It is quite rare in this day and age to come across a
company that manufactures bare PCBs and also
offers a PCB assembly service.
An example of this rare breed is Newbury Electronics,
who as well as manufacturing rapid prototype and small
batch PCB’s, also have a thriving board assembly shop,
where an iPulse M4 SMD placement machine was recently
installed by Blundell Production Equipment.
Philip King, Newbury’s managing director has been in
the business for more years than he cares to remember,
and has seen many changes in the marketplace.
“Although
a great deal of PCB manufacture has gone offshore, there
is still demand for good quality bare board manufacture in
the UK” he says. “The market demands very high quality
standards, and that isn’t always forthcoming from offshore
companies. The downside is that the bare board side
needs a great deal of capital investment.”
“The assembly side is simpler. If you’ve got the work
you can justify the equipment quite easily.”
Back in 1999 Newbury bought a Tenryu FV7100
placement machine which has always worked well and
has been very reliable. When the time came to add a
second machine, Tenryu had been taken over by the
Yamaha Motor Group, had changed its name to iPulse,
and Blundell Production Equipment had been
appointed as UK distributor.
|
“When capacity on a single machine starts to feel
the strain, you really have to to buy a second machine
before you reach the limit and start losing orders”
Philip points out: “When we installed the iPulse M4 itdoubled our capacity overnight. We went for an extra
feeder trolley so that we can prepare kits in advance. The
plug in feeder trolleys work really well and make
changeovers very quick and easy.”
Commenting on the iPulse machine Philip King says
“The stability of the M4 is very impressive. We learned
from the PCB manufacturing side that if you buy a
lightweight machine, problems start to show after a few
years of operation. The rigidity of the M4, like the Tenryu,
means that it will have a long working life.
Philip King sums up: “As a supplier, Blundells have been
very supportive, the installation was pain free. We were up
and running very quickly and there were no significant
teething problems. The M4 has been a great asset to the
business and has enabled us to take on several new orders
that we couldn’t have handled without it.”
 |
