New Electronics 50th Anniversary

Having started my own career in 1980 fabricating PCBs on the south coast, Wilson Process Systems was formally established a year later offering that exact same service along with several other thousand companies throughout the UK in the 80s. Today only a few hundred companies remain to offer prototype & small production batches. For many, the rise of imported PCBs from Europe followed by China through the 90s and into 2000s put many PCB fabricators out of business. For some, diversification was the only option which WPS took with both hands. The early 90s saw the opportunity to start populating PCBs as certain customers saw this as a natural progression. With the introduction of automated assembly early on, WPS soon established an ethos of automation which remains today. From initial photo-mech and plating processes manufacturing bare PCBs (when health & safety was at its infancy) through to today’s offering of 200K placements an hour via its fleet of Universal surface mount equipment, WPS has seen numerous technical innovations covering PCB related products in its 37 years servicing the industry. Even with the wholesale migration out to the Far East, WPS has still managed to maintain its competitiveness within the volume industrial sector whilst still appealing to the small batch customers.

Today Wilson Process employs approximately 100 staff over 2 sites within the seaside town of Hastings. With over 30,000 sq ft of manufacturing space dedicated to automated through-hole, high capacity surface mount plus over 60 hand assembly operatives, WPS prides itself as a true supplier partner offering a competitive manufacturing resource focused on industrial, commercial and medical sectors within the contract electronics market.

1983:
Started Bare PCB manufacturing
1985:
Started PCB assembly
1986:
Introduced automated assembly
1991:
Introduced SMT assembly
2007:
Introduction of 2nd facility to house SMT assembly