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Report on day 4, 5 January 2023, of the move

New site takes over complete assembly operations

The last Pick & Place production line is on its way to the new building.

As of this afternoon, a complete crew is at work on 6 assembly lines in the new building. Not yet at full capacity but already with one production line extra compared to the situation in December in the previous building, and line 7 is on its way.

The stock and preparation of orders is still taking place in the old building for the time being as the installation and commissioning of the 14 Mycronic towers and the 3 Dexon paternoster storage systems is still ongoing in the new building. After this, stock and work preparation will also move.

From Monday 09 January we will be fully operational in the new building in a 3-shift regime and at full expanded capacity.

Still a masterpiece of organisational skills and especially human commitment and motivation. We therefore thank our team in Hungary for their dedication in making this possible.

Report on day 3, 4 January 2023, of the move

Connecting and running the connected

One assembly line is already operational. The line includes a solder paste jetter, a Pick & Place machine with an attached reflow oven. The reflow oven is still suffering from a temporary minor problem and cannot operate in automatic mode, but we can use it in manual mode for the time being.

One of the Speedprint solder paste printers is connected to the Solder Paste Inspection machine and this combination is also already working. The Nikon X-ray is already back at work in daily routine. A TWS (semi-automatic solder paste printer) is also production-ready.

A second assembly line with a solder paste jetter and a Pick & Place machine has been connected but not yet tested or started up.

The workbenches have been installed and the PCs placed but not yet connected. Most of the feeders (totalling +/-4,500) have been unpacked.

We are working diligently on wiring and other connections for the rest of the equipment. We will first process dummy orders to test out each machine after connection.

Today is the last day of active assembly in our old factory on the only remaining production line there. From tomorrow, we will produce in the new factory in 2 shifts and hopefully on all installed lines.

For now, we will continue preparing all orders in the old building until we have moved the entire stock, which is scheduled for early next week.

We have just finished preparing the inventory of the stock. We can only move the stock after the 8 Mycronic Towers and the Dexon paternoster have been moved.

Here’s an overview of what that inventory has covered broadly:

  • Total count of parts : 19.5 million
  • Different types
    • Generic parts – 1000 types
    • EC Stock parts  – 1400 types
    • Customer reserved parts – 6417 types

Report on day 2, 3 January 2023, of the move

The heavy lifting first. Then the connectivity

This morning, the last truck with equipment will drive to the new plant. For now because one assembly line will remain operational in the old plant and this until we have an assembly line working stably in the new plant.

Focus for today is connecting the equipment that we moved yesterday.

  • 4 Mycronic Pick & Place machines
  • 1 Ersa reflow oven
  • 1 Asscon vapour phase soldering machine
  • 1 assembly line including a Speedprint solder paste printer and a KoH Young solder paste inspection unit
  • 1  Nikon X-ray inspection machine
  • 1 Mycronic Solderpaste Jetter
  • ~ 50 tables
  • ~ 35 shelfs
  • ~ 100 boxes
  • ~ 50 wooden crates

Our goal is to have at least one pick-and-place line operational by the end of this day.

In the old plant, our procurement and logistics people are taking an inventory of all components, feeders and materials of all kinds. Afterwards, they will prepare to move all that to the new factory, which will take the rest of the week for them.

Report on day 1, 2 January 2023, of the move

Additional capacity for assembly of prototypes and small series PCBs

At the end of December 2022, we received the new machines purchased in spring that will increase our existing production capacity. Two additional production lines will give us extra capacity to deliver the ever-growing number of orders on time.

After starting up the heat pumps and fine-tuning the conditioning of the new production hall, we were able to bring in the machines for two additional lines. Technicians from Mycronic and their local Hungarian representative, Danutek, will start their installation today.

The weather gods have been kind to us, making it dry and more than 3°C warm, so the transport is going well for now. Throughout the day, two trucks shuttle between our 2 sites.  We aim to move most of the heavy machinery today.

Our operators are alternately packing in the old building, or installing racks and workbenches in the new building. Our maintenance team helps in moving and putting the machines in the right place, levelling the machines and conveyors. They are also preparing everything for connecting the machines to power, compressed air and the network which they will start tomorrow.

The production floor in the 2016 building is 840 sq m, the new one is now 2,500 sq m, making it almost 3 times bigger. We were working on 5 pick and place production lines so far, and there will be 7 next week.

We also now have a second selective soldering machine, a second vapour phase soldering machine, a third reflow oven, and a third solder paste jetter.

On top of that comes a lot of additional storage capacity for components and feeders, 6 Mycronic storage towers join the 8 existing ones and 2 Dexon paternoster storage systems bring that number to 3.

Ready to start the move of our Hungarian assembly department

Dear Eurocircuits friends,

In recent years, we have been doing a nice job in Eger Hungary as Bob the builder. In 2016, we built a new building for assembly. In 2021, we commissioned a completely new facilities building for our staff. Then in 2022, we built another completely new building for our assembly and three times bigger than the previous building from 2016.

This new building for assembly is now nearing completion. In December, the new machines we bought for this building have already been delivered. This capacity expansion from five to seven assembly lines was necessary to keep meeting your ever-increasing demand.

During the Christmas week, the heating system was able to work at full capacity so that from today, 2 January 2023, we will finish the final painting works and start moving the existing machines from the 2016 building to this new building.

The move and installation of all machines will take this whole week. While moving, we will keep at least 1 line operational alternately in the old and new plant. This is to maintain at least 2 operational lines for urgent orders together with our assembly department in Aachen.

We find this an interesting and motivating story to share with you and will make a daily BLOG update on it. That way, you can witness from a short distance how we are working towards a future together with you.

As a teaser for what follows, a short time lapse video of the building’s construction.

More tomorrow …

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