Speedboard Continues to Invest to Support Growing Business

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Speedboard Assembly Services has invested over £100,000 in a new automated conformal coating line.

The new automated process line will increase speed and accuracy of PCBA conformal coating at Speedboard, producing higher quality assemblies with a superior consistent coating, more efficiently.  The line is simple to use and the automated, modular design allows options to be added as application needs change.  

Conformal coating is a specially formulated, polymeric coating applied at low coat-weights to printed circuit boards providing protection from their end-use environment.

The major benefits of the automated spray line are that it reduces coating time, with little or no masking required and it is cured in seconds through the integrated UV oven, giving higher resistance against moisture, condensation, external contaminates and corrosion. In addition, deploying an automated spray process ensures repeatable results are delivered that comply to IPC standards.

Speaking about the investment, Martin Bullimore, Speedboard's Operations Director, says, "We are delighted to make this investment into our shop floor process equipment. This demonstrates to potential and existing customers our commitment and capability to invest to deliver a quality on-time service. To give an example, we will now be able to coat, cure and deliver on the same day, enabling us to satisfy our customers’ requirements and offering reduced lead time for New Product Introduction."

Speedboard has made some significant investments in capital equipment in the past few years, including an upgrade to the Siemens Si Place SMT line to give 0201 capability, and purchases of new equipment such as a second 5-axis X-ray inspection machine, a vapour phase reflow oven and an ERSA Versaflow 345 Selective Soldering line, which delivers repeatable through hole soldering to IPC-A-610 Class 3 standard. The investment in this new equipment ensures that Speedboard has the correct capacity and capabilities to meet their growth strategy.

About Speedboard Assembly Services

Established in 1983, Speedboard Assembly Services is a UK-based Contract Electronics Manufacturer (CEM), serving customers in a variety of sectors, including Industrial, Defence, Medical, Communications, Broadcast and Security. The company offers a broad range of electronic manufacturing services, ranging from traditional build-to-print through to full lifecycle; prototyping, full production, packaging, delivery to end customer, repairs and after sales support.

Speedboard has four SMT lines which, between them, comprise 12 Siemens SiPlace machines, together with a dedicated UV cured conformal coating line. The company also has a selective soldering line and a vapour-phase oven, thus enabling Speedboard to tackle increasingly complex PCBAs (such as double-sided, mixed technology boards) and boards with areas of widely varying thermal mass. Test capabilities include Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI), X-ray, BGA Scope, Boundary-scan, In-Circuit Test (ICT – both flying probe and bed-of-nails), Functional Test and Soak Testing. For more information, please click here.