LAKE SHORE
“It’s really, really cold because material properties change as a function of temperature,” he said.
Within the chamber is a sensor package about the size of a gumdrop, which is measuring the temperature at an ultra-precise level. Lake Shore’s main product is that sensor, along with related products that help to analyze the results.
Scientists work with extreme cold to understand how materials work at an atomic level. With this knowledge, researchers have the building blocks to make products smaller and more efficient — and operate at room temperature.
In the world of lab-equipment manufacturers, Lake Shore is on the leading edge of the leading edge, said Chris Hammel, a physics professor and director of the Center for Emergent Materials at Ohio State University.
“Lake Shore is a really important piece of this puzzle and an underrecognized piece,” he said.
But the company is different from a typical equipment maker. Most of Lake Shore’s customers are doing work that is financed by the government in one way or another. Most of its products have features and precision that are not available anywhere else.
The result is that Lake Shore has a small but relatively stable market. Its annual sales are in a range of $25 million to $50 million per year, Swartz said. (Product prices range from a low of about $150, for a very basic sensor, to more than $250,000 for a system that incorporates sensors and related equipment.)
In contrast, many of its competitors have a broader array of products that can appeal Swartz to a larger audience. For example, Bruker Corp. of Massachusetts is a diversified maker of lab equipment with $1.6 billion in annual sales.
How it began
Lake Shore was started in 1967 by brothers John and David Swartz. John Swartz, who is Michael’s father, was an electrical engineering professor at Ohio State. David Swartz was an engineer in the Buffalo, New York, area.
The company began in a North Side basement, making temperature sensors for one customer, Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. It was a side gig for the brothers, and John Swartz remained on the faculty at Ohio State.
In 1977, He went on sabbatical from teaching and never came back.
“That was unusual,” John Swartz said. He is now semi- retired and serves as Lake Shore’s chairman.
“I had tenure, so I gave up a lot to try to something new. Fortunately, it worked.”
The brothers named the company Lake Shore in recognition of the family’s cottage in Findley Lake, New York, where they were raised. David Swartz left the business in 1980 to work on a spinoff company that he later sold; he died this year.
Michael Swartz and his two sisters grew up with the business. He was 7 when it was founded and worked summers doing clerical work and assembling circuit boards.
Sometimes, his school life would intersect with the business. After his sophomore year, Lake Shore was moving to a new location, and the company hired the Westerville South High School football team to act as movers. It was a fundraiser for the team. Among the people doing the heavy lifting was Michael, who played strong safety.
There was no plan for Michael Swartz to take over the company, he says. He had an affinity for math and science, and went to Ohio State to study engineering. After graduating, he got a job at Mound Laboratories in the Dayton area, which was run by the U.S. Department of Energy.
About two years later in 1986, a mid- level position came open at Lake Shore. Michael, then in his mid- 20s, made the jump.
“The company was pretty small at the time, so it definitely felt like a small family business, and I was joining the family business,” he said. “Working for your parent can always be a challenge. Luckily, in my case, he treated everyone with a lot of respect.”
He became CEO in 2003.
He’s not just working with his father. His sisters are also engineers, co-owners and part of management. Karen Lint is chief operating officer and Susan Ruhl is supply chain manager.
John Swartz, 80, comes to the office most weekdays but has made a point to stay out of major decisions. “I don’t bother people, other than to be a cheerleader,” he said.
What’s next
The next frontier for many of Lake Shore’s customers is quantum computing, which uses advanced math and physics to come up with new ways of increasing processing capacity.
The result would be computers, phones, vehicles and other devices that have capabilities that seem like science fiction today.
Before businesses can use the technology, scientists and engineers need to do the underlying research, and they likely will do it using Lake Shore products, said Ohio State’s Hammel.
“They have the knowledge and adventurousness to look ahead and develop the equipment that will be needed in the next few years, the next few decades,” he said.