Anglis signs up to SBAC SC21 Programme

Anglia Components, the UK’s leading privately owned Electronic component distributor, today reinforced its commitment to its extensive military and aerospace customer base with the announcement that it has signed up to the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) demanding 21st century supply chain (SC21) programme, and is seeking AS9120 accreditation.

Anglia is now working towards gaining formal recognition under the SC21 programme, and expects to achieve this within six to nine months. The distributor already offers a very high standard of service to military and aerospace customers, including full lot traceability.

Commenting, Steve Rawlins, CEO at Anglia, “The seven SC21 commitments are already central to our business culture. SC21 offers us a great opportunity to formalise this culture, and sign up to a programme which will strengthen our focus on these key issues. We are excited about the opportunity to further develop and improve our business and service by learning from industry wide best practice.”

The seven commitments within the SC21 programme include the adoption of a new SC21 business culture to deliver benefits across the industry and avoid duplication and waste. The others are to deliver innovation, to address through-life cost, deliver on the SC21 plan, show leadership, conduct business in an ethical manner and increase the pace of change.

SC21 is a change programme implemented by SBAC to accelerate the competitiveness of the aerospace and defence industry by raising the performance of its supply chains. SBAC is the UK’s national trade association representing companies supplying civil air transport, defence, homeland security and space, and encompasses over 2,600 companies including the British Aviation Group and UKspace as well as Farnborough International Limited who are responsible for the Farnborough Airshow.

» Contact details for Anglia Components Limited

Design Engineers can see and use component parameters and enjoy local price and stock availability

Premier Farnell plc, the leading multi-channel, high service distributor supporting millions of engineers and purchasing professionals worldwide, announces Altium and EMA Design Automation™ have integrated Premier Farnell’s DesignLink, a new web service environment that provides an electronic interface to major Computer Aid Design (CAD) tools. DesignLink allows electronic designer engineers to immediately search and find parts from within their CAD design environment, without ever having to leave the program.

Altium Designer with DesignLink offers engineers the ability to check local prices and delivery as well as vital product attribute information. It will be available to customers globally. Users of Cadence’s OrCAD in the United States can now see similar information via EMA’s Component Information Portal (CIP), a bridge software to Cadence’s OrCAD tool.

The DesignLink Coupling Interface allows designers to take manufacturer’s data and use it directly in their schematic without additional research; it interfaces directly with Premier Farnell companies’ websites product data giving access to over 4,000,000 items from 3,500 leading manufacturers, all with data and pricing in local language and currencies.

“As we increase our focus on the needs of the global electronic design engineering segment, expand our online capability and continue to internationalise our business, DesignLink adds another innovative solution from Premier Farnell, which makes us a leading provider of product, information, software and services to meet the needs of our global customers,” said Harriet Green, CEO of Premier Farnell. “We are excited about DesignLink, and the value it will add for our engineering customers globally in the early product design phase. Like element14, our new online community, DesignLink will give our customers access to significant product data and information.”

“We are very pleased that Altium has embedded DesignLink into Altium Designer, allowing electronic design engineers to search instantly for information and products,” said Randall Restle, Director of Global Technical Marketing at Premier Farnell. “This new innovation will also allow engineers to find product availability, pricing and even new products for their designs without having to leave their design environment.”

Premier Farnell invites manufacturers of CAD tools to contact them to discuss how they too can implement the DesignLink interface with their design environment. Premier Farnell is rapidly increasing their global capability to interface with a wide range of different CAD platforms as they expand their support to meet the unique needs of their electronic design engineering customers.

» Contact Details for Premier Farnell

Offers broad and deep stocking across leading passives supplier’s full portfolio

TTI, Inc., the global distributor of passive connector, electromechanical and discrete components, is pleased to announce the extension of its European franchise agreement with Murata to cover Finland and Estonia. Covering the leading Japanese passive manufacturer’s complete product portfolio, the agreement will give Finnish and Estonian customers access to a wide range of capacitors, hi-caps, sensors, audio piezo devices, EMI suppression components, chip inductors and delay lines, thermistors and potentiometers and resonators to support their manufacturing demands.

Comments Andy Kerr, TTI’s Product & Supplier Marketing Director, Europe, Discretes & Passives: “We are delighted to be able to offer Murata’s complete range of products in Finland and Estonia, backed with our extensive broad and deep best-in-class inventory and advanced supply chain management programs.”

Adds Lars Dahlstroem, TTI’s Nordic General Manager: “As Murata’s leading Nordic Franchised Distributor we are excited about the opportunity to develop business opportunities in support of market demands in both Finland and Estonia with this strategically important manufacturer.”

Adds Winnie de Lange, Murata’s Distribution Business Manager: “TTI and Murata have been engaged in a very successful and powerful “Pure Passive” relationship over the past years.

