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University of Brighton (EE1) industrial visit to Eurotherm plc (Worthing)

The main points that were covered on our visit to Eurotherm (Dominion way site, Worthing) were:
o A presentation on the background of the company, also outlining placement student opportunities
o A tour of the facilities on site
   - Warehouse
   - PCB manufacture
   - Testing facilities
o Q&A session to finish

Background Information on the CompanyEurotherm Meeting

Eurotherm was formed in 1965 in Worthing, manufacturing temperature controllers. Within five years, many other sub-companies were formed in the area to design and manufacture data recorders, variable speed electronic drives, and other precision process control instruments.
By 1978, the company "went public" and appeared on the London Stock Exchange.
In 1990, Eurotherm was acquired by Siebe plc, which later became Invensys plc.
In the current day, Eurotherm is a world leader of process control with international coverage over 16 main locations globally.

Written by Michael Curry.
Based on http://www.eurotherm.co.uk/uk/eng/aboutus/Who+Are+We/CompOverview.htm

More on Eurotherm here (supplied by Jassim Al Jaidah)

Student Placement Opportunities

Eurotherm gives several opportunities for graduates and undergraduates to take industrial placements in thee company. These vary from three to twelve months, around the expertise of the applicant.
There are several projects types available for the electronic and software engineering applicants ranging from software to electronics hardware.
Applicant will be working in product teams, completing projects with there own goals and achievements.

Eurotherm offers a four and a half day working week, several social activities that occur during the year, will help find accommodation and all with a competitive package.
Candidates are expected to follow a career in the UK, if they want a chance to work with Eurotherm.

Written by Saffron Balfour
Based on: http://go.eurotherm.co.uk/

PCB manufacturePCB Manufact

All PCB manufacture at Worthing, is currently done at the Dominion Way site (the one we visited). The tour showed us:
1. Empty PCBs (just copper tracks)
2. Surface mount PCB production line machines
    (not working when we visited)
3. Partially complete PCBs
4. Manual hand placed laser pointing machines
5. Finished PCBs (ready to go on to testing)

The surface mount machines work by 'sticking' components (supplied on reels) to the PCBs. The paste used is a solder solution, which when melted allows the components to be electrically connected to the copper tracks.

'Through hole' components (ones that cannot be surface mounted) had to be slotted into their appropriate positions by hand. This was done at separate terminal, where all the components are available in plastic trays, which spin around automatically, allowing the user to only pick up the correct component. The position of the 'current component' is the pointed out by a laser spot. This method is not fool-proof (such as polarised components being placed incorrectly), so a completed board is usually left as a reference for the operator.

Written by Michael Curry

Testing FacilitiesA testing facility

Testing process in general was divided to 2 different sections:
1. For the PCBs which pass the testing process.
2. For the PCBs which fail the testing process.
They were using a machine to do the testing process for them. The machine had some pins at the bottom of the place the putting the PCBs and some pins in the lid of the machine which by closing the lid of it was placing on the PCB.
The pins have been connected to the computer and computer had a program to process the signal was coming to the computer. which was verifying if the signal was as it should be and expected on the actual PCB.
1- If the PCB passed the test which was running with the computers and pins, it was send to other section to place in the machine they were made for or packaged for the company which order them.
2- If the PCB was failed from the test of the computer, computer will give a reason why the PCB failed the test and where the problem is, then they print out the problem read it and they fix it with their equipment they had. If it fails a second re-test, they send the PCB and the print sheet from the computer to another section to fix it.

Written by Hesam Vafaei-Nikakhtar.

Eurotherm Website
Student Placement Website

Web and email addresses of group members on left.
Many thanks to Trevor Curry & Dave Hartley of Eurotherm for the most of images used here.
Excluding HTML W3C 4.01 Compliant image and 'Testing Facilities' image. Please click each of these images for details of their respective copyright owners

Jassim Al Jaidah @
Saffron Balfour @
Andreas Barlos @
Michael Curry @
Alexandros Gkatzogiannis @
Georgios Psaroudakis @
Hesam Vafaei Nikakhtar @

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Last Updated 17 March 2005
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© 2005 Michael Curry
Eurotherm logo, Meeting & PCB pictures are © Eurotherm Limited (Invensys)