Sono-Tek Corp (SOTK) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to the Sono-Tek year-end fiscal year 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 Sono-Tek 2024 財年年終收益電話會議。（操作員說明）請注意此事件正在被記錄。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Kirin Smith with PCG Advisory. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我想將會議轉交給 PCG Advisory 的 Kirin Smith 先生。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Sono-Tek released their fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2024 results at 7 AM Eastern Time this morning. If you do not have a copy of the release, please go to the company's website at sono-tek.com and click the press release News tab in the Investors section. The product to market and geography, sales tables on the last page of the release will be part of today's discussion.

謝謝運營商，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。Sono-Tek 於東部時間今天早上 7 點發布了 2024 財年第四季度和全年業績。如果您沒有新聞稿副本，請造訪該公司網站 sono-tek.com，然後按一下「投資者」部分中的新聞稿「新聞」標籤。發布的最後一頁上的產品市場和地理位置、銷售表將成為今天討論的一部分。

With me on the call today are Dr. Chris Coccio, Sono-Tek's Executive Chairman; Steve Harshbarger, CEO and President; and Steve Bagley, Chief Financial Officer.

今天與我一起參加電話會議的是 Sono-Tek 執行主席 Chris Coccio 博士； Steve Harshbarger，執行長兼總裁；和財務長史蒂夫·巴格利。

Before turning the call over to management, I would like to make the following remarks concerning forward-looking statements. Please note that various remarks that may be made on this conference call about future expectations, plans and prospects for the company constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

在將電話轉交給管理層之前，我想就前瞻性陳述發表以下評論。請注意，本次電話會議上可能發表的各種有關公司未來預期、計劃和前景的言論均構成前瞻性陳述，符合《1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法案》中的安全港條款。

Actual results may vary materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the company's filings with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update the information contained in this conference call.

由於各種重要因素（包括公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中討論的因素），實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述所示的結果有重大差異。本公司不承擔更新本次電話會議中所包含的資訊的義務。

I would now like to turn the call over to Dr. Chris Coccio, Executive Chairman of Sono-Tek. Chris, please go ahead.

我現在想將電話轉給 Sono-Tek 執行主席 Chris Coccio 博士。克里斯，請繼續。

Good morning, and thank you, Kirin. And thank you, everyone, for joining us. Today, we're going to discuss our fourth quarter and full year of fiscal year 2024 results that were released this morning before the market opened.

早安，謝謝你，麒麟。感謝大家加入我們。今天，我們將討論今天上午開市前發布的 2024 財年第四季和全年業績。

I will begin with some opening remarks, and then Steve Bagley, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide a financial review. Steve Harshbarger, our new CEO and President will then go through the business and operational results. Following these comments, we'll open the call for your questions.

我將首先發表一些開場白，然後我們的財務長 Steve Bagley 將進行財務審查。我們的新任執行長兼總裁史蒂夫·哈什巴格 (Steve Harshbarger) 隨後將回顧業務和營運表現。在收到這些評論後，我們將開始電話詢問您的問題。

As a reminder, Sono-Tek currently holds two earnings calls per fiscal year. This is our full year call for the 12 months ended February 29, 2024. Our next earnings call will be for the six months of fiscal 2025, and that will be in October of 2024.

提醒一下，Sono-Tek 目前每個財年都會舉行兩次財報電話會議。這是我們截至 2024 年 2 月 29 日的 12 個月的全年預測。我們的下一次財報電話會議將在 2025 財年的六個月內舉行，即 2024 年 10 月。

As many of you already know, and for those that are new to Sono-Tek, the company developed a revolutionary method of applying precision thin film coating several decades ago. This proprietary technology involves the use of our advanced high-frequency ultrasonic nozzles and they are incorporated into specialty motion control systems.

正如你們許多人已經知道的那樣，對於那些剛接觸 Sono-Tek 的人來說，該公司在幾十年前開發了一種革命性的精密薄膜塗層方法。這項專有技術涉及使用我們先進的高頻超音波噴嘴，並將它們納入專業運動控制系統中。

They are able to achieve uniform micron and nano thin coatings onto our customers' products. Our solutions offer dramatic savings in the raw material, water and energy usage, and they are environmentally friendly. The principal advantage, though of our ultrasonic coating system is the ability to apply precision thin films, and these are vitally important in today's world with thousands of products and micro components now requiring a functional or protective coating.

他們能夠在我們客戶的產品上實現均勻的微米和奈米薄塗層。我們的解決方案可大幅節省原料、水和能源的使用，而且對環境友善。我們的超音波塗層系統的主要優點是能夠塗覆精密薄膜，這在當今世界至關重要，成千上萬的產品和微型部件現在需要功能性或保護性塗層。

The strategic shift that we made several years ago to offer more complete solutions has meaningfully broadened our addressable market, and that's resulted in significant growth in our average unit selling prices.

我們幾年前為提供更完整的解決方案而進行的策略轉變極大地拓寬了我們的潛在市場，並導致我們的平均單位售價顯著增長。

Our larger machines now commonly sell for over $300,000 and system prices can reach over $1 million, and that can significantly impact quarterly revenue. This happened in the second quarter of this past year as supply chain constraints finally subsided and the trend has continued through the end of our fiscal year.

我們的大型機器現在通常售價超過 30 萬美元，系統價格可能超過 100 萬美元，這可能會嚴重影響季度收入。這種情況發生在去年第二季度，供應鏈限制最終消退，而這種趨勢一直持續到我們財政年度結束。

I'm pleased to announce that this morning we reported record-breaking revenue for the full year over 30% higher than a year ago and record-breaking backlog for the year ahead. This past year, we also shipped two of our newly developed large platform, sophisticated production lines that together valued nearly $1.9 million and sales reached $19.7 million, up from $15.1 million or a 31% increase year-over-year. This is also our highest sales level ever.

我很高興地宣布，今天早上我們公佈的全年收入比去年同期增長了 30% 以上，創歷史新高，未來一年的積壓訂單也創歷史新高。去年，我們還交付了兩個新開發的大型平台和先進的生產線，總價值近 190 萬美元，銷售額達到 1,970 萬美元，高於去年的 1,510 萬美元，年增 31%。這也是我們有史以來最高的銷售水準。

In addition to the record sales and backlog, backlog also increased to $9.1 million, a 7% increase compared to backlog on the previous year. This is in addition to last year's substantial backlog increase over its previous year. This growth was due to our strategic shift towards these large complex coating systems and platforms and also due to our focus on opening new markets for our unique technology.

除了創紀錄的銷售額和積壓訂單外，積壓訂單也增加至 910 萬美元，比前一年的積壓訂單增加了 7%。這是去年積壓訂單比前一年大幅增加的基礎。這種成長是由於我們向這些大型複雜塗層系統和平台的策略轉變，也是由於我們專注於為我們獨特的技術開闢新市場。

This includes three main areas that have very strong global growth we've talked about before, microelectronics and semiconductors, medical devices and alternative or clean energy. We serve these sectors for many years and are continuing to advance our products and system solutions in these areas for the latest generation technology.

這包括我們之前討論過的全球成長非常強勁的三個主要領域：微電子和半導體、醫療設備以及替代能源或清潔能源。我們為這些行業服務多年，並不斷改進我們在這些領域的產品和系統解決方案，以採用最新一代技術。

Now clean energy, including fuel cells, green hydrogen generation, carbon capture and advanced solar cells, our markets we've been providing R&D and title lines for close to a decade. We're now experiencing a significant success with these customers as they transition to production scale systems. They have done prior R&D and process development with us. And so that has allowed them to move up the scale now.

