PartnerTech has added a new Mydata pick and place surface mount line and automated optical inspection equipment to its Cambridge-based new product introduction (NPI) facility The investment will help improve throughput and yield of fast turnaround prototype and low-medium volume system assembly service. The move is good news for UK-based product designers looking for a local, flexible, fast turnaround printed circuit board (PCB) prototyping and small/medium volume assembly service.
For over a decade, PartnerTechs 1,400m2 site has been providing services for customers including design consultancies and OEMs in the point of sale, medical, instrumentation, industrial, defence, aerospace, maritime, IT and cleantech industries. Names include Plextek, Ricardo, Solarflare Communications, TTP and Ultra Electronics.
The facility now boasts three placement machines, all accommodating package styles including 01005, 0201, 0402, QFP, QFN, ball grid array (BGA), microBGA and chip scale. In-line AOI complements existing x-ray inspection.
PartnerTechs UKs managing director, Gary Howse, said: Our experienced engineering team in Cambridge provides customers with a fast, friendly and flexible PCB prototyping and system build service with yields consistently better than 99 per cent. This is probably why our top ten customers have been using us collectively now for well over 100 years.
The new SMT equipment gives us the capacity to meet an upsurge in demand while maintaining our reputation as a high quality, fast turnaround NPI centre. And, importantly, as part of a larger group, we also have the ability to provide customers with a gateway to our UK manufacturing site in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, or for those that want an offshore option, to transfer production to one of our low cost manufacturing facilities in either Poland or China.
PartnerTech is one of Europes largest business-to-business contract manufacturing companies with manufacturing centres in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, the UK, the United States and China.