Welcome to Wilson Process Systems

Wilson Process Systems are Contract Electronics Manufacturers based in Hastings, East Sussex. We specialise in Sub Contract Printed Circuit Board Assembly to clients’ specifications, delivering anything from bare PCBs to fully tested, electro-mechanical assemblies direct to our clients using single-sided, double-sided, PTH (plated-through-hole) and multi-layer printed circuit boards. We are constantly investing in new equipment in order to have sufficient capacity and appropriate technology for our increasing client demands and to maintain our competitiveness in the market place. As a result of this our turnover has steadily increased over the past decade, which is particularly gratifying at a time when the general trend has been an increase in offshore sourcing of manufacture. We employ approximately 100 personnel, and in 2007 added an additional production facility, taking our overall floor area to 30,000 square feet. We were fully compliant with the RoHS regulations, well before they came into force in July 2006.

Our Services

Surface Mount: We have recently invested in a new high-speed Surface Mount line, consisting of a Universal AdVantis AC 30 Lightning pick and place machine, a Universal AdVantis AC 72 pick and place machine and a BTU Paragon 98 reflow oven. This is in addition to our 3 existing lines, giving us a capacity of well over 100,000 component placements per hour and increasing our capabilities to include minimum package size down to 0201 and fine pitch devices such as QFPs and BGAs.

Our Surface Mount assembly equipment is complemented by an Orbotech Vantage S22 post reflow Automated Optical Inspection system, which utilises true 3D inspection from multiple cameras and light sources and gives comprehensive defect detection of post-reflow and post-wave PCBAs. With an inspection speed of up to 20cm²/sec, the system is designed to detect the presence and absence of components and verify placement accuracy and polarity. Additionally the unit can detect insufficient or excess solder, tombstoning, billboarding, coplanarity, lifted leads and shorts.

Conventional Technology:
We have a full suite of Universal automated through-hole assembly machines, allowing us to machine place, Axial, DIP, as well as Radial components. We can assemble through-hole LEDs, for instance, in close packed arrays at high speed. In 2008 we purchased a new Universal Rad 8 machine to further increase our capacity in this area. We also have a highly skilled hand assembly department to cater for any components, which cannot be assembled by machine.

We have two Soltec Wave Soldering lines; the 6622 Delta Wave, a low solids, no-clean, resin, conveyorised wave soldering machine with foam fluxer and dual wave facility, allowing us to solder mixed technology boards. And the 6621 Prisma aqueous flux, micro-processor controlled, conveyorised wave soldering machine, after which the boards can be washed in our Electrovert Aquastorm 100 washer/drier system, which cleans and dries the boards to the ultimate standard for this type of machine.

Environmental Protection:
In 2008 we purchased a new fully automated Asymtek Conformal Coating line consisting of a Select Coat SL940E Automated Conformal Coating System and a TC2400 Flexible IR Convection Oven. This was the first installation of this machine in the UK; it is the fastest, most accurate system currently available and can apply coatings to Milspec thickness.

Test:
We have two suites of Marconi Midata Automatic Test Equipment and a Checksum manufacturing defect analyser with a 600-node capability for in-circuit and full-functional testing and board set-up. We can incorporate any customer or product-specific testing that may be required. This enables us to deliver zero-defect "ship-to-use" products for immediate use by the customer with no further goods-receiving inspection being required.

Accreditation & Background

The Company is registe red and approved to BS EN ISO 9001:2000, Certificate Number FM14458.

Background
WPS was formed in Hastings, East Sussex in 1981 by Gordon Wilson and his two sons Tim and Nick. Gordon was formerly Manager of the Industrial Engineering Department of ITT Consumer Electronics since 1961 where some two thousand people were employed before they closed the Hastings facility.

We were initially engaged in the manufacture of equipment used to recover precious metals from photographic and other industrial processes, but after three years diversified, initially manufacturing bare printed circuit boards and later into Contract Electronics Manufacture.

The metal recovery side of the business was finally phased out in the late 1980s. Since then we have expanded, purchasing two adjoining factory units and an additional production facility a short distance from the main site, resulting in a combined floor area of approximately 30,000 square feet. The number of staff has also grown to around 100 and turnover is now in excess of £8.5 Million.

www.wps.co.uk