EC Electronics News

EC Electronics News

Issue 1 Winter 2014

Operating internationally in the electronics manufacturing services industry

Inside this Issue • Message from the Managing Director

• What we do here at EC

• Salamander Pumps Case Study

• EC Celebrates 30 years in the Industry

• EC reinvests in Romanian facility

• EC Christmas Donation Scheme

• Meet our customer team

• EC Award Success

• Forthcoming Events

Business of the Year

www.ecelectronics.co.uk

Welcome to the first issue of EC Electronics News We hope this newsletter will help you keep in touch with developments in the EC programme and bring to your attention news from inside the company as well as the electronics manufacturing industry.

A Message from the Managing Director I am delighted to be able to welcome you to the first issue of our company newsletter. We very much hope that this quarterly publication will enable us to keep our customers abreast of developments at EC Electronics.

2014 saw us celebrate the company’s 30th Anniversary with a very successful year. The business grew by 20% for the third consecutive year. We were also delighted to be named Business of the Year at the 2014 at the Inspire Business Awards in (insert month).

everyone at EC, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Phil Simmonds Group Managing Director

While it’s been a wonderful year, we are already looking forward to 2015 and the opportunities and challenges it may bring. On behalf of

EC Celebrates 30 years John Simmonds, currently the company’s Chairman, founded EC Electronics in 1984 in Basingstoke. After a couple of moves in the early years, the business has been based at its Rankine Road HQ since 1999 and currently employs 130 people. More recently EC Electronics has established complementary overseas subsidiaries to support its growth. A wholly owned manufacturing centre opened in Romania in 2006 and EC Supply Chain Solutions Ltd was established in Hong Kong in 2011.

As 2014 draws to a close, it will mark the end of our 30th year in electronics manufacturing. What started off as a small business operating out of a family home, has flourished into the multi million pound business it is today.

Reflecting on 30 years in business John Simmonds said, “To see how large and the successful the company has become is a far cry from the days I would repair electronics in my garage 30 years ago. EC has braved hard economic times, enduring multiple recessions as well as competition in Asia and has not just survived, but flourished. This is a testament to the fresh ideas that have seen EC diversify and keep up with technological demand, not to mention the hard work and dedication of all EC’s staff across the globe. I look forward to many more successful years ahead.”

What do we do at EC? Here at EC we cover a wide variety of business areas, here is a breakdown of EC Electronics’ group operations. We may do more than you think!

EC manufacturing solutions

EC Low Pressure overmoulding solutions

EC Supply chain solutions

Electronic Design

Encapsulates electronics

PCB Bare boards

PCB Assembly

Protect from Dust dirt and vibration

Cables

Cable Assembly

IP67 Standard waterproofing

Metal/Plastic fabrications

Product Integration

Tooling solutions

Consumables items

Wire Harness Assembly

PCB Assemblies

UK & Romania

Hong Kong & Asia

EC reinvests in Romanian facility

This autumn saw EC reinvest in its facility in Romania, improving the efficiency and capacity of one of the production lines. The purchase of the Philips Emerald pick and place surface mount PCB machine, has improved EC’s PCB assembly capacity by 20% on one of the factory’s main production lines.

It was chosen over other machines because it is easily compatible with our existing system and also has a user friendly, plug in and play design. This makes it ideal as it requires no extra staff or training when integrated into the production line. The machine specialises in ‘oddball’ components such as connectors, BGA’s and QFM’s making it suitable for the wide variety of components we manufacturer for our diverse customer base.

EC’s technical director, Bill Green said, “Integrating the Philips Pick and Place machine in to our production line in Romania is part of EC’s continuous process to reinvest and develop our facilities. It is an excellent addition to the Romanian factory.”

EC celebrates success at industry awards in the South East awards and ‘Employee of the Year’ for EC’s Tom Shadwell at the Inspire Business awards.

Our most prestigious award category this year was the ‘Business of the year’ award at the 2014 Inspire Awards. This was EC’s most sought after accolade and probably the toughest one to achieve, as our fellow nominees were a selection of successful businesses from a variety of different industries.

This autumn has been a successful season for EC as we were privileged enough to be short listed for a number of awards, across a variety of different industry ceremonies. Our success reflects the hard work EC and its employees have put into this year and it was a fantastic experience to be involved with.

