Page Electronics - Our Belgian partner active in electronics assembly
Let’s step away from the finished wheelchair drive control for a moment to zoom in on a small component. An indispensable part, the printed circuit board (PCB). The PCBs that are part of our wheelchair joysticks are assembled by Page Electronica, a company located in Poperinge celebrating thirty years in electronics assembly next year. Gregory, account manager, gave us a peek behind the scenes of their production.
From computer store to manufacturing electronics
Page Electronica is located on the industrial site in Poperinge and housed in an old Barco building. You can tell by the number of bikes in the parking lot and the juicy dialect in walkways that Page is an important local employer. Gregory explains, "Founder Luc highly values embedding the company in the region and employing local people.”
What once started as a computer store grew into an established electronics manufacturing company employing one hundred and fifty skilled workers. "We are ISO 9001 certified and make sure we stay up-to-date in terms of standards," Gregory cites. For this, they rely on knowledge centers Sirris and Imec, among others.
Flexibility and medium-sized volumes
The company's strengths lie in their flexibility in prototyping and medium-sized production volumes. Gregory: "Mass volume production we leave up to others. We are a company where account managers are closely involved in every step of the process, from component procurement, optimal placement on the board to quality control."
Since the printed circuit board as a piece of electronics has become indispensable in today's technology, the applications for which Page Electronica produces are enormously diverse. "For example, we make boards for charging stations, industrial washing machines, and anesthesia machines and for electronic wheelchair controls."
Gregory guides us through the production process. After about two hours, we have seen everything from moisture-free storage of circuit boards, different soldering techniques, to coating and testing them. Each step in the production process has the necessary steps and controls built into it.
Medical applications
"As far as medical applications are concerned, we apply IPC-A-610H class three, which means that a complete check is done so that possible errors are taken out," Gregory explains. An example of a medical application is the circuit boards for the wheelchair joystick interface. The design of the circuit board is done internally at mo-vis, after which Page Electronica works with this design.
Page Electronica facilitates the design phase by making a stock list available to the customer. Gregory: "Our approach is to give customers an easy view of the components in stock, to use this information when designing PCBs." After this, Gregory checks which components are on the circuit board, purchases the needed components and works his way up to a finished circuit board.
After a guided tour at Page Electronica, it is clear that projects are bubbling beneath the surface. Besides the importance they attach to their local presence, there are plenty of initiatives on the table to further optimize production in terms of traceability and digitization, and they are looking forward to further expanding their production capacity.