ARCHANA RAVINDER
India Post News Service
Published: 2004-02-06

Taking over a company, which was almost on the verge of closure and bringing about an amazing turnaround a turnaround, which has the company's name etched as a proud partner in the Mars Exploration Program. The enterprising duo who have been commended with this remarkable achievement are Govind and Prashant Vagashia.

Chatsworth, California based Graphic Research Inc. (GRI) a company-established way back in 1966 that the Vagashia's took over in 1999 is engaged in the design, development and fabrication of Printed Wire Boards for the Military, Space and for the High End Commercial Industry.

Govind Vagashia, Chairman & CEO of GRI says, "Our focus is to provide our customers with reliable quality and a product that meets and exceeds customer expectations everytime." Pointing out that the industry that GRI caters to is a highly sophisticated one, Govind adds, "Time and Quality is of essence in this industry, when we deal with industries such as military and space, we don't have a second chance."

The Quality Assurance department along with the engineers have developed and instituted a comprehensive quality system, which clearly identifies the deficiencies to ensure a perfect end product. Realizing the changing requirements of the industry, Govind observes, "Fabrications, which could earlier easily take 3-4 weeks, have to be churned out within 72 hours to a week now and GRI is fully equipped and capable to handle these requirements," he proudly states and rightly so, a company which was marred by management problems and delivery issues has been restored to its original glory owing to the hard work and dedication of the Vagashia's.

GRI develops multilayered printer circuit boards with the layers ranging from 3-30. Customers in the telecommunications, medical field and in military and space programs use GRI's multilayered printer wiring boards extensively. Another product of GRI is called Flex and the Rigid Flex in which the company is a leader. This technology has been in existence since 1976 and is now one of the fastest growing segment of the industry. The other area of operation is the metal core, this technology has been in use since 1975 and GRI is regarded as industry leader in special applications where heat is stationed. The company currently produces high volume product, which contains an active and inactive core of aluminum, copper and copper-inwire-copper with a host of variations in the number of layers. Another product from the GRI stable is the Teflon Multilayer, GRI is currently manufacturing Teflon boards with reinforced ceramic woven and unwoven glass for microwave and high frequency applications and are also fabricating multi layer boards with woven glass and ceramic filled thermostat materials that would provide high frequency performance comparable to PTFE.

The company boasts of an incredible list of customers Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin to name a few.

  In 1997, the company had made six parts for the Mars   Pathfinder and that particular unit distributed energy   and power to different components of the Pathfinder.   Encouraged by the excellent work done by the   company, Northrop Grumman subcontracted part of   the work to GRI. Govind elaborates saying, "This is a   Gyro Navigation System that is if the signals are sent   from Earth to Mars Spirit Rover to move 45 degrees   then this vehicle would move and all that is brought   about by our boards."

Govind has had the distinction of serving on the Presidential Business Commission and was awarded the Businessman of the Year Award in 2001 by the National Republican Congressional Committee.