LED lighting manufacturer invests £120,000 in prototyping

The new machining centre and printed circuit board (PCB) router will allow Marl to turn around most prototypes within a week of the acceptance of a design by its customers. The tools produce housings, mechanical parts and circuit boards straight from the CAD (Computer Aided Design) output generated by Marl’s design team.

Commenting, Marl Managing Director Adrian Rawlinson said, “Marl’s strength is our ability to produce energy efficient lighting solutions for specific customer requirements. Well-known organisations that we have supplied include the Formula 1 Association, British Energy, British Waterways Board, Network Rail and Nokia Siemens Networks. We have also been very successful in engineering our own products to address specific market opportunities, such as infra-red LED assemblies for use by the security forces, and security lights. The investment we have made will allow Marl to be even more agile when addressing these kinds of opportunities in future.”

Marl has invested in an LPKF Protomat® S100 PCB routing machine, a Hurco TM6 2-axis CNC (computer numerical control) lathe and a Hurco VM20 3 axis machining centre. The Hurco machines increase Marl’s capacity to produce prototype housings and mechanical parts by 50% and doubles the company’s rate of mould tool production. Both machines feature a high degree of automation, allowing designs to be built straight from the CAD files generated by Marl’s design team.

The LPKF PCB router is a state-of-the art system, which eliminates the need for Marl’s staff to handle hazardous etching chemicals. This CNC machine also works direct from CAD files, and can build single or double sided boards with up to two layers. It can produce aluminium clad boards, which is key for designs where thermal management is a factor. Using the machine, Marl can produce a prototype PCB in just a few hours.