UK-based broadcast manufacturer Sonifex has recently expanded its manufacturing capabilities with expanded surface-mount manufacturing capacity, adding another complete surface-mount assembly line and increasing its production area by 2.5 times.

We’ve had a significant growth in product lines over the past five years, which has increased customer demand and driven our sales upward,’ explains Sonifex MD, Marcus Brooke. ‘We had our best year ever in 2012, with our highest turnover, and at times were running short of manufacturing space. Since then, we’ve taken on another factory unit, relocated our stock warehouse, added another surface-mount manufacturing line and moved our manufacturing to create more streamlined cells within our current building.

We’re quite unusual in that we do most of our own manufacturing and assembly, having electronics surface-mount machinery, sub-assembly and full product test facilities as well as an engineering workshop for metalwork manufacture. Having control of the manufacturing process helps to keep our quality high and product lead-times low and the new equipment will mean that we now have increased capacity and output.’

A new DEK Horizon 03i solder paste screen printing machine, along with an i-Pulse M20 pick-and-place machine have been installed in the new surface mount line, together with a new vapour phase oven. The new machinery has increased component placement capacity by four times.

More: www.sonifex.co.uk