EC was successfully short listed for ‘Materials application of the year’ for the British Engineering Excellence Awards, ‘Manufacturer of the year’ at the Elektra Awards, ‘Trainee scheme of the year’ at the Made

We are pleased to say that we won this award and it was a great moment for EC and the staff. We had a fantastic night at the Inspire awards 2014 and much celebrating was done!

It was the perfect recognition for a prosperous year for EC, which has seen EC’s turnover rise by 20% for the third successive year and most importantly, celebrate its 30th successful year in business. We aim to continue to pursue success in all aspects of our business and to live up to this esteemed title in 2015.

Case Study: Salamander Pumps EC Electronics have enabled Salamander Pumps to improve quality and reduce the manufacturing cost of its sensors for electric shower systems by 40%.

Salamander designed a Hall Effect sensor to switch the shower pump on and off as needed. The original design involved a messy, slow, inefficient process and the seal could not be guaranteed to be watertight. Conversations with EC Electronics introduced Low Pressure Overmoulding (LPO), as a possible alternative.

Gareth Richards, technical director at Salamander Pumps commented, “The cost, time and labour of our original design was too high, but when EC showed us some samples of their LPO skills we realised instantly that this was going to be a far better solution.” He continued,

“The technical team at EC worked closely with us to understand the dimensions and environment in which the assembly needed to operate, which has resulted in an assembly that is quick to manufacture, cost effective and 100% watertight.”

“LPO is fairly unique to us in the UK, in that we are the only CEM able to provide this service,” said Bill Green, group technical director at EC Electronics. “The technology enables us to mould directly over the PCB to produce a rugged shield that is almost unbreakable. It was ideal for the shower pump switch but Salamander hadn’t come across the system before.”

The LPO process produces no toxic fumes and there is very little waste.

It is also quick, with cycle times typically 15 to 90 seconds and it can then be further processed after about a minute. There is no time-consuming curing process for a two-part moulding compound. The pressure is only between 5 and 8 bar, and so will not damage sensitive components.

EC Christmas Toy Campaign For the last 4 years, EC has been working in partnership with our staff in Romania, running a donation programme for the Hunedoara centre.

The Hunedoara centre comprises of three divisions: • The Hunedoara Maternal centre - a place which accommodates young mothers under the age of 18 who do not have a home and have children under the age of 2 years old or are victims of domestic violence • Hunedoara Recovery Centre - A place that cares for disabled children between the ages of 2 to 18 • Hunedoara Special Recovery Centre - A place that cares and house disabled children between the ages of 0 to 2 years old Employees from all sections of the business are encouraged to donate toys and games to give to the children and young mothers, who are usually very poor. Donations are not limited to just toys and normally practical gifts such as nappies and baby formula are also included.

Tony Mount, Operations Director, responsible for managing the programme commented, “It is great to be able to give to the Children gifts during the year and especially at Christmas. As a company we have strong links with Romania and the donations we supply really do make a difference.”

UNITED KINGDOM

EC Electronics Ltd, Unit 4 Newton Court, Rankine Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG24 8GF

Forthcoming Events EC Electronics will be exhibiting at Southern Manufacturing taking place on the 10th12th February 2015 on stand D68. Make sure that you come by and say hello if you are visiting the show!

And Finally...

EC would like to wish all of our customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, we look forward to 2015!

ROMANIA

SC EC Electronics SRL, 332060 Str Stadionului nr4, Petrosani, jud, Hunedoara, Romania

www.ecelectronics.co.uk

www.ecelectronics.ro

sales@ecelectronics.co.uk

sales@ecelectronics.ro

+44 (0)1256 461894

The donation programme is not just restricted to Christmas and staff donations are made on a quarterly basis, at Easter, beginning of July, the start of the academic year in September and at Christmas. If you are interested in supporting EC and donating any toys or games, please email our UK Office Manager Sue Berry sberry@ecelectronics.co.uk.

+40 (0) 254 552 024

HONG KONG

EC Supply Chain Solutions Ltd, 107B Wah Wai Centre, 38-40 Au Pui Wan Street, Fo Tan N.T., Hong Kong www.ecsupplychainsolutions.hk sales@ecsupplychainsolutions.hk (852) 3153 2478