PressacCommunicationsmanufacturer of

electronicTelecommunicationsproducts as well as a newrange of Energy harvestingradio controlled sensingproducts, has increasedproduction capacity byinstalling a second SMTplacement line supplied byBlundell Productionequipment.

A new i-Pulse M20 SMTmounting machine is thecentrepiece of the new lineat the company’sNottingham factory and it ispartnered by an Ersa Hotflowreflow oven and a DEKHorizon screen printer.

Pressac’s productionengineering manager JohnPatterson takes up the story:“We already have an iPulse linebased on an M4 machine whichwas installed in 2006. This hasperformed extremely well for uswith hardly any downtime,therefore it was an easy decision topurchase a second iPulse machine.We did look at offerings from othersuppliers but there was notanything offering the sameflexibility, build quality and value

Call us on:024 7621 0270Summer 2015 • Issue 52ELECTRONIC PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT

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for money. This coupled with ourexperience of Blundell’s’ support,which has been superb with all ofthe equipment supplied by themmeant that we preferred to staywith Blundell rather than change toa supplier whose support wasunproven.”

He continues: “We needed morecapacity to handle the new “EnergyHarvesting Sensing” products as

well as increased productionon existingTelecommunicationsproducts. The iPulsemachines are robust, sturdyand have proven themselvesto be very flexible across awhole range of componentpackages.”

The new M20 machinehas been specified with thelatest F3 electric feederswhich John is veryimpressed with. “They aretough, quiet, accurate, easyto use and we do not getany missed picks” he says.

Of Blundell’s installationand training he says “It wasfirst class”. He singles out IanBell, Blundell’s’ seniorinstallation andmaintenance engineer forspecial praise. “He alwaysgoes the extra mile and the

most important thing is that I knowI can always pick up the phone andget answers straight away, Blundellhave always given us reliable,speedy service”

Still having a mix of through holeand surface mount work meansthat Pressac also use an Ebsoselective soldering machine and aCMS 400 wave soldering machineboth supplied by Blundell.

Pressing the ‘start’ buttonon Pressac’s new line

NNeewwss

and the refurbishment of thebuilding was helped by a grantfrom Cumbria Local EnterprisePartnership and it became part of a£1 million investment in Marl’s

production facility. Marl are one of the

pioneers of the LED lightingindustry. They have beenworking with LEDtechnology for over 40 years.A particular strength is intheir design departmentwhere they have 12 strongteam working on designs forleading LED suppliers, andserving industries such asrail, telecoms, powergeneration and ruggedelectronic products.

Managing director AdrianRawlinson says: “We at Marlhave ambitious growth planswhich the team at here areconfident of delivering, withthe help of the new iPulselines.”

Avisit to a manufacturingequipment exhibition twoyears ago led to an

investment of over £1 million in anew SMT production facility forintegrated solutions and LEDindustry leader MARLInternational. Their engineersvisited the Blundell stand at‘Southern Manufacturing’ wherethey were immediately impressedby the iPulse M20 SMT placementmachine.

Nathan Orton, Marl’s deputymanaging director says: ‘The iPulsemachine seemed ideally suited toour work in LED placement. Thepaste dispensing facility appealedto us straight away as it would allowus to produce short runs of LEDproducts without the need for timeconsuming screen printing. Wecould see it would give us theability to make rapid prototypeswhich is very important to us.

A visit to the Blundelldemonstration roomfollowed, where some trialboards were assembledwhich confirmed Marl’simpression that the M20was the right machine forthem. “We established thatit would meet a broadrange of current and futureLED lighting requirements”continues Nathan Orton.“We were originally lookingfor one machine but soonrealised that we neededtwo machines to handlefuture volumes, so wedecided to create an SMTCentre with two new linesto add to the line wealready had.”

As well as the two iPulseM20 machines Marl

purchased two Iemme ‘Neo 20’convection reflow ovens fromBlundell. Linking conveyors weresupplied by Nutek.

The purchase of the equipment

DEFLUXING • MOISTURE CONTROL CABINETS • REFLOW OVENS

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Blundell ProductionEquipment hasjoined the rapidly

growing roll call ofmembers of theManufacturing TechnologyCentre in Coventry. Having supplied several

items of productionequipment to MTC’sadvanced technologyproduction line, Blundell wasa leading contender for fullmembership of theprestigious MTCManufacturing TechnologyGroup. MTC chief executive Dr

Clive Hickman said he waspleased that a company with

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the specialist expertise ofBlundell had joined theMTC’s community. “Blundellhas been an industry leadersince it was established inthe early 1980’s and we lookforward to working withBlundells’ technicians atMTC” he said. The MTC opened in 2011

and was founded by theUniversity of Birmingham,Loughborough University,the University ofNottingham and TWI Ltd.The MTC’s members includesome of the UK’s majorglobal manufacturers.

STENCIL CLEANING • SMT PROTOTYPING • PICK AND PLACE

Paul Blundell fixes the Blundellplaque to MTC’s Member’s wall

Left to right: Paul Blundell, Dr. Clive Hickman, CEO of MTC and Neil Blundell

BBlluunnddeellll 22001155 Product Range

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SSppeeeeddbbooaarrdd mmoovveess ttoo vvaappoouurrpphhaassee ssoollddeerriinngg wwiitthh IIBBLLSpeedboard Assembly

Services has enhanced itsPCB assembly capabilities

by investing in an IBL BLC 509Vapour Phase reflow machinefrom Blundell ProductionEquipment.

Speedboard’s decision was basedon the fact that Vapour Phaseaffords much better control andstability over the entire solderingprocess, compared to traditionalreflow soldering, regardless ofboard characteristics. PCBsmanufactured using Vapour Phasedo not experience the hightemperature differences typicallyproduced during traditional reflowsoldering, which can causecomponent and/or board damage.

