Newbury continues to invest in technical capabilities

Commenting on the £500,000 expenditure, Managing Director, Philip King, said: “Electronics and electrical engineering is becoming increasingly complex and the continual development of smart, mobile technology is requiring ever-smaller boards. The investment we have made in this new equipment means that we are not just in line with our customers but, in many instances, ahead of them in terms of what they may be requiring in the next few years”. He continued: “We are particularly excited about the laser drilling machine, the first of its type to be installed in the UK.

It will ensure shorter lead times for customers but still at a very realistic and reasonable cost.”

The three pieces of kit are:

• LPKF 5120 Laser drilling and milling machine – used in the manufacture of next generation PCBs with much smaller holes (typically 60 microns rather than the existing 300 microns, which is typically the smallest hole that can be drilled mechanically).
• Ecoselect 1 selective soldering machine – this robotically solders advanced PCBs at four times the speed of a skilled human technician. This delivers a significantly better and consistent quality giving improved reliability of the finished product. It is the second of its type to be installed at Newbury Electronics.
• Yamaha I-Pulse M20 SMD pick-and-place machine - this adds to Newbury’s capacity to process many different PCB assembly orders at the same time with on-time deliveries in short lead times. This is the eighth of this model installed at the company.

In addition to the new equipment, since January 2017, the company has appointed eleven additional staff who will receive training across the entire PCB manufacturing process.