Further UK investment in manufacturing for Parker SSD Drives strengthens deliveries and quality

The latest investment has been in two advanced surface mount lines for the high speed production of control cards and power boards used in Parker SSD Drives’ range of AC, DC and servo products. Roy Stout, Littlehampton Plant Manager, explains that the surface mount lines have, “Been designed to maximise throughput while producing the highest levels of quality, as part of our ISO 9001:2000 quality control procedures. The lines use the latest screen print, component feeding, wave soldering and pick and place technologies, and are controlled from a centralised computer system that enables us to setup and manage each production batch extremely efficiently. As a result, we have been able to improve overall uptime in this department by around 70% and, perhaps as importantly, to minimise setup times, with greater production flexibility and less wastage”.

A further benefit of the latest investment in the surface mount lines, along with improvements elsewhere in production processes has been the ability for Parker SSD Drives to shorten its product delivery times. As Roy Stout points out, “It is our customers who will really benefit from this new investment, as it is already allowing us to deliver 99.8% of all customer orders on or before the customer request date. This is a terrific achievement and a reflection on the dedication and skills of our production staff”.

Further investment, bringing the total this year alone to almost half a million pounds, has been made to make many of Parker SSD Drives’ manufacturing processes compliant with the RoHS directive. This is designed to restrict the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and has involved changes in components and raw materials. Roy Stout highlights, “This is crucial if we are to maintain our position as the leading global manufacturer of high technology products and the company that sets best practice standards. In addition, by becoming RoHS compliant we can provide our customers with the assurance that our drives meet all of the required technical and commercial legislation, today and in the future”.