現在清潔能源，包括燃料電池、綠氫發電、碳捕獲和先進的太陽能電池，我們近十年來一直在為我們的市場提供研發和標題。現在，隨著這些客戶過渡到生產規模系統，我們取得了巨大的成功。他們之前與我們一起進行了研發和製程開發。這使得他們現在能夠擴大規模。

Over the past year, we've announced over $2.1 million from large orders from repeat customers transitioning to high volume protection systems. This is primarily from the electronics, microelectronics, alternative energy, medical and industrial sectors. Also in the first half of the year, we experienced our largest order valued at $2.19 million, and that is also the largest order from the clean energy sector to date.

在過去的一年裡，我們宣布從回頭客的大訂單中獲得了超過 210 萬美元的資金，轉向大容量保護系統。這主要來自電子、微電子、替代能源、醫療和工業領域。同樣在上半年，我們接到了價值219萬美元的最大訂單，這也是清潔能源領域迄今最大的訂單。

These orders are the first of our deliberate shift in strategy to large customized systems. Our proprietary ultrasonic atomization technology where Sono-Tek began more than 40 years ago, remains the heart of all of our systems.

這些訂單是我們有意將策略轉向大型客製化系統的第一個訂單。Sono-Tek 在 40 多年前開始採用我們專有的超音波霧化技術，至今仍然是我們所有系統的核心。

We've been able to achieve this shift through our own R&D work, which we consider to be our lifeblood. We attribute the increase in sales both in the past year and to become, a direct result of our investments in R&D with a strong focus on product expansion.

我們已經能夠透過自己的研發工作實現這一轉變，我們認為這是我們的命脈。我們將去年和未來銷售額的成長歸因於我們對研發投資的直接結果，並專注於產品擴張。

And to further support our growth and expansion for these large platform custom engineered systems, we've increased our headcount by approximately 15% this year with a strong focus on personnel to enhance our IT department. We made continued investments into the front end of the organization to open new markets and applications. We want to ensure that we stay fully staffed in front of our needs.

為了進一步支持我們對這些大型平台客製化工程系統的成長和擴展，我們今年將員工人數增加了約 15%，並專注於人員以加強我們的 IT 部門。我們對組織的前端進行了持續投資，以開闢新的市場和應用程式。我們希望確保我們的人員配備充足，能夠滿足我們的需求。

We're excited that these investments have begun to pay off. Our outlook for growth has been greatly enhanced by the early success of our strategy to shift to larger systems with multiple repeat orders. Looking ahead to the remainder of this year, we're confident that shipments of new orders will continue to positively impact sales for guiding towards a strong first quarter fiscal year 2025 of revenue growth above 30%, and that's against a weaker first quarter last year.

我們很高興這些投資已經開始獲得回報。我們轉向具有多個重複訂單的更大系統的策略的早期成功大大增強了我們的成長前景。展望今年剩餘時間，我們相信新訂單的出貨將繼續對銷售產生正面影響，從而引導 2025 財年第一季營收成長超過 30%，而去年第一季的營收成長較疲軟。

We're also guiding towards an 8% to 10% year-over-year revenue growth for fiscal year 2025 ending February 28, 2025, despite strong quarterly comparisons and record shipments in 2024.

儘管季度比較強勁且 2024 年出貨量創紀錄，但我們也預計截至 2025 年 2 月 28 日的 2025 財年營收將實現 8% 至 10% 的年成長。

Thank you, and I'll now turn the call over to Steve Bagley, our CFO, who will provide additional details on our financial results. Steve?

謝謝，我現在將把電話轉給我們的財務長 Steve Bagley，他將提供有關我們財務業績的更多詳細資訊。史蒂夫？

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. For the full year of fiscal 2024, net sales increased 31%, $19.7 million from $15.1 million reported for the full year of fiscal 2023. Steve Harshbarger will provide more detail with respect to sales.

謝謝你，克里斯，大家早安。2024 財年全年淨銷售額成長 31%，從 2023 財年全年報告的 1,510 萬美元增至 1,970 萬美元。Steve Harshbarger 將提供有關銷售的更多詳細資訊。

Geographically, in fiscal 2024, approximately 55% of our sales were to US and Canadian customers. This is compared to 45% in fiscal 2023. We continue to record strong sales from the US and Canada growing 60% for fiscal 2024.

從地理位置來看，2024 財年，我們約 55% 的銷售額來自美國和加拿大客戶。相較之下，2023 財年這一比例為 45%。我們繼續記錄來自美國和加拿大的強勁銷售，2024 財年成長 60%。

This achievement can be attributed to various factors, including proactive government initiatives such as the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, the ongoing trend of onshoring for high-technology products has significantly bolstered our sales performance in these regions.

這項成就可歸因於多種因素，包括《CHIPS 法案》和《通貨膨脹減少法案》等積極主動的政府措施。此外，高科技產品在岸外包的持續趨勢大大提高了我們在這些地區的銷售表現。

Gross profit increased $2.2 million or 29% to $9.8 million for fiscal 2024 compared with $7.7 million in fiscal 2023. Gross profit margin decreased to 50% for fiscal 2024 compared to 50.8% for fiscal 2023. Overall, the gross profit margin on our products remained relatively consistent when compared to fiscal 2023.

2024 財年的毛利增加了 220 萬美元，即 29%，達到 980 萬美元，而 2023 財年的毛利為 770 萬美元。2024 財年的毛利率下降至 50%，而 2023 財年為 50.8%。整體而言，與 2023 財年相比，我們產品的毛利率保持相對穩定。

In fiscal 2024, the decrease in gross profit margin is due to increased indirect production salaries, increase in transportation expenses, increased installation costs and increased warranty costs. In fiscal 2023, our warranty costs were lower than expected.

2024財年，毛利率下降是由於間接生產工資增加、運輸費用增加、安裝成本增加和保固成本增加。2023 財年，我們的保固成本低於預期。

Warranty costs will fluctuate year-to-year and are a function of product mix. In addition, our gross profit margin decreased due to the reallocation and recategorization of specific labor expenses from the engineering department to cost of goods sold.

保固成本會逐年波動，並且是產品組合的函數。此外，由於工程部門的特定人工費用重新分配和重新分類至銷售成本，我們的毛利率有所下降。

Operating expenses increased 24% to $8.7 million compared to $7 million in the prior year. As Chris mentioned earlier, technical headcount increased approximately 15% across several areas. Research and product development costs increased 34% to $2.9 million, primarily due to increased headcount, salaries and the higher costs of research and development, materials and supplies, all of which are used in the development of new products for new and existing markets.

營運費用增加 24%，達到 870 萬美元，而前一年為 700 萬美元。正如 Chris 之前提到的，多個領域的技術人員數量增加了約 15%。研究和產品開發成本增加了 34%，達到 290 萬美元，主要是由於人員數量、工資的增加以及研發、材料和供應成本的增加，所有這些都用於為新市場和現有市場開發新產品。

Marketing and selling expenses increased 17% to $3.7 million for the year. The increase was due to increased headcount, salaries, commissions, travel and tradeshow expenses, and these were partially offset by a decrease in insurance expenses.

本年度行銷和銷售費用增加 17%，達到 370 萬美元。這一增長是由於員工人數、工資、佣金、差旅和貿易展覽費用的增加，但這些費用被保險費用的減少部分抵消。

General and administrative expenses increased 26% to $2.1 million, primarily due to increased salaries and professional fees, partially offset by decrease in stock-based compensation expense. In addition, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, we were notified by the State of California that we were required to collect sales tax on our shipments to California.

