KA-RO ELECTRONICS
KA-RO ELECTRONICS
Matthias Kaussen and Rolf Rosenstein, two students of electro engineering in Aachen, Germany, founded Ka-Ro electronics as an electronics manufacturing service in 1988. Just a year later in 1989, the young entrepreneurs were able to introduce semi-automatic surface mount technology into their manufacturing service. The investment in the first fully automated SMT machine at Ka-Ro took place two years later and lead to an enormous increase and improvement in production. After establishing Ka-Ro as a GmbH (limited company form) in 1992 the expansion of the manufacturing services continued and in 1993 Ka-Ro installed the first fully automatic SMT line (Intelliplace 2500).
DIN EN ISO 9001 and new company headquarters
Two further developments in 1995 were of great significance. Firstly, Ka-Ro was certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001 and secondly, an investment was made in a second SMT manufacturing line (General Surface Mount Line from the manufacturer Universal Instruments).
To meet increasing manufacturing requirements and volume and to be ready for future expansion and development, Ka-Ro moved into its own company premises in 1997 which provide 2500qm of space. Coinciding with this, further expansion took place on the production line with a HPS 4795S und an Ultraprint 3000. In the following year(1998) Ka-Ro invested in a second convection reflow soldering machine from the manufacturer ETS.
Computer on Modules – Ka-Ro as a specialist for small-size/low power devices
From the year 2001 the introduction of the new ”Embedded“ business unit played a large role in the company’s development. It was in this year that Ka-Ro launched its first computers on modules into the market and laid the foundation for the successful product range. Ka-Ro fast developed into a specialist for low power and small format modules.
In 2004, for the first time, sales of computer on modules rose to over 10.000 units. Via distributor partners, Ka-Ro sold into the USA, Great Britain and Scandinavian markets.
Further extension of production capacity
2006 marked Ka-Ro’s conversion to RoHs conform electronic manufacturing. Further expansion of the manufacturing capacity was in 2007 when a Quadris Universal was installed at Ka-Ro (the first installation of its kind in Europe). In the product area, Ka-Ro introduced the TRITON 320 (PXA320).
In 2007 Ka-Ro experienced the saddest chapter of its history, Rolf Rosenstein, one of the firm’s managing directors and co-founders of the company passes away unexpectedly.
Matthias Kaussen carries on managing the company and relies on his trusted team. Ekkehard Meurers, responsible for Business Development, takes on the additional area of Finances.
With the i.MX module into the global market
In 2008 Ka-Ro expanded its product area with i.MX processors from Freescale and introduced the first module with the i.MX27 (TX27) processor. The i.MX module is the smallest available Freescale Computer on Module system. For the first time, in 2008 Ka-Ro exhibited at the embedded world trade fair in Nürnberg with its own booth.
