Fowler
Associates, Inc.
Company Profile
Our facility complex includes an electrical lab, training
rooms, administrative offices and three separate buildings for
oven and other tests that require isolation from the main labs
and offices.
Our Training Rooms are able to accomodate
up to 25 people confortably in "Captain's Chairs."
Our Lab is "State of the Art" with
multiple environmentally controlled goves boxes and a walk in
controlled room.
Steve Fowler's Profile
click here for resume'
As well as being a leading expert
in electrical engineering, electrostatic and radiation. Since
1986, Steve Fowler has been has been used as an "on camera"
expert for many national television news programs. The stories
have been covered by all major networks and many local stations:
One might say that Electrostatics is in the
blood of Steve Fowler. Some of his ancestors were killed by
a lightning strike in August 1895 in a mill village called Fairmont.
The two killed were Steve's Great Uncle and Aunt. This village,
minus the old textile mill, oddly enough is less than 3 miles
from the Fowler Associates offices.
Steve
Fowler, President of Fowler Associates, Inc, served in the U.S.
Air Force from 1966-1970. He was lucky enough to serve during
the tumultuous Vietnam War era. Steve spent 14 months on islands
in the South China Sea on radar installations and spent the
rest of his service at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi and
Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina. After the Air Force,
Steve completed his Electrical Engineering Degree at the University
of South Carolina.
In 1974 he joined the Cryovac Division of W.R.
Grace & Company. His job was to help found a new engineering
department for electron beam irradiation of polymers. From 1974
until he left Cryovac in 1991, Steve progressed through leadership
roles in radiation engineering and radiation safety. In 1986
Steve was asked to help develop Cryovac's new electronics plastics
(ESD Products). From 1988 until 1991, Steve was the technical
and market manager for the EP Films Product line at Cryovac.
Steve left Cryovac in 1991 to take the Vice President of Sales
job at United Technical Products in Canton, Mass. Steve left
UTP in 1992 to take a VP role in a new company for a patented
product that he helped invent. This company was called Rapid-Fill
USA. It manufactured an inflatable dunnage package. This company
was eventually sold to Sealed Air Corporation. In 1993, Steve
helped found both ESD Flooring Systems, Inc. and Fowler Associates,
Inc.
ESD Flooring Systems manufactured and distributed
conductive carpeting for ESD safe areas. This company was sold
to Vinyl Plastics, Inc. (VPI) in 1996.
Fowler Associates was formed to perform the
electrical testing for ESD Flooring Systems and outside clients.
One of those clients was Cryovac who by this time had shut down
the EP Films project headed by Steve during his last years there.
Luckily, the massive ESD & electrical testing facilities
at the Research facilities in Duncan, South Carolina and in
Columbia, Maryland were being "mothballed".
Fowler
Associates acquired the entire inventory of electrical laboratory
equipment from both locations. This made the capabilities of
Fowler Associates second to none in electrical and ESD testing.
This equipment also allowed Fowler associates to begin again
the business of radiation testing and consulting. After the
sale of ESD Flooring Systems, Steve’s previous employers became
Fowler Associates first and remain their most consistent clients
for the present business of Fowler Associates:
Testing
Electrical
rf
Emi
Environmental
Physical
ESD/Electrostatics
Physical
Radiation
Radiation Safety
Consulting/ Auditing
Electrical
ESD/Electrostatics
Radiation
Radiation Safety
Expert Witness
Electrical
ESD/Electrostatics
Radiation
Radiation Safety
Training
Electrical
ESD/Electrostatics
Radiation
Radiation Safety
Crisis Management
Electrical Safety
On-Line Publishing
Publisher of the following on-line trade magazines:
ESD Journal (http://www.esdjournal.com)
RAD Journal (http://www.radjournal.com)
The Echo-2000, Steve Fowler
from 1984 - 1994: While employed at Cryovac, in 1984 Steve Fowler
started a company called Palmetto Technologies, Inc. It manufactured
a patented invention of Steve's called the ECHO 2000. This device
was the size of a calculator and allowed any deaf person to
communicate over the phone with anyone who was using a touch
tone telephone. The deaf person talked into the phone and read
the response on the display of the ECHO 2000 which was being
typed out by the hearing person on the other end of the phone
line.
This device was featured in
USA Today, New York Times, many trade magazines as well as television
shows such as "The Merv Griffin Show."
It was not a marketing success
but brought help to many hundreds of hearing impaired people.
Some are still using the device today after 21 years. Steve
invented the device to be able to talk to his mother on the
phone after Steve's father died in 1976. With the help of two
partners, Trent Brown and David Himes, Palmetto Technologies
began manufacturing the devices in 1984. The ECHO 2000 used
a trademarked code, which utilized the 12 keys on the telephone
in a very efficient way. Some people could type 30 words per
minute using the touch tone pad. This code was called the "Echode"
and has been copied by Dow-Jones and other services, which allow
information to be entered by telephone.