一般及管理費用增加 26%，達到 210 萬美元，主要是因為薪資和專業費用增加，但部分被股票薪酬費用的減少所抵銷。此外，在 2024 財年第四季度，我們接到加州的通知，要求我們對運往加州的貨物徵收銷售稅。

We are in the process of reviewing our sales in California and on a preliminary basis of our sales to California since April 2019, we have recorded an accrual of $138,000 for estimated sales tax penalties and interest that we may be required to remit to the state of California.

我們正在審查我們在加州的銷售情況，根據自2019 年4 月以來我們在加州的銷售情況，我們已記錄了138,000 美元的應計銷售稅罰款和利息，我們可能需要將這些罰金匯給州政府。

Our operating income increased $499,000 or 73% to $1.2 million in fiscal 2024 compared with $683,000 for the prior fiscal year. In fiscal 2024, the increase in operating income is a result our increase in revenue and gross profit, offset by an increase in operating expenses.

2024 財年，我們的營業收入增加了 499,000 美元，即 73%，達到 120 萬美元，而上一財年為 683,000 美元。2024 財年，營業收入的增加是我們收入和毛利增加的結果，但被營業費用的增加所抵銷。

Operating margin for fiscal 2024 increased to 6% compared with 5% in the prior fiscal year. As percentage of net sales, operating expenses decreased 200 basis points to 44% in fiscal 2024 compared with 46% in fiscal 2023.

2024 財年的營業利益率從上一財年的 5% 增加到 6%。2024 財年營運費用佔淨銷售額的百分比下降了 200 個基點，至 44%，而 2023 財年為 46%。

Interest and dividend income increased $390,000 to $530,000 for fiscal 2024 as compared with $140,000 for the prior fiscal year. The increase in interest and dividend income is due to the reallocation of our investments into US Treasury securities as certificates of deposit, combined with the increase in current interest rates.

2024 財年的利息和股利收入增加了 39 萬美元，達到 53 萬美元，而上一財年為 14 萬美元。利息和股息收入的增加是由於我們將投資重新配置為美國國債作為存款證，加上當前利率的上升。

Our present investment policy is to invest in excess cash is a highly liquid low risk US Treasury securities and certificates of deposits. As February 29, 2024, the majority of our holdings are rated at or above investment grade.

我們目前的投資政策是將多餘現金投資於高流動性低風險的美國國債和存款證。截至 2024 年 2 月 29 日，我們持有的大部分股票的評級為投資等級或以上。

We recorded an income tax expense of $303,000 for fiscal 2024 compared with $154,000 for the prior fiscal year. The increase in income tax expense in fiscal 2024 is due to the increase in income before income taxes, offset by the application of available research and development tax credits.

我們記錄的 2024 財年所得稅費用為 303,000 美元，而上一財年為 154,000 美元。2024 財年所得稅費用的增加是由於所得稅前收入的增加，被可用的研發稅收抵免的應用所抵消。

Net income increased $805,000 or 127% to $1.4 million for fiscal 2024 compared with $636,000 for the prior fiscal year. The increase in net income in fiscal 2024 is a result of an increase in operating income and interest and dividend income, partially offset by an increase in operating expenses and an increase in income tax expense.

2024 財年淨利增加 805,000 美元，或 127%，達到 140 萬美元，而上一財年為 636,000 美元。2024財年淨利的增加是由於營業收入以及利息和股利收入的增加，部分被營業費用的增加和所得稅費用的增加所抵銷。

We've continued to add to our cash holdings. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at February 29, 2024 were a [$12 million], over $400,000 higher than at the end of our last fiscal year. And we continue to carry no debt on our balance sheet.

我們繼續增加現金持有量。截至 2024 年 2 月 29 日，現金、現金等價物及有價證券為 [1,200 萬美元]，比上一財政年度末增加了 40 萬美元以上。我們的資產負債表上仍然沒有任何債務。

CapEx for the full year was $800,000, approximately $350,000 of this total was allocated towards substantial enhancements in our IT infrastructure, focusing on network upgrades, cyber security fortification and expanding service capacity.

全年資本支出為 80 萬美元，其中約 35 萬美元用於大幅增強 IT 基礎設施，重點關注網路升級、網路安全強化和擴展服務能力。

Additionally, investments were made in the expansion of the Sono-Tek facility to support current and projected growth initiatives. We expect to invest approximately $450,000 in new equipment and facility upgrades in our current fiscal year.

此外，還對 Sono-Tek 設施的擴建進行了投資，以支持當前和預期的成長計劃。我們預計在本財年投資約 45 萬美元用於新設備和設施升級。

And now I'll turn the call over to, Steve Harshbarger, CEO and President for an operational review of the full year. Steve?

現在我將把電話轉給執行長兼總裁史蒂夫·哈什巴格 (Steve Harshbarger)，對全年的營運情況進行審查。史蒂夫？

Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. As many of you know, Sono-Tek breaks down sales in three ways, by markets, by products and by geography. And my comments will flow in that order. Please see the short tables on the last page of our earnings press release for all those details.

謝謝史蒂夫，大家早安。感謝您今天加入我們。正如許多人所知，Sono-Tek 以三種方式細分銷售額：按市場、按產品和按地域。我的評論將按此順序進行。有關所有詳細信息，請參閱我們收益新聞稿最後一頁的空頭表。

As Chris mentioned, for the full year, we reported net sales of $19.7 million, up 31% annually. This was ahead of our midyear expectations of a minimum of 25% annual revenue growth. Our growth strategies are gaining significant momentum as we guide our customers from our R&D and pilot line machines towards our complex large-scale production systems with elevated average selling prices or ASPs ranging from $600,000 to well over $1 million.

正如 Chris 所提到的，我們報告全年淨銷售額為 1,970 萬美元，年增 31%。這超出了我們年中收入至少成長 25% 的預期。我們的成長策略正在獲得巨大的動力，我們引導客戶從研發和中試線機器轉向複雜的大規模生產系統，平均售價或平均售價從 60 萬美元到遠超 100 萬美元不等。

This represents an approximate fourfold ASP increase compared to our historical production and pilot volume systems. In FY 2024, we achieved a milestone by successfully delivering and installing two high volume, High ASP production systems. The highest number in a single year in our company's history, significantly bolstering our FY 2024 revenue.

與我們歷史上的生產和試點批量系統相比，這意味著平均售價增加了大約四倍。2024 財年，我們成功交付並安裝了兩個大批量、高 ASP 生產系統，並實現了一個里程碑。這是我們公司歷史上單年最高的數字，大大增加了我們 2024 財年的收入。

The record growth was also propelled by heightened demand of our multi-axis coating systems, which are commonly used in the clean energy sector showing an increase of $3.3 million, which is a 48% increase totaling over $10 million for the year.

創紀錄的成長也得益於我們的多軸塗層系統需求的增加，該系統通常用於清潔能源領域，成長了 330 萬美元，年增 48%，全年總計超過 1000 萬美元。

Integrated coating system sales also accelerated by 159% or $1.8 million to $2.9 million due to continued success of our newly developed float glass coating platform. In addition, integrated coating systems positively impacted by the debut and delivery of our first PLC-Based system, which was developed under an initiative that we call Project Altair.

由於我們新開發的浮法玻璃鍍膜平台的持續成功，整合鍍膜系統的銷售額也成長了 159%，即 180 萬美元至 290 萬美元。此外，我們第一個基於 PLC 的系統的首次亮相和交付對整合塗層系統產生了積極影響，該系統是在我們稱為 Altair 項目的計劃下開發的。

This first machine delivered under Project Altair was directed to a key strategic partner within the solar market, and we could not have captured this order without the significant investments we made into expanding our programming and controls engineering capabilities.

