Elcon Precision LLC
1009 Timothy Dr, San Jose, California, United States

Elcon Inc., founded in 1967, provides diverse technical services and capabilities that include Photochemical Machining, Metallization and Resistive Coating of Ceramics and Brazed Assembly Services. Elcon provides "one-stop shopping" as well as fast-turnaround for prototypes and small to high production runs. In addition to its traditional customers in the military and microwave fields, Elcon also supplies precision parts and vacuum-tight ceramic metal assemblies to several national labs as well as the aerospace, biomedical, semiconductor, electronics, optical and communication industries. Anthony Barraco, founder of Elcon, started his company based on a $360 idea for producing precision oxide cathodes. His first customer was an internationally known supplier of instrument-grade oscilloscopes. Tony's idea attracted several international customers for whom Elcon supplied hundreds of thousands of cathodes.

Elcon's diverse experience with vacuum and brazing technologies quickly led to other products, including the development of "taped" braze alloys in the early 1970s. Elcon's unique method for applying high-temperature braze alloys as a formable strip is still used today for attaching turbine blades to the hubs of jet aircraft engines.

In the mid-70's Elcon developed a line of low-power, fast warm-up CRT cathodes for military grade field oscilloscopes. This product required a flat "pancake" style filament with a level of precision that was not then available. Elcon rose to the challenge by developing in-house photo etching capabilities.

Elcon's unique metal etching capabilities allowed refractory metals to be etched with a level of precision and fine detail available nowhere else. To this day, Elcon remains a premier supplier of precision photo-chemically machined parts. Elcon's capabilities include shaped cross-sections and tolerances of less than ±.0005 inch. Elcon also provides precision etched metal parts for fast turnaround and prototype applications.

In the late 70's Elcon worked with an international supplier of microwave tubes to photo-etch precision shapes into preformed refractory metal surfaces. To this day, Elcon remains one of the few companies in the world with the metal forming and photo-etching capabilities needed to precisely etch 3D surfaces.

For 30 years Elcon produced a line of medium-range vacuum gauges. This knowledge base allowed Elcon to offer precision metallized Aluminum Oxide ceramics and vacuum-tight ceramic-metal assemblies built to customer specifications. Elcon also provides in-house electro/electroless plating and precision machining.