Specialist manufacturing services from EC Electronics have enabled Salamander Pumps to improve quality and reduce the manufacturing cost of its sensors for electric shower systems by 40%.
Salamander designed a Hall Effect sensor to switch the shower pump on and off as needed. The original design involved a messy, slow, inefficient process and the seal could not be guaranteed to be watertight. Conversations with EC Electronics introduced Low Pressure Overmoulding as a possible alternative.
Gareth Richards, technical director at Salamander Pumps commented, “The cost, time and labour of our original design was too high, but when EC showed us some samples of their LPO skills we realised instantly that this was going to be a far better solution.” He continued, “The technical team at EC worked closely with us to understand the dimensions and environment in which the assembly needed to operate, which has resulted in an assembly that is quick to manufacture, cost effective and 100% watertight.”
“LPO is fairly unique to us in the UK, in that we are the only CEM able to provide this service,” said Bill Green, group technical director at EC Electronics. “The technology enables us to mould directly over the PCB to produce a rugged shield that is almost unbreakable. It was ideal for the shower pump switch but Salamander hadn’t come across the system before.”
The LPO process produces no toxic fumes and there is very little waste. It is also quick, with cycle times typically 15 to 90 seconds and it can then be further processed after about a minute; there is no time-consuming curing process for a two-part moulding compound. The pressure is only between 5 and 8bar, and so will not damage sensitive components.
About EC Electronics
EC Electronics is a privately owned electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company focussing on PCB assembly, cable and wire harness assembly and complete product assembly from factories located in Basingstoke UK and Petrosani, Romania.
In parallel with EMS services EC Electronics operates a managed supply chain service with a procurement and logistics hub based in Hong Kong. The team in Hong Kong is able to source and supply virtually any type of product or assembly available from Chinese and South East Asian manufacturers.