Intercole
About us
Intercole Sub-Contract Services is a long-established UK Contract Electronics Manufacturer (CEM) serving a range of industries including the medical, automotive, aerospace, nuclear and instrumentation markets, as well as any organisation that requires reliable high quality electronics manufacturing services.
With more than 60 years of experience, we provide a complete, end-to-end manufacturing service: from procurement, SMT & Through Hole PCB assembly, wiring and box work, test, and final delivery, with all production taking place right here in the UK.
We also offer design services, allowing us to support customers with both hardware and embedded firmware development, including bespoke test rigs and verification services.
Specialising in low-to-medium-volume and turnkey production, we’ve built long-term partnerships with clients large and small — from fast-growing and innovative SMEs to leading names such as, Thales, EDF and Jaguar Land Rover.
To discuss your next manufacturing project, call us today on 023 8025 4727 or email sales@intercole.co.uk.
Products & services
Surface Mount Assembly
Our Surface Mount Component assembly service allows us to respond to the growing need for more complex placement and alignment tolerances. Automated pick and place machines provide an excellent placement rate and fast configuration times easily accommodate the extensive product range and varying batch sizes required from our customers. Fully equipped manual re-work stations allow low volume prototyping work or product repair to be undertaken to the same high standards of our automated systems
Inspection and Board Test
Following PCB assembly, each module is 100% inspected against original design and manufacturing data. Trained inspectors utilise Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) and comparascopes to ensure that product build quality is achieved every time. ATE can be used to cycle hardware modules through stringent test conditions and calibration procedures. Environmental testing services are also available for accelerated life testing (BURN-IN) of components and to confirm that modules conform to specification under varying environmental conditions.
Procurement
When required, customers may take advantage of our component and materials purchasing expertise to provide full procurement and bill of materials control. In doing so you are guaranteed a competitive and quality service for both prototype and production quantities managed with the aid of an integrated purchasing and inventory control computer system. Strategic alliances are in place with franchised distributors as well as established relationships with world-wide component sourcing specialists and manufacturers. This, together with the experience of our own production and procurement engineers often allows difficult components to be sourced. Where component obsolescence is a problem we can also advise alternatives to assist in maintaining the critical flow of your production.
Cabling & Mechanical Assembly
Our total manufacturing capability also extends to final product equipment assembly. this includes fabrication of enclosures, cubicles and all associated internal metalwork, fittings, fixtures, wiring and able harnesses as appropriate.
Final Product Test
Where manufacturing includes final product build, extensive testing to customer supplied specification can help ensure faultless operation and in-service reliability. Testing may be undertaken on customer supplied rigs or alternatively we can design and manufacture appropriate test rigs and fixtures from the simple to the sophisticated with PC, control and auto print-out.
Production Engineering Services
To ensure the issues often encountered in the production of complex electronic based products are effectively handled, each customer order is managed by a dedicated Production Engineer. All Production Engineers are multi-disciplined with immediate access to other specialist engineers, all of whom are on hand to provide advice during the development of new products or to optimise the design of existing products for all levels of production capacity. This will ensure you have a design suitable for production that can be manufactured in the most efficient way possible, so helping to maintain your cost advantage without sacrificing quality in today’s competitive and demanding market place.
Design Engineering Services
Where required we offer a full range of design engineering services, complementing manufacturing with hardware, software, and complete electronic and mechanical drawing packages. Electronic Design Services Hardware design focuses on production engineering for easy manufacture and maintainability. We offer full electronics design services through partners: concept, schematic, BoM, PCB layout (Gerber), prototype assembly, compliance, and DfM. Software Development For embedded systems, web applications, or mobile apps, we work with specialists to deliver tailored solutions that simplify operations and fuel growth.
Through Hole Assembly
Our conventional Through Hole Component assembly facility is staffed with highly experienced assemblers who have access to a comprehensive range of component forming, placement and cropping tools and machinery. Soldering is either by hand or automated wave soldering as appropriate to the board complexity and batch size. The wave soldering machine is microprocessor controlled and operates within precisely controlled parameters using ‘no clean’ minimal residue fluxes to provide reliable high throughput production.