Altair 專案下交付的第一台機器是針對太陽能市場內的關鍵策略合作夥伴，如果沒有我們在擴展程式設計和控制工程能力方面進行的大量投資，我們不可能獲得這份訂單。

In FY 2024, we were finally able to break out of last year's supply chain issues, meaningfully the increased shipments as a result of the intense efforts to broaden and deepen our supply chain, including by increasing our own vertical integration with the introduction of NovoCoat, a Multi-Axis product line. This is a process that's ongoing, and we continue to build and broaden our in-house manufacturing capabilities.

在 2024 財年，我們終於能夠擺脫去年的供應鏈問題，透過大力拓寬和深化我們的供應鏈，包括透過引入 NovoCoat 來加強我們自己的垂直整合，有意義地增加了出貨量，多軸產品線。這是一個持續的過程，我們將繼續建立和擴大我們的內部製造能力。

Following uncharacteristically high revenue for Printed Circuit Board or PCB Fluxing systems for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2023, PCB Fluxing sales dipped by $455,000 for fiscal 2024. Over the years, we've installed thousands of our spray fluxers machines, and our customers continue to upgrade their equipment to their latest model spray fluxers as we advance the technology.

繼截至 2023 年 2 月 28 日的財年印刷電路板或 PCB 助焊劑系統收入異常高之後，2024 財年 PCB 助焊劑銷售額下降了 455,000 美元。多年來，我們已經安裝了數千台噴霧助焊劑機器，隨著我們技術的進步，我們的客戶不斷將他們的設備升級到最新型號的噴霧助焊劑機器。

So although there was a dip this year, we have a large customer base for these systems and our quoting activity remains strong. Also, sales to our OEM PCB customers that integrate our ultrasonic nozzles into their own spray fluxes declined, causing OEM sales to decrease by $611,000.

因此，儘管今年有所下降，但我們這些系統擁有龐大的客戶群，並且我們的報價活動仍然強勁。此外，將我們的超音波噴嘴整合到自己的噴霧助焊劑中的 OEM PCB 客戶的銷售額也有所下降，導致 OEM 銷售額減少了 611,000 美元。

We believe the PCB spray fluxers market has slowed and return to what was closer to our historical norms. The dip in OEM sales was largely mitigated by a [17 annual percent] increase of over $640,000 in spare parts and service-related revenue, which is a growing revenue stream and is categorized in the other product category.

我們相信 PCB 噴霧助焊劑市場已經放緩並恢復到更接近歷史水平的水平。OEM 銷售額的下滑在很大程度上被備件和服務相關收入（年增長率 17%）超過 640,000 美元的增長所緩解，這是一個不斷增長的收入來源，屬於其他產品類別。

Sales of spare parts packages and other service-related contracts that support our large platform, highest ASP production lines are growing in importance as we place more and more machines in the field. In fact, we believe these follow-on service-related packages could reach as much as 10% to 15% of the total order value on our high ASP production machine.

隨著我們在現場放置越來越多的機器，支援我們大型平台、最高 ASP 生產線的備件包銷售和其他服務相關合約變得越來越重要。事實上，我們相信這些後續服務相關套件可能會達到我們高 ASP 生產機器訂單總價值的 10% 至 15%。

Now we'll turn to the sales by market. Fiscal 2024 was highlighted by increasing sales to the alternative clean energy market, which grew by 96%, and we're positively impacted by the growing number of Sono-Tek customers transitioning from our R&D machines to production scale systems that carry much higher average selling prices or ASPs again.

現在我們將轉向按市場劃分的銷售情況。2024 財年的亮點是替代清潔能源市場的銷售額增長了 96%，越來越多的 Sono-Tek 客戶從我們的研發機器轉向平均銷售額更高的生產規模系統，這對我們產生了積極影響再次是價格或平均售價。

Many of our recent large contract announcements are from this area, and these systems are commonly used in the manufacturing of critical membranes for carbon capture, green hydrogen generation, fuel cells and advanced solar cell applications.

我們最近發布的許多大型合約都來自該領域，這些系統通常用於製造碳捕獲、綠氫發電、燃料電池和先進太陽能電池應用的關鍵膜。

Sales this year included shipment of a $1.1 million system delivered to customers in the carbon capture arena and a $766,000 shipment of a production scale system to a customer in advanced solar market with three additional systems valued at $730,000 each to the same customer that in the backlog and scheduled to ship in fiscal 2025.

今年的銷售額包括向碳捕獲領域的客戶運送價值110 萬美元的系統，向先進太陽能市場的客戶運送價值766,000 美元的生產規模系統，以及向積壓訂單中的同一客戶運送另外三個系統，每個系統價值730,000 美元計劃於 2025 財政年度出貨。

Electronics market revenue experienced a modest uptick in FY 2024. This growth which was primarily fueled by a notable $377,000 increase in the semiconductor market segments. However, this positive momentum was partially tempered by a $455,000 decrease in sales of our PCB spray fluxers as I mentioned earlier.

2024 財年電子市場營收小幅成長。這一增長主要是由半導體細分市場 377,000 美元的顯著增長所推動的。然而，正如我之前提到的，我們的 PCB 噴霧助焊劑銷售額下降了 455,000 美元，部分削弱了這種積極勢頭。

Medical sales rebounded strongly in the second half of FY 2024 and ended with 13% growth for fiscal 2024 This was driven by several large multinational companies taking delivery of specialty implantable medical device coating systems during the year.

醫療銷售在 2024 財年下半年強勁反彈，2024 財年最終增長 13%，這是由幾家大型跨國公司在年內交付特種植入式醫療器材塗層系統推動的。

Industrial sales remain very strong, showing growth of 48% for fiscal 2024, influenced by shipment of two next-gen float glass coating systems totaling approximately $700,000. And the last two machines have a multi-system order to a US based customer for $432,000.

受兩個下一代浮法玻璃鍍膜系統出貨量總計約 70 萬美元的影響，工業銷售仍然非常強勁，2024 財年增長 48%。最後兩台機器向一位美國客戶訂購了價值 432,000 美元的多系統訂單。

By geography, in fiscal 2024, approximately 55% of our sales were US and Canadian customers. This is compared to 45% in fiscal 2023. We continued to record strong sales from the US and Canada growing 60% for fiscal 2024. This achievement can be attributed to various factors, including proactive government initiatives such as the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act.

按地理位置劃分，2024 財年，我們約 55% 的銷售額來自美國和加拿大客戶。相較之下，2023 財年這一比例為 45%。我們來自美國和加拿大的銷售額持續保持強勁，2024 財年成長了 60%。這項成就可歸因於多種因素，包括《CHIPS 法案》和《通貨膨脹減少法案》等積極的政府措施。

Additionally, the ongoing trend of onshoring for high technology products has significantly bolstered our sales performance in these regions. In fiscal 2024, EMEA sales experienced a notable surge, marking a 20% increase, equivalent to $885,000. This upward trajectory was positively influenced by robust sales to Ireland where we secured and shipped two unique machines catering to separate customers within the medical sectors.

此外，高科技產品在岸外包的持續趨勢大大提高了我們在這些地區的銷售表現。2024 財年，歐洲、中東和非洲地區的銷售額顯著激增，成長了 20%，相當於 885,000 美元。這種上升軌跡受到了對愛爾蘭的強勁銷售的積極影響，我們在愛爾蘭獲得並運送了兩台獨特的機器，以滿足醫療行業內不同客戶的需求。

These systems are designed for specialized coatings and unique implantable devices and really reflecting our commitment to innovation and thin-film coatings on next-gen health care devices. Furthermore, Germany had continued sales growth of our electrolysis membrane coating systems impacted by government initiatives aimed at fostering expansion of that clean energy sector.

