Looking forward to 2023
As with previous years and following Looking back at 2022, we are very excited to share our plans for the new year with you. In 2023 we will be working on three major projects that will make our services more flexible and faster and will allow us to provide even better support for your projects.
These 2 major projects are:
- The expansion of our manufacturing facilities in both Hungary and Germany.
- Improvements to the Eurocircuits Smart Tools for designers.
More details below…
Our European factories in the heart of our market
Every year we invest in manufacturing and other equipment and in 2023 new equipment will be purchased and installed to improve our manufacturing and assembly capabilities.
Due to some delays in construction our new assembly facility only became operational in January 2023, this caused some capacity issues in late 2022. This new facility has almost double the capacity. 3 times the m2 that our existing facility opened in 2017. It also has 7 automated assembly lines with full redundancy giving us the flexibility we need to assemble PCB prototypes and small series with quick turnaround lead times.
The table below shows both the existing and planned assembly equipment for both Hungary (HU) and Germany (D).
| Equipment | HU 2022 | HU 2023 | D 2022 | D 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP710 – Speedprint automatic solder paste screen printer | 1 | 1 | ||
| MY700 – Mycronic solder paste jetter | 2 | 1 | ||
| MY300 – Mycronic Pick & Place machine | 5 | 2 | 1 | |
| Mycronic storage towers | 8 | 6 | ||
| Mycronic feeders | +4000 | +500 | ||
| ERSA hotflow reflow ovens | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| ERSA selective soldering machine | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Kohyoung SPI | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| ASSCON VP6000 vapour phase oven | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| NIKON X-ray inspection | 1 | 1 | ||
| LPKF stencil cutter | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| DEXION mass storage systems | 1 | 2 | ||
| Washing machines | 2 | 1 |
All assembly work is checked using our PIXpect inspection system, this is a Eurocircuits developed optical inspection system based on our PCBA Visualizer technology and is specifically designed for prototype and small series inspection.
We will also make significant investments in our PCB manufacturing facilities. In Germany we will replace older equipment to improve the capabilities. In Hungary, the PCB drill department will relocate to the old assembly facility next door. The existing PCB manufacturing facility in Hungary will also be refurbished. And as the social rooms for the workers and the company reception area now reside in the new dedicated building commissioned beginning of 2022, there will be almost 2,000m2 extra available for manufacturing.
This extra space will soon be filled with the long wish list of equipment that our PCB production people want but for which there was no place to install until now.
In our spacious expansion and by our drive to do things right and sustainably and to thrive positively in our society for the future, we need to respect the environment, the local inhabitants and the people who work for us. We must therefore, make sustainable investments, make our footprint as small as possible on our planet and make Eurocircuits an enjoyable place to work. All of this is as important as developing our services to our customers.
At Eurocircuits we respect Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (ISO26000 & 14001) and are active in:
- Green energy only (bought and installed)
- Managers dedicated to every field of CSR
- ISO14001 in Germany, India and 2023 in Eger
- Brand new water treatment (+1M€ in 2022)
- Measuring and monitoring air pollution after the filters
- Carbon footprint calculation together with Fraunhofer Institute
- Social engagement (European Students and Student Teams – community sponsoring)
- Competitive wages for our team members
- Pay local taxes in Europe
- Make profit to continue to invest and develop
Optimal customer support
Electronic parts
Over the past few years we have processed over 380,00 different parts for our assembly service. From this we have developed a verified database of these parts providing designers with valuable information. Using this information we want to make it even more useful by developing tools that will help designers, for example we are discussing the possibility of developing a BOM list generator using this database, this would help designers by selecting generic and eC-stock parts, this helps by reducing costs and component lead times.
Data feedback
The introduction of our Data Feedback communication system allows organised communication regarding any anomalies found during the processing of your PCB data. This was a huge step forward in managing our customer relationships. We will continue to improve and strengthen this system into a dynamic communication tool to improve traceability of everything concerning your project within your online Eurocircuits account.
Parts Pre-Order
Only by working together can we improve the ongoing issues of component supply chain delays and with your help we can shorten lead times. Using our Parts pre-order (PPO) service for critical parts allows you to pre-order these parts and thus ensuring that they are physically in our assembly facility ready for when you need them. This is one of those rare win-win situations: we have more time to source components, and you will suffer fewer delays.
Our internal mechanical department
We have been investing in our mechanical department for a few years. The reason for this is simple: we need our equipment to have the maximum uptime possible to give us the flexibility we need to manufacture and assemble PCB prototypes and small series. It is priceless to have redundancy in all machines in case something fails. A combination of redundancy and very fast service is therefore required to achieve the highest possible uptime.
This department has grown substantially over recent years to include a complete steel department with laser cutting, bending, turning, welding etc. … In addition, we have Datron milling machines, 3 and 5 axes, to mill non-ferrous parts such as aluminium and plastic. We also have two industrial 3D printers, all of this helps us to ensure manufacturing equipment has the highest possible uptime.
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