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
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)
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/
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 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 |