這些系統專為專用塗層和獨特的植入設備而設計，真正體現了我們對下一代醫療保健設備創新和薄膜塗層的承諾。此外，受旨在促進清潔能源產業擴張的政府措施的影響，德國電解膜塗層系統的銷售持續成長。

Asia sales remained flat for fiscal 2024, while robust sales from the clean energy sector were sold from India, South Korea and Singapore. This was offset by China sales, continuing a downward trajectory. I missed this uncertain economic landscape prevailing in the region.

2024 財年亞洲銷售額保持平穩，而印度、韓國和新加坡清潔能源領域的銷售額強勁。這被中國銷量持續下滑所抵銷。我懷念該地區普遍存在的不確定的經濟狀況。

In Latin America, we encountered just surgible decline of 21%, representing a reduction of $325,000. This dip can be largely attributed to the sluggish performance in the spray fluxer segment. And this markets commonly associated with customers in that base of the -- in that region base.

在拉丁美洲，我們遭遇了 21% 的大幅下降，即減少了 325,000 美元。這種下降很大程度上歸因於噴霧助焊劑細分市場的低迷表現。這個市場通常與該地區基地的客戶相關。

Our backlog continued to [durable] growth trend. And on February 29, it stood at $9.1 million. This is in addition to last year's substantial backlog increase over the previous year and reflects the increasing order activity from the clean energy sector in particular.

我們的積壓訂單持續維持[持久]成長趨勢。2 月 29 日，這一數字達到 910 萬美元。這是去年積壓訂單較前一年大幅增加的基礎上，尤其反映了清潔能源產業訂單活動的增加。

Our customer deposits reached $3.4 million at February 29, reflecting the continued receipt of the large new orders in our backlog. We generally require deposits up 50% or greater on orders valued at several hundred thousand dollars.

截至 2 月 29 日，我們的客戶存款達到 340 萬美元，反映出我們繼續收到大量積壓的新訂單。對於價值數十萬美元的訂單，我們通常要求支付 50% 或更高的訂金。

As we look forward, we're excited to reach another key milestone and record with four high volume production, high ASP systems scheduled for delivery in fiscal year 2025, with expectations of continued acceleration for additional high ASP orders entering our FY 2025 backlog for delivery in both the current fiscal year and fiscal year 2026.

展望未來，我們很高興能夠達到另一個關鍵里程碑和記錄，計劃在 2025 財年交付四個大批量生產、高 ASP 系統，預計更多高 ASP 訂單將繼續加速進入我們 2025 財年積壓的交付在本財年及2026 財年。

In closing, our outlook is strong, and we are guiding to strong first quarter FY 2025 growth above 30% against, of course, a weaker first quarter last year. Additionally, we're anticipating a good fiscal 2025 with 8% to 10% year-over-year growth projected for the full fiscal year ending February 28, 2025, even with quarterly comparisons of record shipments for the year FY 2024.

最後，我們的前景十分樂觀，我們預計 2025 財年第一季的強勁成長將超過 30%，而去年第一季的成長則較疲弱。此外，我們預計2025 財年將取得良好業績，截至2025 年2 月28 日的整個財年預計將實現8% 至10% 的同比增長，即使與2024 財年創紀錄的出貨量進行季度比較也是如此。

And we believe, the investments we're making at our strategic growth initiatives will position us for higher revenue and increasing profits in the coming years.

我們相信，我們在策略性成長計畫中所做的投資將使我們在未來幾年獲得更高的收入和增加的利潤。

I'll now turn the call back over to the operator to open it up for questions.

我現在將把電話轉回給接線員以供提問。

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。我們現在開始問答環節。（操作員說明）

Mr. Bill Nicklin, Circle N Advisors.

Bill Nicklin 先生，Circle N Advisors。

Good morning, Steve and Chris. Did a nice job unpacking these details. I appreciate that. I some broader questions about the characteristics of your business will slightly shape the future outcome for the company and for its shareholders.

早上好，史蒂夫和克里斯。很好地解開了這些細節。我很感激。關於您的業務特徵的一些更廣泛的問題將稍微影響公司及其股東的未來結果。

The first one deals with your competitive position? And I'm trying to get an understanding of what's been the trajectory of your competitive position over the last few years relative to who you're competing against their [market], et cetera.

第一個涉及您的競爭地位？我試圖了解過去幾年中您的競爭地位的軌跡，以及您與[市場]的競爭者等。

And this is Steve here, Bill. It's an interesting question because it was actually just last week, we actually just finished a competitive analysis on the ultrasonic coating market. It takes us a while to do these because most of the companies that are our competitors, many of them are not public. So it's been about four years, I think since we've done our last thorough analysis.

這是史蒂夫，比爾。這是一個有趣的問題，因為實際上就在上週，我們實際上剛剛完成了超音波塗層市場的競爭分析。我們需要一段時間才能做到這些，因為大多數公司都是我們的競爭對手，其中許多公司都不是上市公司。我想自從我們完成上次徹底分析以來已經過去了大約四年。

And by the way, this analysis will be part of the new company presentation that we're going to be posting on our website sometime next month, but I can give you a quick snapshot of our findings. Looking specifically at the ultrasonic coating marketplace today, the total pie is small of course, right. It's a little over $40 million in revenue, up about 30% from where it was $30 million from where it was four years ago.

順便說一句，這項分析將成為我們將於下個月某個時候在我們的網站上發布的新公司簡報的一部分，但我可以向您簡要介紹我們的調查結果。具體看看當今的超音波塗層市場，當然，總的蛋糕很小，對吧。其收入略高於 4000 萬美元，比四年前的 3000 萬美元增長了約 30%。

I should stress that $40 million is the existing total sales of ultrasonic coating machines, not the total addressable market for thin film coating equipment. For Sono-Tek, it's focused on capturing a larger chunk of the market, of course, that's like an [$8 billion] market.

我要強調的是，4000萬美元是超音波鍍膜機的現有總銷售額，而不是薄膜鍍膜設備的總潛在市場。對 Sono-Tek 來說，它的重點是佔領更大的市場份額，當然，就像一個 [80 億美元] 的市場。

What's very interesting is that four years ago back in full COVID, our most significant direct ultrasonic competitors were two decent sized US competitors, one European competitor, they were I think, on Spain. Followed by this large group of Sono-Tek copy companies from China and South Korea. Now that's all changed.

非常有趣的是，四年前，在新冠疫情肆虐期間，我們最重要的直接超音波競爭對手是兩個相當大的美國競爭對手，一個是歐洲競爭對手，我認為是西班牙。其次是來自中國和韓國的這一大群Sono-Tek複製公司。現在一切都變了。

We believe our three significant US and European direct competitors have now all substantially shrunk in size for actually in Ghana and the business in one case, while the China competitors have grown in size and numbers. So one might ask, why did our US competitors and European competitors shrink or close instead of growing like Sono-Tek did.

我們認為，我們在美國和歐洲的三個主要直接競爭對手現在在加納的規模和業務規模都大幅縮小，而中國競爭對手的規模和數量卻有所增加。那麼有人可能會問，為什麼我們的美國競爭對手和歐洲競爭對手萎縮或關閉，而不是像 Sono-Tek 那樣成長。

Well, when you dive into it, it's actually very easy to see what has happened. China got better at making very basic ultrasonic coating kits while they are sophisticated in nature, are still relatively simple to cut and copy, which cut and copy type of machines, I would describe it as.

