Compliance & Precision News Round-Up - Issue 51

This issue covers:

Vibrant UK electronics sector
Shoppers warned about counterfeit electrical gifts online
European EMS market report
Seaward Tester Meets Safety and Compliance Standards at Pressure Washer Equipment Specialist
Christmas opening hours
Executive Hire Show

Vibrant UK electronics sector

The recent NMI industry summit in London painted a healthy picture of the UK’s semiconductor sector, with a host of statistics on the size of the economic footprint of the electronics systems community.

The latest industry figures provide details of a vibrant market with the sector now worth almost £100 billion and with employment at over 1 million.

On current projections, by 2020, the sector will account for over 7 percent of GDP and employ 1.7 million people.

Over a two year period to August last year, the electronic systems sector saw employment rise by 154,000, accounted for 10 percent of overall growth and included 45,000 businesses. At the same time, wages rose by 2.5 percent per annum.

Average incomes in the sector now stand at £42,000 compared to a national average of £27,000.

A report on the summit in trade magazine New Electronics says that, ‘The sector is growing, the number of start-ups surging and the sector’s value to the UK economy is set to jump significantly, but while the UK electronics systems community is healthy it still doesn’t appear to be valued by government or get the face-time with ministers it deserves.’

Report at www.newelectronics.co.uk and more details at nmi.org.uk

Shoppers warned about counterfeit electrical gifts online

Christmas shoppers have been warned to keep an eye out for potentially dangerous counterfeit items widely available online.

An investigation by charity Electrical Safety First found highly sophisticated, dangerous counterfeits for sale through online marketplaces which were not necessarily vetted by retailers.

Its figures suggested that more than one million people found they had bought a counterfeit last year, including fakes of popular items such as NutriBullets, GhD hair straighteners and Apple accessories.

It is warning bargain hunters to "shop smart", and said the number of reported counterfeit electrical items had grown by 12% in the past year and were almost impossible to spot.

Typical tricks used to sell fake items included imagery taken from official product sites, fake official safety marks and believable pricing, with some counterfeits costing just a few pounds less than the recommended retail price to avoid arousing suspicion.

The best way to guarantee an item's legitimacy was to buy directly from official online retailers, the charity said.

Tests carried out by Electrical Safety First found that while many items appeared sophisticated on the outside, even those with small fake internal components were at risk of exploding in up to 20% of cases, leaving consumers open to serious injury or property damage.

Electrical Safety First spokeswoman Emma Apter said: "While the sales offer a great chance for shoppers to bag a bargain online, it's vital they keep their wits about them to make sure they're getting a real deal.

"Counterfeits are now readily available at the click of a button and despite fake electrical products appearing more convincing than ever, they can contain less than half the internal components required to run safely.

"We're urging people to shop smart. At best you could be swindled but at worst you could be putting your life at risk."

European EMS market report

A new market report from Reed Electronic Research says that demand for most electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies was muted in 2014 and electronic production revenues for EMS in Western Europe were 3% below those of 2013.

However, an increase for EMS revenues in Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East and North Africa (CEE/MENA) helped the overall European market post growth of 0.5%.

The latest strategic analysis of the European Electronic Manufacturing Services Industry 2014-2019 says that although the market is expected to recover, growth is forecast to remain flat in 2015/2016 before gaining some traction in the later part of the forecast period.

EMS revenues in Western Europe are forecast to reach Euro 11.16 billion in 2019, up from Euro 10.37 million in 2014, with the market increasingly focused on the aerospace, defence, automotive, medical, control & instrumentation, industrial and telecom segments of the market.

The transfer of production to manufacturing facilities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and the Middle East and North Africa, (MENA) is likely to reduce costs and the increasing demand by OEMs for EMS to offer local manufacturing in key global markets will dampen growth in Western Europe during the period to 2019. Further details on the report are available here

Seaward Tester Meets Safety and Compliance Standards at Pressure Washer Equipment Specialist

JMS Janitorial Supplies, who undertakes the refurbishment of thousands of Karcher electric pressure washers sent to its site in Surrey by retailers from across the UK, uses 6 HAL 103 electrical safety testers to ensure improved compliance with standards for Class I and Class II electrical products.

The JMS operation, which has been in place for the last 12 months, currently tests in excess of 150 washers a day with comprehensive earth bond, insulation resistance and flash testing at its 10,500 sq. ft. purpose-built facility in Betchworth.

The HAL 103 is a fast and efficient automatic industrial test solution, which records results and enables accurate testing to be carried out in line with relevant standards at all times.

JMS Janitorial Supplies testing with the HAL 103

Test information captured by the instruments is collected and stored on a PC database via Seaward's Safety-eBase software programme. A certificate, which includes a product barcode and serial number, is then issued for each washer to prove that it has been properly tested and safe to use.

Operations director, Simon Cuthbert, said the HAL 103 was an excellent and reliable tester, providing a high standard of performance in a demanding environment.

“With the high volume of units that are being refurbished on a daily basis we needed a highly effective and robust industrial testing solution.

“The HAL not only provides this but is also easy to use, enabling the operator to simply complete the required tests and accurately record the results all at once at the press of a button,” he said.

The HAL103 meets the requirements of demanding type testing or electronic design applications, performing a suite of standard electrical safety tests and allowing full traceability of test results and records via internal data memory storage.

It performs earth bond, AC/DC hi pot (flash) and insulation testing to ensure the compatibility of Class II electrical products with technical and performance standards.v

Product serial numbers and test sequences can be selected by scanning in pre-defined bar codes making the equipment ideal for ISO traceable systems in QA, conformance and production line applications.

The HAL 103 has DC and selectable 50 or 60 Hz outputs for flash testing and incorporates a 0-40A constant current low voltage ground bond test. Other features include a large high contrast bar graph display of the test output and measured test parameters.

Specialist software and a large capacity internal database capable of storing up to 6,000 records gives the test instrument the ability to store test details and results against individual equipment serial numbers. Test reports can be downloaded directly to a PC for the generation of complete test data records.

HAL 103 forms part of a comprehensive range of microhmmeters and precision measurement instrumentation from Seaward.

Christmas opening hours

We would like to make you aware as early as possible about our reduced working hours over December and January.

Seaward Group’s Christmas party is taking place today, 18th of December. Staff will only be available until approximately 11.30am. Seaward officially break up for Christmas at 12:30pm on Thursday, 24th of December, and do not return until Monday, 4th of January at 8:30am.

Season's Greetings to everyone.

Executive Hire Show

Clare’s range of advanced testers for the tool hire, service and repair industries will be on display at the Executive Hire Show, on the 10-11th February 2016.

Included will be the Clare B255 tester featuring a comprehensive electrical safety testing capability enabling tests to be carried out quickly and effectively, ensuring that power tools and other electrical rental equipment functions correctly with maximum safety. Also showing will be the SafeCheck 8 - a safety tester which enables all relevant electrical safety tests to be carried out fast and effectively, ensuring that rental equipment functions correctly with maximum customer safety.