CommsAudit Takes Board Manufacture In-House with MYDATA

17th March 2010

ES Admin

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A new-generation MY100LX pick-and-place machine from MYDATA has made it possible for Cheltenham-based CommsAudit, a major supplier of RF and digital systems and subsystems to the defence sector, to take all of its printed circuit manufacturing operations in house. As a result of this move, the company can now respond even faster to the requirements of its customers, while also retaining total control over the quality of its products.

CommsAudit manufactures very high technology products in small quantities, and the company had, until recently, always subcontracted the assembly of its printed circuit boards. However, seeing an opportunity to provide even better service to its customers by providing a faster response, and also looking for total control over it’s manufacturing operations, the company decided that it wanted to make board assembly an in-house function.

“We knew that the key to success lay in finding the right pick-and-place machine,” said CommsAudit’s Production Manager. “We manufacture high technology products in small volumes. Batch sizes of between ten and twenty are typical, so a fast changeover time was essential to ensure that we would get good machine utilisation. The nature of our work also means that we handle many different types of components in a wide variety of packages, and we needed a machine that could cope easily with all of them.”

CommsAudit ultimately decided that a MYDATA MY100LX was the best fit for its requirements. Not only does it use the Agilis feeder system, which is renowned for facilitating fast changeovers and for handling “difficult” components, as a new-generation machine it also offers exceptional placement accuracy, reliability and future-proofing.

CommsAudit was also impressed by the service and support it received from MYDATA, by the very competitive pricing of the machine, and by the exceptionally fast delivery. The order was placed just prior to the Christmas break and the machine was installed and fully operational by the end of January.

To complement its MY100LX machine, CommsAudit also purchased MYDATA’s new MYCENTRE software, which runs on a PC and provides an intuitive and highly graphical interface for machine set up.

“The machine was easy to get to grips with, and it is very logically arranged. The software is also very impressive. We load our CAD data, preview it in the office, then send it straight to the machine. The whole process is fast and straightforward.”

The MYDATA MY100LX machine purchased by CommsAudit has a rated speed of 15,000 cph. It is part of the new MY100 family of machines from MYDATA, which also includes the MY100DX, rated at 34,000 cph, and the MY100SX rated at 21,500 cph.