Blakell Europlacer Announces CPI expansion in Rotherham

The result of many years of developing close relationships with their clientele and supplying high quality products has culminated in year on year growth in spite of the global economic situation, and this has necessitated an increase in CPI’s production capacity.



To add to the existing Speedprint SP210AVi, Europlacer Finesse² and SAKI Voyager assembly equipment, CPI have added a brand new line with Blakell Europlacer providing the turnkey solution as well as 2 additional placement systems to offer offline prototyping and quick turnaround.



The equipment purchased represents an investment of over £400,000 and includes the following:



Speedprint SP880AVi stencil printer

Europlacer iineo II placement machine

2 x Europlacer Access 4 placement systems

SAKI Voyager AOI system

TSM reflow soldering system

TSM wave soldering system

Aegis Circuit Cam Express Cad translation program



The total maximum placement capacity now exceeds 40,000 components per hour (CPH).

“We have seen solid growth in our organisation, and with some major contracts that we have recently concluded, the pressure on our existing facility had become something of a bottleneck. So we made the decision to invest heavily in not only SMT production equipment, but some other key areas such as Stock Management and factory enhancements to increase floorspace” , stated Paul Ironmonger, Managing Director. “There were many equipment suppliers keen to provide a solution to our SMT production requirements with some very enticing offers, however we have had a good working relationship with Europlacer over the years, and we were delighted to select them as our partner in providing the turnkey solution”



The Speedprint SP880AVi system offers the advantage of being able to handle stencil sizes up to 29” while still offering 2D solder paste inspection (including bridge detection) and has laser guided tooling posts for quick and accurate setup.



The Europlacer iineo II system has become internationally renowned as one of the best machines for the quick setup and changeover environment, while offering the following specifications:

• 264 x 8mm feeder positions

• 01005 – 50 x 50mm devices

• Up to 27,000 cph

• New Product Introduction (NPI) Software Suite

• Optional gripping nozzles for odd shaped devices

“With compatibility between all of our Europlacer machines, we now have the ability to be able to move production between either of our 4 systems giving us total production capability. For example we can prove a new prototype on one of our Access 4 machines, and when proven, can transfer the SMT feeders and program across to one of the 2 main assembly lines (Finesse² or iineo II) to be mass produced” stated Paul Ironmonger “I feel that this gives us a major advantage over many of our competitors in the market, and offers our customers unparalleled service”



The addition of a second SAKI Voyager AOI system has given CPI additional flexibility in ensuring excellent quality of assembled products, and guaranteeing that the overall process control within CPI’s manufacturing facility is maintained to the highest degree.



The new equipment has been recently installed in CPI’s Rotherham facility; the acceptance trials involved running on site evaluations of 01005 processing and transfer of existing production on to the new line “Obviously, with such a large installation, it was necessary that Europlacer could prove to me that the paper specifications matched reality. We asked Europlacer to screen print a number of PCBs, place a range of components (including 01005) and to reflow them. The results were outstanding, and show that we now have the technological edge to offer our customers an increased capability”.