The future of 'UK-electronics.com'
 "I believe that the future of the UK electronics market will be
led by those who innovate and by those who work smart in order to gain
significant competitive advantage over their rivals."- says a thoughtful
Phil Mullins, MD of Purex International. Phil has seen his own
company which manufactures quality solder and laser fume purification
equipment ride high during the boom years and have to continually revise
its business plan to stay ahead of the game during recent turbulent times.
Phil continues - "Take our field of solder fume purification for
example. It is often seen as solely connected with health and safety issues,
protecting personnel from solder fume which can cause serious conditions
such as sionasal cancer and occupational asthma, which is absolutely correct.
However, the smart OEMs and CEMs have identified that good fume extraction
equipment can dramatically increase production, giving them a vital competitive
edge in today's stormy market."
"Consider the current tendency to "buy cheap" - it's not
always good practice. The extensive Purex range and the expertise
we provide allows manufacturers who use wave and reflow machinery to buy
extraction systems from one source for all their requirements, cutting
down administration costs. On the production side, stable airflow is vital
to the operation of an oven so we developed "Flow Control" a
system which maintains the lowest vacuum possible with a variance of less
than 1% throughout the life of the filter. This reduces the area of low
pressure at the on load and off load zones which in turn reduces precipitation
in the cooling zones, reduces nitrogen consumption and minimises any downtime
required for cleaning. After all, how much does it cost to:
- Have an oven out of action to clean solder and flux deposits
left because of inadequate extraction?
- Change inferior filters every couple of days instead of every
6 months?
- Manually adjust the extraction system every day and hope the
temperature profile is right?
- Replace rejected product because the boards have warped?
"Much, much more than buying the right tool for the job in the first
place - Purex. Put simply, it just makes sense"
Current state of affairs
"It's obvious to say that the UK and worldwide electronics industry
has taken a battering over recent times, it has hurt us too, fortunately
we have been able to diversify sufficiently into other markets to offset
the downturn. We are currently working with our electronics customers
to help them squeeze every last ounce of performance out of their Purex and associated equipment with some great results. For example we recently
developed and patented a new "Concertina filter" which can last
up to 10 times as long as a normal pre-filter, so every cloud has a silver
lining!"
Reflections
"Initially, we started out building a pump in a box to help our customers
comply with the new COSHH regulations which were introduced in the 80's.
Since then, working with our customers, we have introduced 3 types of
machine, the 6000 series in the 80's, the 7000 during the early 90's which
introduced the reverse airflow principle that vastly extends filter life
and constant gas and particle monitoring features and most recently the
8000 which incorporates flow control, IQ2000, IPN and a whole host of
other features that our customers love."
Phil finishes off by saying - "If there's one thing I have learned
during our last 10 years in the electronics industry, its that our customers
always need to stay ahead of the game, we simply help them do it."
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