Instruments Of Success Infinetix Can Develop Products Starting With Nothing More Than A Sketch

Products designed by Infinetix deal cards, count boxes and analyze blood.

But the favorite of co-founder Bruce Weyrauch is a primitive electronic reader board that hangs in the company lunchroom.

The “Smart Sign” designed in 1979 was the first project he and co-founder Leon Schmidt developed on their own, Weyrauch said.

The technology was eventually purchased by American Sign & Indicator, which sold it as an upgrade to some existing products, he said.

At the time, Weyrauch said, he and Schmidt were working for Instrumentation Laboratories, a maker of medical instruments.

But the company consolidated the Spokane operation into its Boston home office in 1987. Schmidt and Weyrauch, who have now worked together for 20 years, went out on their own.

Their new company, Spectrum Systems, did consulting work in the medical instrumentation field.

Uncertainties caused by health care reform doomed that venture, but Schmidt said the experience he and Weyrauch accumulated working in the field gave them several advantages: familiarity with a variety of technologies, understanding of the need for thorough documentation, and the patience required to survive government review of new products.

That experience helped during Nevada’s prolonged scrutiny of the Digital 21 blackjack table Infinetix helped develop for DigiDeal, Weyrauch said.

The fan-like skeleton of the first table’s electronics is propped against the wall in a cramped upstairs room at the firm’s Montgomery Commerce Center offices. A prototype table sits nearby.

Weyrauch said DigiDeal is one of about 10 companies Infinetix works with closely. Itron Inc. and Visiontec are among the others.

He said the company tries to avoid doing onetime projects because building a good working relationship with a client takes time.

Infinetix can develop a product starting with nothing more than a sketch, Weyrauch said. But sometimes, he said, would-be inventors must be told their idea won’t fly.

“We tend to give our clients a reality check up front,” he said.

Weyrauch said the company has grown at a compound annual rate of 30 percent. That will balloon to 80 percent for the year 2000, he said.

“It’s been really wild,” he said. “The whole electronics industry went crazy this year.’ Infinetix employs 19 draftsmen, programmers, technicians and engineers. Many were drawn to the company by the variety of work, Schmidt said.

Also, he said, the atmosphere is informal. He and Weyrauch decided long ago they would treat employees as they want to be treated.

The result is almost no turnover, Schmidt said. The company has lost only a receptionist and a programmer who went into Web site development.

Although Infinetix does no advertising, Schmidt said the work keeps coming in. One current project involves updating a blood chemistry analyzer the company designed years ago.

Schmidt said clients frequently turn to the company to upgrade designs on older products because they put all of their in-house resources into new projects.

Some underestimate the capabilities of Infinetix, he said. “We usually give them more than what they asked for.”

Weyrauch noted that any technology developed by the company, even anything patentable, becomes the client’s property at the end of the project.

“We’re like employees in that regard,” he said.

Weyrauch said he and Schmidt do not allow their administrative responsibilities interfere with hands-on engineering.

“That’s not why we went into business,” Schmidt said.

Weyrauch said both still devote about 60 percent of their time to various projects. They can’t be effective if they don’t keep up with the technology, he said.

He said Infinetix would like to develop some projects on its own, but can’t find the time.

Schmidt said the company would like to pursue some of those ideas in cooperation with Spokane Valley contract manufacturer Visiontec, which also sees some opportunities.

Weyrauch said Infinetix could develop products that Visiontec could manufacture and sell to clients with their own labels.

The focus on niche products will continue, he said. `I see us staying in the same kind of industry.”