好吧，當你深入研究它時，實際上很容易看出發生了什麼。中國在製造非常基本的超音波塗層套件方面做得更好，雖然它們本質上很複雜，但切割和複製仍然相對簡單，我將其描述為切割和複製類型的機器。

It was nowhere near the quality of the US and European based competition. They're becoming close enough to maybe to be acceptable. And it shouldn't be surprising, making simple repeat vanilla products is what China has historically been good at.

它的品質遠不及美國和歐洲的競爭。他們已經足夠接近，也許可以接受。這並不奇怪，製造簡單的重複香草產品是中國歷來所擅長的。

Our US and European competitors continue to focus on making these relatively simple cut and copy machines. It's what worked for them historically, and they didn't recognize the urgency to change as the China gap closed in quality and they really crushed them on price.

我們的美國和歐洲競爭對手繼續專注於製造這些相對簡單的剪切和複製機器。這在歷史上對他們來說是有效的，隨著中國在品質上的差距縮小，他們沒有意識到改變的緊迫性，而且他們確實在價格上壓垮了他們。

So they failed to adapt to what China was good at, which in China is what they're not good at is highly complex, highly customized, large systems with very sophisticated application engineering knowledge. And this is where Sono-Tek heavily invested with significant development on these advanced coating platforms that are, I mean, really nearly impossible to copy.

所以他們沒能適應中國所擅長的，而在中國他們不擅長的是高度複雜、高度客製化、具有非常複雜的應用工程知識的大型系統。這就是 Sono-Tek 在這些先進塗層平台上進行了大量投資和重大開發的地方，我的意思是，這些平台實際上幾乎無法複製。

China can't keep up with us on these advanced machines. Even if they could, they have not near enough application knowledge to implement them. And so that's kind of gives you a little bit of the how it's migrated over time.

中國在這些先進機器上跟不上我們。即使他們可以，他們也沒有足夠的應用知識來實現它們。這讓您了解了它如何隨著時間的推移而遷移。

Thanks. It occurred to me watching you folks over the years that your customers share a lot of their process knowledge as you make machines to little address of needs. It would seem to me that if I was out looking for a machine, the last thing I want to do is give my process knowledge to the Chinese. Do you have any thoughts on that? Or would you rather not comment?

謝謝。多年來，我觀察你們，發現你們的客戶分享了許多他們的工藝知識，而你們製造的機器卻很少滿足需求。在我看來，如果我出去尋找一台機器，我最不想做的就是將我的工藝知識傳授給中國人。您對此有什麼想法嗎？還是你寧願不發表評論？

I mean, you're of course, correct. If you're like an Apple or Google or Meta or Tesla or some advanced technology company, do you really want to trust your thin film coating IP can be developed and shared and collaborated with a China based company. You might -- if you are a China based company or maybe you don't care if you're a small university that plans to share everything they learned anyway.

我的意思是，你當然是對的。如果您像蘋果、Google、Meta、特斯拉或某些先進技術公司一樣，您真的願意相信您的薄膜塗層 IP 可以與一家中國公司一起開發、分享和合作嗎？如果你是一家中國公司，或者你可能不在乎你是一所計劃分享他們所學到的一切的小型大學，那麼你可能會這麼做。

But you really want to risk that your development -- you want to transfer that product machine for China. And then also, even if you do develop it on a production machine for China, they have no way to scale you to high volume production at the same time in addition to that. So there's a lot of risk.

但你真的想拿你的發展冒險——你想把那台產品機器轉移到中國。而且，即使你確實在中國的生產機器上開發它，除此之外他們也無法同時將你擴展到大批量生產。所以存在很大的風險。

These companies in China, they come and go also. So the best case or the worst-case scenarios that you could fail to develop a thin film coating process on a cheaply made China machine that they don't make it make it successful and you go work further.

這些公司在中國，他們也來來去去。因此，最好的情況或最壞的情況是，您可能無法在廉價製造的中國機器上開發薄膜塗層工藝，但他們無法使其成功，您可以進一步工作。

But the best case scenario is that you develop a process, but you still can't scale it up. So for most of your larger multinational companies' institutes, there are risks to gas is really just too significant when you have to choose or you going to go with Sono-Tek or are you going to go with this part of ever evolving China based companies that you are risking your IP with.

但最好的情況是您開發了一個流程，但仍然無法擴展它。因此，對於大多數大型跨國公司的機構來說，當您必須做出選擇時，天然氣的風險確實太大了，是選擇 Sono-Tek，還是選擇這部分不斷發展的中國公司您正在拿自己的知識產權冒險。

Thanks much. Next question has to do more with how the business is runned, the shape of pursuing new business and then fulfilling these orders. So I guess the question is how far ahead that Sono-Tek have to invest for expected revenues arrive from the initiatives that you're investing in?

非常感謝。下一個問題必須更多地涉及業務如何運作、追求新業務然後履行這些訂單的形式。所以我想問題是，Sono-Tek 必須提前多久進行投資才能從您投資的計劃中獲得預期收入？

I think that's a good question from an investor standpoint. It's sometimes frustratingly long. It's not uncommon for us to spend one to two years to identify a market where we think we want to participate and then another year to prove feasibility that our technology does bring significant advantages in that area.

我認為從投資者的角度來看這是一個很好的問題。有時會長得令人沮喪。我們花一到兩年的時間來確定我們認為想要參與的市場，然後再花一年的時間來證明我們的技術確實在該領域帶來顯著優勢的可行性，這種情況並不罕見。

And then following that, then there's the hardware and software development phase that can be any place from -- or maybe it's six months, but it can also go as long as two years. So really, I mean, the fastest possible cycle time with a simple product is maybe 18 months, with maybe six years being on the total outer edge. But I would say the average you're looking more like about a three or four year average cycle time for this to be completed.

接下來是硬體和軟體開發階段，可以是任何地方——或者可能是六個月，但也可以長達兩年。所以說真的，我的意思是，一個簡單產品的最快週期時間可能是 18 個月，總的外緣可能是 6 年。但我想說的是，您看起來更像是大約三到四年的平均週期時間才能完成此任務。

All right. So you're investing in R&D and so forth, mainly intangibles little sharper than expense early on and then turn into revenues down the road. Is that correct?

好的。因此，你要投資研發等，主要是無形資產，早期的支出略高於支出，然後轉換成收入。那是對的嗎？

Yeah. This is primarily an investment in R&D and sales personnel. The early phases are sales and application engineers to prove market feasibility then followed after that by the engineering and programming development of the machinery. And then ultimately then, of course, it returns back to the sales force for market release in new product development -- of the new product they are releasing to the customer base.

是的。這主要是對研發和銷售人員的投資。早期階段是銷售和應用工程師證明市場可行性，然後是機械的工程和程式開發。當然，最終，它會回到銷售人員，以進行新產品開發的市場發布——他們向客戶群發布的新產品。

All right. So the numbers show, I believe you've been hiring aggressively over in recent years about, what percent of those hires are placed in R&D applications, engineering and also sales and marketing as a whole?

好的。因此，這些數字表明，我相信您近年來一直在積極招聘，其中有多少百分比的員工被安排在研發應用、工程以及整個銷售和行銷領域？

Yeah. Let me just think about that. Over the, say the past two years in particular, we've invested very heavily in personnel to bolster our growth ability. It's a significant investment because you tend to have almost a full year of training before the newest personnel really becomes highly effective.

是的。讓我想一想。特別是過去兩年，我們在人員方面投入了大量資金，以增強我們的成長能力。這是一項重大投資，因為在最新的人員真正變得有效率之前，您往往需要接受幾乎一整年的培訓。

So for example, this past year, we hired, I think it was about 11 new people of which eight of those I can think off the top of my head were directly connected to new product or market development, only a small fraction was more directed to overhead and manufacturing.

