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Artetch was established over 35 years ago and is ranked in the top fifteen Printed Circuit Board manufacturers in the UK. The Company started trading in 1967 as Artetch, a Partnership manufacturing and distributing pictures etched in copper clad black laminate. In 1969 printed circuits became the main product line and the manufacture of pictures was gradually phased out. We started manufacturing double sided plated through hole pcb's in 1982 and Multilayer pcb's in 1984. We occupied a 3000 sq ft manufacturing facility on the Lineside Industrial Estate in Littlehampton. In 1983 we moved into our current premises on the Riverside Industrial Estate with initially 10,000 sq ft. This was expanded in 1985, 1987 and again in 1997 to give 20,000 sq ft facility. Then in 2001 we acquired more space that now gives us a total manufacturing facility of 27,500 sq ft. |
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An exceedingly high level of investment was maintained during the period 1984 to 1989 to establish our manufacturing capability in Multilayer circuit boards. We installed our Alphalevel line in 1996 that offers a very flat organic finish. A new plating line costing £350,000 was installed in April 1998 and in 1999 we installed an IR Curing Oven. In 2001 we increased our electrical test facilities and introduced a computer assisted film registration system. This is all part of an ongoing equipment programme to reduce lead times and increase capacity. We have recently also introduced a new spray coater solder resist line that has helped us increase the capacity even more.
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The
Company was registered in 1973 as Artetch Ltd. In 1985 we changed
our name to Artetch Circuits Ltd to more accurately reflect our
product line and our involvement in the electronics market.
We
achieved British Standard approval in 1988 for the manufacture
and release of pcb's to BS9761, BS9762 & BS9763. This was
reassessed in October 1992 to incorporate the requirements of
BS5750. Artetch Circuits Ltd was recognised as an Investor in
people in March 1997. We also achieved ISO 9002 accreditation
in December 1994, and more recently also achieved BS EN ISO 14001
environmental management approval.
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In 2002 we introduced new production software, this is a vast improvement on the old system and has been totally developed in house. The new database is very powerful and has many functions that will assist us in providing improved services to our customers. |
A
programme of continued improvement in our capability means that
we are now able to manufacture high technology, Multilayer pcb's
up to 24 layers with .2mm holes and .125mm tracks and gaps. A range
of finishes can be applied including photoimageable solder resist,carbon
ink, selective nickel and gold coatings and Alpha Level. In June
2000 Richard Wood-Roe, Managing Director, led a Management Buy-Out
from the remaining existing founder member, Peter Skippings.