The Vapour Phase process worksby heating the assembled PCB in avapour of boiling Galden, an inertliquid which is ideal for the wettingof lead-free alloys without risk ofoxidation.

Neil Owen, Speedboard’sManaging Director, comments:“High complexity, high value,boards demand the use ofalternative production techniquesto maintain consistently highquality. Following our investment inVapour Phase, we have been ableto tackle increasingly challenging

projects for customers operating insectors such as Industrial, Defence,Medical, Communications andSecurity, where stringent standardsare demanding consistency andquality throughout the entiremanufacturing process.”

DuringVapour Phasesoldering, a PCBcannot becomehotter than thevapour in whichit is suspended.Its positionwithin thevapour (e.g.height abovethe boilingGalden)governs themaximum

temperature the PCB will be able toreach;

IBL’spatented‘Soft VapourPhase’controlsystemallows forthe creationof soak,plateau orlineartemperatureprofiles. It isalso veryeasy toswitch between temperatureprofiles, even if there are significantdifferences between the masses ofthe boards, as there is no waitingtime for the temperature tostabilise.

A Vapour Phase oven requires farless electrical power than atraditional reflow oven, so is a costeffective solution for small batchPCBs. Owen adds: “Galden is an

DEFLUXING • MOISTURE CONTROL CABINETS • REFLOW OVENS

environmentally-friendly liquid plusthe IBL machine has airlocks tominimise evaporation toatmosphere as well as the volumeof liquid lost during board transferon the pallets. We are expecting touse no more than a few litres ofGalden per year.”

Working conditions foremployees are also a priority forSpeedboard, and in this respect theIBL oven is easy to work around andis well insulated; so does not radiateas much heat as a conventionalreflow machine.

Speedboard purchased their IBLBLC 509 Vapour Phase oventhrough Blundell ProductionEquipment, IBL’s exclusivedistributor in the UK, andinstallation and support is allprovided by Blundell. The oven isnow fully operational and its use is

confirming IBL’s claims andresulting in consistently highquality boards. Owen concludes:“Customer satisfaction is ofparamount importance to us, andour new Vapour Phase solderingprocess allows us to take onincreasingly complex projectsknowing that we will produce therepeatable high quality results forwhich Speedboard is renowned”

HD-INSPECTION • CONFORMAL COATING MACHINES

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EExxhhiibbiittiioonn ssuucccceessss ffoorr IIBBLL

There has been a strong revival of the wavesoldering machine market in the past yearaccording to Paul Blundell of Blundell

Production Equipment. ‘After a few years when demand appeared to be in

decline, strong demand has re-emerged for both newand used machines.’ Says Paul. ‘One reason appears tobe a return to in-house manufacture by somecompanies who had decided a few years ago tooutsource production. Another is the realisation thatthrough-hole and mixed technology assembly is notgoing away.’

Our German partners IBL,leading manufacturers ofVapour Phase soldering

machines have reported a verysuccessful SMT Exhibition inNuremburg, Germany in May.They will also be taking a largestand at Productronica inNovember.

IBL have become established asthe leading innovator in the VapourPhase Soldering machine market.

Their patented ‘soft vapourphase’ technology is renowned forproducing high quality results oncomplex high technology PCBassemblies that cannot be soldered

in a heat reflow tunnel. Pictured isFlorian Wuest, IBL’s service manageron their stand at the SMT show. We

The CMS 400has beenmanufactured inthe UK by Blundellsince its launch in1990 when itstarted arevolution in wavesoldering with thefirst spray fluxerbeing offered asstandard and itslow dross wavedynamics. Afterseveral facelifts Itis still as efficientand reliable as ever, and both new and reconditionedmachines are available from Blundell. The factory rebuiltmodels represent especially good value as they costroughly half that of a new machine but are stillwarrantied for a full 12 months.

‘Most new wave soldering machines today have verylarge footprints, are very expensive, and have highrunning costs. The CMS 400 is compact and economicaland can achieve results equivalent to or better thanlarge machines’.

at Blundell have installed more than50 IBL machines in the UK sincebecoming UK distributors in 2010.

www.blundell.co.ukTel: 024 7621 0270

Quinn Close, Seven Stars Industrial Estate, Coventry CV3 4LH

VAPOUR PHASE SOLDERING • FIRST ARTICLE INSPECTION

Newcabinetsizes are

available in theX-Treme rangeof LowHumiditystoragecabinets whichare suppliedand supportedin the UK byBlundellProductionEquipment.

These popularattractivelydesignedcabinets are usedby many UKelectronicscompanies forstoring moisturesensitive components andassemblies. Users include BAESystems, Ultra Electronics, Renishawand Siemens. There are over 100 UKinstallations.

The 4-door cabinet has been abest seller but now there are 2 doorand 1 door versions available forusers with limited space or smallstorage requirements.

The ultra-fast dehumidificationrate make these cabinets stand outfrom the crowd, the relativehumidity is reduced to just 1% inless than 10 minutes. They also havevery low power consumption.Heaters and dryers can be fitted asan option if the storage products

need to bekept at aconstant orhigher thanambienttemperature.

A userfriendlytouch screendisplayregulates thesetting,controlling,monitoringand servicingof thecabinet. Anoptional dataloggerrecords allevents such

as dooropenings and

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power outages. Calibrated digitalsensors measure humidity andtemperature. The double skinnedair tight cabinet body and largedouble glazed thermal glasswindows provide excellentinsulation and a clear view of thecabinet contents without openingthe doors. Internal lighting switcheson automatically when movementis detected.

These X-Treme cabinets are bothstylish and highly efficient andenable users to meet JEDECstandards and provide confidentshort or long term storage.