例如，去年，我們僱用了大約 11 名新員工，其中我能想到的其中 8 名與新產品或市場開發直接相關，只有一小部分是更有針對性的管理費用和製造。

Okay, thanks. One more, if you don't mind. Can you describe what I would call the durability of revenues, meaning in my mind, repeat business, multiple machines, returning customers, new needs for coating from existing customers. And then you started to mention, I think either you or Steve did, recurring revenues after or during and after these new builds?

好的謝謝。如果你不介意的話，再來一張。您能否描述一下我所說的收入持久性，在我看來，這意味著重複業務、多台機器、回頭客、現有客戶對塗層的新需求。然後你開始提到，我想你或史蒂夫都提到了，在這些新建築之後或期間和之後的經常性收入？

Okay. Well, I guess with the recent addition of our like larger platform systems, repeat and returning customers have really been a big positive shift in our strategy. In the past, successfully coating a substrate on an R&D machine usually might be the end of the sales cycle, while that's not any longer for us.

好的。嗯，我想隨著我們最近添加了更大的平台系統，回頭客和回頭客確實是我們策略的一個重大積極轉變。過去，在研發機器上成功塗覆基材通常可能意味著銷售週期的結束，但對我們來說，這不再是了。

We now want to guide that customer to our pilot line machines, followed then by our high-volume production systems which have, of course, those highest ASPs, the highest average selling prices. And once they transitions to those high volume production systems, they should often need repeat machines.

現在，我們希望引導該客戶使用我們的試驗線機器，然後是我們的大批量生產系統，當然，這些系統具有最高的平均售價和最高的平均售價。一旦他們過渡到那些大批量生產系統，他們通常需要重複機器。

Unlike the R&D machines where one system might just be enough. So the other significant benefit, when I think about it, should also now be -- we're really in the very beginning phases when I say this of not impacting our revenue stream in service contracts and spare parts packages.

與研發機器不同，一個系統可能就足夠了。因此，當我想到這一點時，另一個顯著的好處現在也應該是——當我說這不會影響我們在服務合約和備件包中的收入流時，我們確實處於起步階段。

On our high ASP production type of platforms, we're seeing a greater acceptance of a reoccurring service contracts that so far under service looks like they could add up to right around [10%] annually on the machine.

在我們的高 ASP 生產類型平台上，我們看到人們越來越多地接受重複出現的服務合同，到目前為止，這些合約在機器上的每年加起來可能達到 [10%] 左右。

This is in the beginning phases, but it should gain momentum quickly because once you add a machine on this year, that machine should be every year 10%, 10%, 10%. Then once you have two more machines that you add on to that, then you should have three machines, 10%, 10%. And then of course, you had 10 machines on, all of those are just sort of compound quickly. So we're optimistically thinking that's going to be a more significant reoccurring revenue stream in the future.

這還處於開始階段，但它應該會迅速獲得動力，因為一旦你今年添加一台機器，該機器每年應該會成長 10%、10%、10%。然後，一旦您再增加兩台機器，那麼您應該擁有三台機器，10%、10%。當然，你有 10 台機器，所有這些都只是快速複合。因此，我們樂觀地認為，這將成為未來更重要的經常性收入來源。

It sounds good. Thank you. That's all for me.

這聽起來不錯。謝謝。這就是我的全部。

(Operator Instructions) Dick Ryan, Oak Ridge Financial.

（操作員指示）Dick Ryan，Oak Ridge Financial。

Thank you. So, Steve, how should we look at the backlog, $9.1 million, is that all anticipated to flow in this next or in fiscal 25? And then you indicated you have some larger ASP machines in there. Can you kind of give us a breakdown of that backlog? How much is concentrated in those larger machines versus maybe some more of that turns type of business?

謝謝。那麼，史蒂夫，我們應該如何看待積壓的 910 萬美元，這些資金預計會在下一個財年或第 25 財年流入嗎？然後您表示您那裡有一些更大的 ASP 機器。可以給我們詳細介紹一下積壓的訂單嗎？有多少集中在那些大型機器上，而有多少集中在那些轉變類型的業務上？

Sure. In the existing backlog today, most of those orders came in mid last fiscal year. So everything in that existing backlog is scheduled for this current fiscal year delivery. And I could say that with pretty high confidence. There's nothing that's really in question on that one that I don't believe will have -- no question marks really, there's enough time on those.

當然。在目前的積壓訂單中，大部分訂單來自上一財政年度中期。因此，現有積壓訂單中的所有內容都計劃在本財政年度交付。我可以非常有信心地說出這一點。沒有什麼真正有問題的，我不相信會有──真的沒有問號，有足夠的時間來解決這些問題。

And the reason I make that clear is that some of our machines can take up to a year, maybe even over a year to build for some of these large platforms. But all of these have been in there well underway. And in that backlog, I think right now we have three -- we have four exactly, four high ASP machines.

我之所以明確這一點，是因為我們的一些機器可能需要一年甚至一年以上的時間才能為其中一些大型平台建造。但所有這些都已經在那裡順利進行。在積壓的訂單中，我認為現在我們有三台——我們剛好有四台，四台高 ASP 機器。

One is a machine that's about a $1.1 million machine. And then there's three machines in there that are in there about $700,000, which are all for high volume production applications. And I guess what's significant for both of those two customers -- we're going over to customers. These are customers that they are in their early phases of development.

其中一台機器價值約 110 萬美元。還有三台機器，價值約 70 萬美元，全部用於大批量生產應用。我想對這兩個客戶來說最重要的是——我們將轉向客戶。這些客戶正處於開發的早期階段。

They have already announced long-term contracts that they've been putting up fairly publicly about where their production goals need to hit and where they're expanding to. So if they come anywhere close to what they're saying and some of these seem like they're pretty worn up in particular, they always hit the market, what they commit to publicly.

他們已經宣布了長期合同，並相當公開地公佈了他們需要達到的生產目標以及擴張的目標。因此，如果他們與他們所說的話很接近，而且其中一些看起來特別疲憊，他們總是會衝擊市場，他們公開承諾的事情。

It should result in significant upside (technical difficulty) future repeat machines of the same or very similar configurations. So we're optimistic about that, adding both into the second half of this year, maybe the fourth quarter revenue stream as well as -- and much more importantly, the revenue stream for next fiscal year.

它應該會導致未來具有相同或非常相似配置的重複機器具有顯著的優勢（技術難度）。因此，我們對此持樂觀態度，將兩者都添加到今年下半年，也許是第四季度的收入流以及——更重要的是，下一財年的收入流。

Okay. So when you look at the order or your quotation level, you obviously have the repeat business and then you've got the lab activity. Can you give us a sense of what's going on in the labs and what's your batting average of turning that demonstration or engineering work into orders?

好的。因此，當您查看訂單或報價水平時，顯然您有重複業務，然後您就有了實驗室活動。您能否讓我們了解實驗室中發生的情況以及將演示或工程工作轉化為訂單的成功率是多少？

Yeah, that's an area we're working really hard on. We have -- our New York based lab is really have some talented engineers here and they're remarkably successful. When someone comes in here, there's about a 75% success rate where someone will buy a machine if they've come in here to work on developing their process. So it's really successful for us.

是的，這是我們正在努力工作的一個領域。我們位於紐約的實驗室確實擁有一些才華橫溢的工程師，他們非常成功。當有人來到這裡時，如果他們來這裡開發流程，那麼他們購買機器的成功率約為 75%。所以這對我們來說真的很成功。

This year, especially now that the COVID is way behind us, we're putting a very concerted effort to really accelerate the success rate of our overseas international labs. We have a person actually -- we have just spoke just to that task here for us that we need -- right now, their success rate, just to be clear, is not anywhere near 75%, but we need to get them up towards that area. And to be able to show that same success rate because that's just a super direct correlation to growing our revenue stream. And that's our goal for that area.

