Burton Industries’ acquisition of two Universal Instruments’ Advantis® surface mount platforms has resulted in throughput gains of up to 250 percent for the contract electronics manufacturer. The Advantis solution has also delivered significant improvements in yield, accuracy, and efficiency.

January 15, 2013 – When Burton Industries, Inc., decided to replace some older equipment at its manufacturing facility in Ironwood, Mich., the company had some demanding requirements. As a CEM driven to provide its customers with “robust solutions for specialized manufacturing needs,” Burton needed surface mount equipment that delivers high-end capabilities and performance, along with the flexibility that enables Burton to meet its customers’ changing needs. The ideal equipment would also have NPI software, and be backed by a well-established, comprehensive support infrastructure giving the company access to applications engineering, technical support, process laboratory services, spare parts, field service, and more. The final requirement: All this had to come at a mid-range price.

Universal Instruments met these requirements with its Advantis Platform, and Burton purchased the Advantis AC-30S and Advantis AI-07S. Built with class-exclusive technologies including patented linear motors with VRM technology, the Advantis delivers greater accuracy and a higher throughput than machines with belt or lead-screw driven positioning systems. The Advantis also leverages a host of NPI software tools to streamline the first article build process and fine tune programs during full production to continuously improve quality and efficiency.

“The Advantis surpassed our expectations, increasing throughput on one of our high-volume assemblies by 250 percent — from 160 panels per shift to 450 panels per shift — and on another by 200 percent,” said Burton Industries President and CEO Gary Burnett, Sr. “In addition, our first-pass yield at AOI has improved by 6 percent overall and by more than 160 percent for 0402 passives.”

Burnett continued, “The platform’s NPI software also helps us increase overall efficiency for first article builds. With the Advantis line, we can do our setup for NPI and first-piece production runs in less than half the time it took us with our old equipment. We love the ease and speed of setup and verification, which saves us time, enabling us to shorten our customers’ time-to-market.” Burnett also noted that the Advantis’ line balancing software has resulted in “increased throughput on all products running on the new line.”

“The Advantis’ advanced functionality and low capital investment makes it the perfect solution for Burton Industries and other CEMs competing to remain profitable in today’s economy,” said Universal Instruments Vice President of Customer Operations Brad Bennett.

For more than 35 years, Burton Industries has focused on servicing customers with high-mix, variable demand products in the medical, industrial, motor control, specialized consumer, security, building controls, defense, and professional tool markets. Burton’s experienced and dedicated team has a long tradition of delivering unique designs and solutions that meet its customers’ highly specialized needs.

Burton was honored last year at the IPC APEX Expo in San Diego, Calif., when it was chosen to receive the top award for companies with sales under $20 million in the 2012 Service Excellence Awards for Electronics Manufacturing Services Providers. Sponsored by Circuits Assembly magazine, this award recognizes EMS companies that receive the highest customer service ratings as judged by their own customers.

For more information about Universal’s electronics assembly solutions, including the Advantis, please contact Universal Instruments Corporation at +1-800-432-2607 or +1-607-779-7522 or visit www.uic.com for a complete list of the company’s locations and channel partners.