Shenja Panik, Elektor
Editor's Note: During the past 60 years, Elektor has offered countless electronics industry thought leaders a place to share their ideas and to inspire electronics enthusiasts to turn their back-of-the-napkin sketches into real-world applications. In a new recurring series titled "Tech Talk," Shenja Panik enables electronics industry thought leaders — including professional engineers, start-up founders, and C-level executives at well-established corporations — to share inspiring stories about their companies (e.g., Rutronik). She also encourages these innovators and experts to talk about new technologies, as well as the future of the ever-evolving electronics industry.
Rutronik has grown from a one-person business into the third-largest distributor in Europe. Andreas Mangler, Director of Strategic Marketing at Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH, talks about the company's background, its innovative products, and the markets it will target in the coming months and years.

Shenja Panik: Tell us about your company.

Andreas Mangler: Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH has developed from a “one-man-company”, founded in 1973, into one of the worldwide leading broadline distributors with more than 1,800 employees. Rutronik operates as an independent, owner-managed company – always guided by our philosophy of “committed to excellence”. We have a dense pan-European network of sales offices, represented through its own branches in all European countries. The subsidiary Rutronik Inc. serves the North American market, while subsidiaries with seven offices in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand support the customers in Asia.
Andreas Mangler

Shenja Panik: What is your core business?

Andreas Mangler: Rutronik offers semiconductors, passive and electromechanical components, boards, storage technologies, displays and wireless products. Specialized campaigns like EMBEDDED, SMART, AUTOMOTIVE and POWER bundle competences for specific applications.
 
Shenja Panik: What are your Unique Selling Points?

Andreas Mangler: At Rutronik, our customers can expect several advantages: an extensive portfolio of high-quality products of well-known, as well as newcomer, manufacturers, a partner that acts as an extended arm into less connected regions, and, of course, a highly educated team on eye level.
 
We are able to cover the entire development cycle from brainstorming to design, from prototyping to serial production, all the way through to the phase-out process at the end of the product’s lifecycle and offer customers an extensive and well-founded technical and commercial support.
 
Our modular logistics concept allows customer-specific solutions put together as needed. The three base systems – delivery schedule, Kanban and consignment – is set up with various parameters, combinations and additional services to provide a tailored system.
 
Shenja Panik: What do your customers appreciate about you?

Andreas Mangler: Especially in challenging times, our “second source” principle is one of the most important aspects for our clients. We offer two or three manufacturers for each product or product group in our linecard, providing customers with a broad selection and security of supply, even when product rationing is in effect. Further, Rutronik provides an extensive information service with datasheets, PCNs, application documents and up-to-date information via our newsletter, www.rutronik.com, and our social media channels.
 
Shenja Panik: Tell us about your (currently) most innovative product.

Andreas Mangler: Currently, we are investing a lot of work force in possible applications of UVA and UVC LEDs and required solutions, like matching DevKits. The discussion about viruses has led to a real hype about UV-C. It is a chemical-free, highly efficient solution. Absorbed by bacteria, viruses, spores and germs, it breaks their DNA/RNA bonds. Especially when used against multi-resistant microorganisms, such as the dreaded "hospital germ" MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) or corona viruses, UVC is highly recommended. It is not an invention from 2020, but it helped to force the use of significantly more efficient and environmentally friendly LEDs, replacing the previous fluorescent tubes.
 
In this context, and thanks to our creative and innovative engineers and developers, Rutronik realized a deodorizer demonstrator working with an UV-supported TiO2 photocatalysis, which is extremely effective against odors. The result is a mobile device with a handy quadratic housing (48mm x 48mm x 60mm) actively working against germs, bacteria, viruses and odors.
 
Shenja Panik: Where do you see the future of your company in five years?

Andreas Mangler: The next five years will push the industrial digitalization to the next level. Modern network infrastructures like 5G/6G, Wi-Fi HaLow etc. will strengthen this process. Keeping this in mind, we have identified several future markets for Rutronik. They include: (I)IoT, Energy, Industry 4.0, and E-Mobility, of course. In addition, Advanced Materials & Robotics, Biotechnology and Medical, Advanced Measurement, Processing and Analytics, AI and Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain are market segments we will focus on.
 

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