based X-Tek Systems Ltd., to develop it.


A lot of people have pieces of the puzzle, but we have the complete picture, Hansen says. We now have a complete package to offer to our customers.


Visiontec currently has about 15 customers, a handful of which pay Visiontec to handle several aspects of the product-development process. Those customers include Spokane-based Itron Inc. and World Wide Packets Inc., of Spokane, as well as Seattle-based F5 Networks, Hansen says.


World Wide Packets founder Bernard Daines has invested in Visiontec. He says that World Wide Packets became a customer of Visiontecs not just because hes a part owner, but because of Visiontecs responsiveness, surface-mount line, and X-ray machine.


X-ray capabilities is a huge advantage, Daines says.


$5 million in financing


Visiontecs equipment purchases have been funded partly through a private funding of $2 million that the company secured earlier this year from Angel Start.Com LLC, a new Spokane firm that has a venture-capital fund, Hansen says. Visiontec also received another $3 million in financing from several individuals, he says. He declines to name the various investors, although Daines says hes among them.


Visiontec might use part of those cash infusions or pursue other funding options to open a Seattle branch by the end of the year, Hansen says. That branch, which likely will have about 6,000 square feet of floor space and eventually employ 10 people, would produce prototype circuit boards for Seattle-area customers. He says that once those customers perfect their prototypes and are ready to go into full production, Visiontec will produce the boards in Spokane.


Meanwhile, Visiontec also hopes to begin remodeling another 15,000 square feet of floor space in its new facility by the end of the year.


Visiontec bought the former Rosauers supermarket building on Dec. 31, began remodeling a portion of it the following week, and began production there on Feb. 29. Two weeks later, the administrative staff was moved into its temporary work area at the east end of the building.


Roughly $500,000 has been spent to renovate the production area of the facility, and Hansen says he expects the remaining work, which will include completing administrative offices and public areas, to cost as much as $2 million and to take up to 18 months to complete.


The renovation, the design concepts for which are being developed by Spokane-based Anderson Mraz Design Inc., will continue Visiontecs color scheme and will include a high-tech, multimedia main entrance; an art gallery-type setting to display customers products; a recreational area for employees; and permanent administrative offices.


Work would begin on the employee area first. The design for that area still is in the conceptual stage, but might include a basketball court, a racquetball court, and a coffeehouse type of sitting area, Hansen says. He also hopes to create four to six putting greens around the building for employees and customers.


We want our customers to have fun and we want our employees to have fun, Hansen says. Some of our employees have to sit and work under a microscope for 10 hours a day. They need a break.


In addition to the planned presentation area, where customers products would be displayed, Visiontec also expects to incorporate into its facility four private labs where its customers can work on prototypes in secret, and office workstations near the main entrance where customers can plug in their laptop computers and get some work done during their visits.


Our job is to help our customers design, manufacture, and deliver their products stress free, Hansen says. Theyre under enough pressure; we want this to be a place where they can reduce their stress level.