Surface mount assembly enables competition

A GBP 50,000 investment in a TWS Quadra surface-mount assembly line enables Lee-Dickens to compete with Far Eastern sources for electronics assembly contracts.

Lee-Dickens has installed a state of the art TWS Quadra surface-mount assembly line in their factory in Northamptonshire, enabling the company to expand greatly the type of sub-contract work it undertakes.

The new surface-mount machine will complement the through-hole capability currently offered by Lee-Dickens, allowing the Company to address subcontracting and contracts that require a mix and match of surface-mount and through-hole assembly jobs, particularly those requiring smaller batch build.

"Lee-Dickens have been flying the flag for Great Britain by competing fiercely with Far East electronics assembly companies for a number of years.

By offering design, test and assembly to ISO 9000 standard we can compete for a wide range of electronic subcontracting jobs.

The new surface-mount line gives us the unusual advantage of being able to undertake both through-hole and surface-mount and we believe it will help us increase our business still further.

Not many companies can offer this service so we are filling a gap in the subcontracting market," said Gyles Dickens, divisional director Lee-Dickens.

Lee-Dickens has undertaken subcontracting design, manufacturing, assembly and test jobs for over 20 years, with a special focus on plated through-hole assembly and wiring.

The emergence of surface-mount as the preferred method of assembly has eroded the through-hole market but there is still a genuine need for that type of work especially by the military, albeit on smaller batches.

Supplied by Blundells of Coventry, Lee Dickens has invested around GBP 50,000 on the assembly line, which consists of a laser-centring pick and place machine with 120 feeders, a semi-automatic screen printer, and a convection reflow oven.

The TWS Quadra laser machine has a real time placement rate of 3500 components/h and will place a wide variety of SMDs down to 5mm pitch.

Lee-Dickens has already taken orders for jobs requiring both assembly methods and regard the investment in the new machine to be an instant success.

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