High-tech manufacturer picks Laramie over N.Y.

C.F. Electronics shifts from military to medical field

LARAMIE — It’s a long way from Long Island to Laramie, but Frank Cylvick is making the transition well.

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For that matter, it’s a long way from being a defense contractor to switching gears to manufacture medical products, but Cylvick is making that transition, too.

Cylvick is the president, CEO and currently the only full-time Wyoming employee of C.F. Electronics Inc., a 24-year-old New York firm that relocated to Laramie last spring and is in the process of retooling for a new mission of manufacturing emergency medical products.

“Basically when the defense industry went into a depression, I saw that coming and started developing medical products,” he explained. “We make a series of different medical products, which is now becoming more of our business than the military.”

C.F. Electronics still manufactures electronic equipment for the military, such as a battery charger for aircraft batteries, special telephones and amplifiers, but much of its shop on Laramie’s north end is devoted to the new medical products, such as its trademark “Hot-Sack, a portable nylon case that electrically warms IV fluids to body temperature in the field, or its portable “Hot-Sack II,” which heats peritoneal dialysis solution for people with kidney problems.

Other Medical Technology Division products include an electric inhalation device that can provide a warm inhalate for emergency crews treating hypothermia or the “E-Scope,” an electronic stethoscope that allows medical professionals to hear heart and lungs, even fetal sounds, through heavy clothing or in high-noise environments, and a portable refrigerator for keeping medications cool in vehicles.

Cylvick credits Bob Boysen of the Laramie Economic Development Corp. for getting him from Long Island to Laramie.

“My wife and I knew there were big problems coming in the defense industry, and in our type of business, trying to do any manufacturing or engineering, it was just too expensive back there,” he explained. “We started looking at Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, to relocate.”

His wife, Judy, and his son, who lives in Park City, Utah, toured those states, and “they really liked Laramie the best of all, because of the university being here,” he said. “So I came out and Bob Boysen showed me the town and the type of industries they were looking for, and I thought it was a good fit.”

Cylvick’s manufacturing and engineering operation is crammed into 6,000 square feet, less than a third of the space he had back in Commack, N.Y. At his peak, he had 140 employees in New York; now during this transition, he has three.

Many of his components, such as the IV sacks and soldered electrical boards, are manufactured for him back east. Cylvick does the final assembly and testing in Laramie and then ships them to distributors.

“I haven’t come across anybody out here yet with the ability or the experience of doing military-type soldering,” he said, “but eventually I’m sure there’ll be somebody popping up. You never know. There could be a person out there who would love to relocate if they had a job.”

He is working with the university in seeking a grant to develop a new medical product and also hopes to develop relationships with area manufacturers and suppliers.

“So I’ll be continuing doing the military work and developing new products — I’ve got two or three new products coming out this year — and I expect I’ll bring one engineer on board in the next few months,” he said. “Right now I’m getting quite a lot of work coming in, so I’m going to need some help. It’s starting to go up, which is very nice. I’m not complaining.”

He’s also not complaining about his transition to Laramie. An avid skier, Cylvick has skied every weekend at Snowy Range and said he doesn’t miss the East at all. The Cylvicks just sold their home in Northport, Long Island, and plan to break ground for a house this spring on property they own by Centennial.