今年，特別是現在新冠疫情已經過去，我們正在齊心協力，真正加速海外國際實驗室的成功率。我們實際上有一個人 - 我們剛剛在這裡談到了我們需要的任務 - 現在，他們的成功率，只是需要明確的是，遠低於 75%，但我們需要讓他們朝著目標邁進那個區域。並且能夠表現出相同的成功率，因為這與增加我們的收入流有著超級直接的相關性。這就是我們在該領域的目標。

There is another significant area as I kind of mentioned earlier in the revenue stream that for a lot of this, we actually will have paid application development. Many of our customers, if not most, pay Sono-Tek to help them develop their applications and coatings. And that's very important because right now we're capital equipment, right?

正如我之前在收入流中提到的，還有另一個重要領域，即對於其中的大部分內容，我們實際上將進行付費應用程式開發。我們的許多客戶（如果不是大多數）都會向 Sono-Tek 付費，以幫助他們開發應用和塗層。這非常重要，因為現在我們是資本設備，對吧？

And we know capital equipment can be somewhat lumpy. Both the backlog and the revenue streams going out. So we really, really want to bolster our services related aspects of the organization. It almost doubled this past year, it's still not really significant.

我們知道資本設備可能有些不穩定。積壓訂單和收入流都在流失。因此，我們真的非常想加強組織的服務相關面向。去年幾乎翻了一番，但仍然不算顯著。

I think combined services and the services combined with application engineering, contract coating and things along those lines right now, I think we're just a little under $1 million, which is not much not right now, but there's a very clear focus for us to enhance that and make that a more significant part of our revenue stream, which will kind of help the lumpiness of just selling capital equipment all the time.

我認為綜合服務以及與應用工程、合約塗層和類似的服務相結合的服務，我認為我們現在的成本略低於 100 萬美元，目前還不算多，但我們有一個非常明確的重點加強這一點，使其成為我們收入來源中更重要的一部分，這將有助於緩解一直只銷售資本設備的困境。

Okay. One left for me. You specifically called out in the medical side couple of systems being sent two customers over in Ireland. Can you give us a sense are these new medical applications that are being coated? Are the existing customers that were using your coating systems on previous devices that have expanded? Or can you provide a little more color on those shipments?

好的。給我留了一張。您特別指出了醫療方面的幾個系統被送到愛爾蘭的兩個客戶。您能為我們介紹一下這些新的醫療應用是否正在被塗層嗎？在先前的設備上使用您的塗層系統的現有客戶是否已經擴大？或者你能為這些貨物提供更多的顏色嗎？

Sure, yes. These are -- I believe in both cases. They were existing customers using our stent coating systems. That's an area the stent coating -- a huge chunk of the world uses Sono-Tek Corp stent coating systems, we're kind of the industry standard there.

當然，是的。我相信這兩種情況都是如此。他們是使用我們支架塗層系統的現有客戶。這是支架塗層領域——世界上很大一部分地區都使用 Sono-Tek Corp 支架塗層系統，我們是那裡的行業標準。

But these are both customers, fairly sure in both of them that they had our stent coating, but now in both of these cases, they are not coating stents. It's a new implantable device in both cases. I can't say what it is because that would kind of give away the customer in both cases.

但這些都是客戶，他們都相當確定他們有我們的支架塗層，但現在在這兩種情況下，他們都沒有塗層支架。在這兩種情況下，這都是一種新的植入設備。我不能說它是什麼，因為這在這兩種情況下都會洩露客戶。

But there are a newly developed device, and the application engineering development process was not simple year for Sono-Tek, just to be clear. These people came to our labs, our engineers work with them to develop this new unique process for these new unique devices they're getting implanted into the body. This is again, one of those talents that really only Sono-Tek can provide to our customers.

但需要明確的是，有一種新開發的設備，而且應用工程開發過程對 Sono-Tek 來說並不簡單。這些人來到我們的實驗室，我們的工程師與他們合作，為他們植入體內的這些新的獨特設備開發這種新的獨特工藝。這又是只有 Sono-Tek 才能為我們的客戶提供的人才之一。

And it's nice to see these customers that they've built the confidence in Sono-Tek to use our stent coating machines. But now they're saying, hey, why don't we use it for anything else that we're implanting into bodies. And that's a very significant shift in our customer base to be able to say, hey, let's broaden it out. Sono-Tek don't look at them just as a stent coating customer for medical devices, we look at them as a general coating of any device in the medical industry.

很高興看到這些客戶對 Sono-Tek 使用我們的支架塗佈機建立了信心。但現在他們說，嘿，我們為什麼不將它用於植入體內的其他任何東西。這是我們客戶群的一個非常重大的轉變，我們能夠說，嘿，讓我們擴大範圍。Sono-Tek 不僅僅將它們視為醫療設備支架塗層客戶，我們將它們視為醫療行業任何設備的通用塗層。

Did they run off your coating capabilities against somebody else in these new systems? Or this just come to you kind of your sole sourcing your expertise with their previous efforts?

他們是否在這些新系統中利用了您的塗層能力來對抗其他人？或者這只是你透過他們之前的努力所獲得的專業知識的唯一來源？

I think in both of these cases, the partnerships that we had built with these customers. And this again, this happens over time, they were just so confident that Sono-Tek handle this. I think they really just right after that came to us first. And that's something that wouldn't have happened in the past, to be honest.

我認為在這兩種情況下，我們與這些客戶建立的合作關係。隨著時間的推移，這種情況又發生了，他們對 Sono-Tek 處理這個問題非常有信心。我認為他們真的在那之後就先來找我們了。老實說，這在過去是不會發生的事。

But once you have these long-term partnerships, and that's how in particular in the medical device area, many of these guys are there. We're not just really a vendor. We're a partner with them. They come to us by default to start.

但是，一旦建立了這些長期合作關係，尤其是在醫療設備領域，就會有很多這樣的人。我們不僅僅是一個真正的供應商。我們是他們的合作夥伴。他們默認來找我們開始。

And that's not to say we can do every single coating, but they know Sono-Tek well enough that if we can [do it well enough, we can]. And if we can't, we'll probably refer them to somebody of another technology that can, but that's the kind of partnerships that we have with those for these guys.

這並不是說我們可以做每一種塗層，但他們對 Sono-Tek 非常了解，如果我們可以[做得夠好，我們可以]。如果我們不能，我們可能會將他們推薦給擁有另一種技術的人，但這就是我們與這些人建立的合作關係。

Great. Okay. Thank you. Congratulations on the strong performance.

偉大的。好的。謝謝。恭喜您的強勁表現。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Chris Coccio for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給 Chris Coccio 先生發表閉幕詞。請繼續。

Thank you, Kirin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Sono-Tek's outlook is strong based on our ongoing success with our platform initiatives and the high-tech and clean energy markets. We look forward to our next call that will review our midyear fiscal 2025 results and that will be in October. The meantime, please contact us directly if you have any questions. Wishing you a great rest of the day. Thank you very much.

謝謝 Kirin，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。基於我們的平台計劃以及高科技和清潔能源市場的持續成功，Sono-Tek 的前景十分樂觀。我們期待下一次電話會議，該電話會議將審查 2025 財年年中業績，會議將於 10 月舉行。同時，如果您有任何疑問，請直接與我們聯繫。祝您今天休息愉快。非常感謝。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。