Latest News

NHT Takes Delivery of New Surface Mount Plant - Jan 2011

NHT has extended its Surface Mount capability with the purchase of a state of the art Europlacer iineo I SMT assembly machine. This will complement NHT's expertise in SMT assembly with 4 SMT machines now in operation.

With a placement rate of 14000 components per hour at an accuracy of 35 microns, an extremely high feeder count and largest industry board size this will help NHT stay at the leading edge of Contract Electronic Manufacturing.

NHT Signs Contract for Manufacture of GPC Autocab Minos Units - Dec 2010

Northern Hi-Tec have secured a contract to manufacture the Minos range of Data Terminal for GPC Autocab (http://www.autocab.com) commencing in early 2011 .

NHT have a long standing arrangement with GPC Autocab to manufacture Taxi Data terminals and have produced the Alpha ,Sigma ,Sigma + ,Zeta and Omega ranges of Taxi data terminals and are proud to be associated with the new Minos 4.3 inch colour touchscreen display.

The contract was signed at the offices of GPC Autocab in Dec 2010, with Chris Wrigley and Phil Baker from GPC Autocab and Gary Hewitt and Kevin Smith from Norther Hi-Tec.

Northern Hi-Tec Launches Further IPC Training

Northern Hi-Tec recently carried out further IPC training on its site in Lancaster. Gary Hewitt, Managing Director states, "We see IPC training as very important to the development of our business. It is vitally important that we continue to adopt recognised standards of excellence throughout the business. We have found that the IPC standard and the way it is taught by our training provider not only meets their technical needs but perhaps even more importantly gives our staff the confidence to both question details and empower them to make decisions, and as a result we produce better quality products".

Implementation of Lean

Contract Electronic Manufacturers specialise in managing variety. CEMs manufacture products for clients from a wide variety of market sectors, in varying volumes and using a variety of assembly and test processes.

As a result, it is absolutely vital that a ‘manufacturing system’ is developed that makes best use of all available resources, is driven by customer demand and can respond very quickly to changes in that demand.

At Northern Hi-Tec, we have chosen to develop a production system based on lean manufacturing principles, because lean addresses the key objectives of on-time delivery with exceptional quality performance.

Andy Davy, Cell Manager states, "We set up some new lines based upon cellular manufacturing concepts at the beginning of May 08. The results to date have been impressive with major improvements to product build quality, throughput and a significant reduction in floor space requirements. At the start of the programme we carried out a basic lean training course for our staff and have implemented a 5S project in tandem with the new layout. It is quite amazing what can be achieved in a short period of time when everyone pulls together working to a common set of goals and objectives".

Northern Hi-Tec now has three SMT placement lines

Northern Hi-Tec has upgraded its SMT capacity with the addition of a Europlacer Finesse placement system and an eight-zone Hexi-oven.

Director Simon Bell was instrumental in engaging Europlacer, having gained confidence in the operational efficiency of the equipment and the technical support received by Europlacer while working with the Progress 6 kit over a number of years.

Simon comments: "Having operated two Progress 6 machines for a number of years, Europlacer was my logical choice when we considered increasing both the capacity and capability of our SMT equipment".

"We manufacture a wide range of products with varying volumes so fast, efficient changeover is a major requirement of any SMT equipment we purchase. Additionally, it was essential that we found equipment with compatible software and feeders which would result in minimum retraining of the SMT Team".

"We selected the Finesse machine because not only did it satisfy the above requirements but, with its enhanced visual system options, we could also upgrade the software on our Progress 6 machines thus having all three machines running on a common software platform".

"We decided to buy a new reflow oven and selected the eight-zone Hexi-oven from Europlacer to enhance both our capacity and improve our lead free capability. I believe Northern Hi-Tec was amongst the first in the UK to acquire and operate this oven".

Northern Hi-Tec
Wasco House
Willow Lane
Lancaster
LA1 5NA
Tel: 01524 67833
Fax: 01524 67544
Email: sales@nht.co.uk