Meet the Team: Mario Turski

My foray into the world of electronics began at PC World Business, before the chance to advance my career came up, which is when I moved to PCB building and eventually became SMT Manager at UKC. For me, I find it a really interesting job.

“You realise many will benefit from our final product – except perhaps mice!”

By making prototypes, we help to implement many new devices on the market and maintain the continuity of production for existing customers. The range of customers is huge - anything from music through to lighting, to mouse traps.

The electronics market is perhaps the most developing sector at the moment. Every day there are new challenges and new projects - you see how this industry is developing. You realise that many customers and end users will get to benefit from your final product, someone is waiting for it at the end. Well, maybe except the mouse!

“Since the pandemic, as a perfectionist I’m learning to stress less”

The piece of advice I’d give myself, if I could go back in time a year or two, is to probably stress less, above anything else. By nature, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and rather pedantic by my own admission, so when I happen to make a mistake, I take it very personally. I think the pandemic has allowed many of us to press the reset button or reassess who we are; it’s been a chance for some of us to reflect and take stock of things.

I have been working for UKC for over 15 years, and I think I have gone through every level of the business from assembling components and soldering machine programs to repairing them and many other things - a lot of really great work that I got involved with. But I’d say my greatest achievement is that over the years, I’ve helped expand my SMT department to its current capacity. When I first joined the department, there were just two old machines and one PCB oven. I wrote the programmes manually without the use of specialised software. 

Our industry has a type of dominoes effect, where one new device gives you an idea for another. Designers are constantly trying to minimise products, for them to become more slimline and more efficient. Over the years I’ve seen this happening, for instance, when we were building PCBs using relatively large LEDs. Now we are building using LEDs several times smaller and at the same time more efficient. Consequently, it saves space and energy. This is exactly what our environment is heading towards.

“PCB production will always be required, developed and become increasingly profitable”

This sector will always be in demand and will continue to expand. In this respect, it is still a growing tree. Can you imagine the world today without a computer or phone? And do you remember the possibilities of electronic equipment years ago as well as today? PCB production will always be needed and developed, and as a result, always profitable. It all depends on the owner's wallet of course! The more you invest, the more you reap profits. Ultimately, this industry just seems to be going in one direction, and is sure to bring increasing profits.