We believe TTI’s franchise extension into Finland & Estonia will generate additional business growth even in the current challenging market situation.”

» Contact Details for TTI Inc.

Farnell Supports Science Influenced Art

Farnell has supported acclaimed artist Renny Nisbet with the donation of product for use in his thought provoking works of art at the Porthcurno Sculpture Garden in Saint Levan, Cornwall. Opened on May 28, 2009, the garden features a series of large-scale art works influenced and inspired by science.

Renny’s works for the Gardens are ‘Soundings’, which takes signals picked up by a disused cable on the ocean floor and turns them into audio played out over a speaker in the Gardens; and ‘Transmission’, an interactive logic maze that celebrates the fact that Porthcurno is part of a sequence of destinations that carry a message around the world.

Commenting on Soundings, Renny Nisbet says: “I’d been impressed by the physical connection which the cables terminating at this point had maintained with the network of Telegraph Stations around the World. On learning that one of these disused cables remained relatively intact, I was intrigued to know whether any form of electrical signal might be present. Confirming this allowed the development of a system to monitor these signals and generate corresponding audio that is played back to visitors in the Garden, in much the same way a conventional radio set emits the sound of broadcast signals.”

Alan Paterson, General Manager for Farnell UK & Ireland commented: “Providing Renny with materials to be able to create these pieces of art and technology has been of great interest to Farnell. Technology is ever-evolving and as a leading distributor of innovative products, it has been a pleasure supporting Renny to see these technologies used in different ways. We have watched with great interest as the sculptures have developed, bringing alive the history of communications from the UK to the rest of the world, as well as connecting with the great advancements in connective technology we see today.

» Contact details for Farnell

Four $2,500 USD scholarships to be awarded in each region– Asia, Europe and the Americas

Premier Farnell plc, the leading multi-channel, high service distributor and its companies (Farnell, Newark, Premier Electronics, Farnell-Newark CPC, and MCM), announces that scholarships applications are now being accepted from individual students worldwide who are registered in a full time Electrical and Electronics Engineering course in the 2009 entry year. Scholarship information, including the application form and terms and conditions, are available on the element14 website at http://www.element-14.com/community/community/liveedge. Applications will be accepted through the 31st of August 2009 and winners will be announced on the 1st of October 2009.

Applicants will be required to answer one of three questions. They can explain the importance of their electrical engineering degree in today and tomorrow’s society and how they plan in using it to better the environment. Alternatively, they can either explain how they feel electronics design will change in the coming years or what new technology will have the biggest impact on electronics in the near future.

The scholarships have been created from the $30,000 USD prize money that remained after a student division winner was not named for the 2008 Live EDGE Electronic Design Global Environment challenge. The scholarship awards will be evenly distributed between Asia, Europe and the Americas, allotting $10,000 for each region or four $2,500 individual scholarships per region.

“Encouraging innovation and forward thinking among engineering students is paramount to the development and sustainability of future generations of design engineers,” said Harriet Green, Chief Executive Officer of Premier Farnell. “The Live EDGE scholarship fund will help to encourage and develop 12 students enabling them to continue or start their education for the year to come. We are excited that through these scholarships we are able to support students as they strive to become leaders in critical environmental design practices.”

» Contact Details for Premier Farnell

Over 400 products including digital signal processors, signal chain ICs and Power-over-Ethernet devices to aid electronic design engineers

RS Components, the leading international distributor of electronic, electro-mechanical and industrial products, today announces the launch of a new product range for electronic design engineers working on developing surveillance systems.

Over 400 products have been introduced into the RS portfolio, covering a wide range of technologies that are used when creating a new surveillance system. The core of the offer is the DaVinci™ range of digital signal processors (DSPs) from Texas Instruments, specifically designed for use in video applications. Alongside these sit Techwell CODECs developed for digital video recording (DVR), which are used to simplify design, and Power-over-Ethernet (POE) devices from Akros and Davicom that allow cameras to be added to a system with minimal effort and increased safety.

RS has also introduced a range of signal chain ICs from New Japan Radio. These ICs have been selected for their performance when used in low cost video applications, enabling design engineers to increase reliability and reduce overall application costs in their surveillance systems. Supported with camera housing accessories to make installation as simple as possible, the overall Surveillance range provides design engineers with a time-saving ‘one-stop-shop’ for component selection.

Commenting on the new range, Paul Webster, Head of Product Management for Electronics at RS said, “We are committed to providing electronic design engineers with the best technologies for their new applications, and to help them reduce costs within their design. Our surveillance system product offering addresses the needs of a constantly growing market-place and gives customers choice and flexibility throughout their design.”

The new surveillance range is available online at rswww.com/electronics, complete with all the technical information necessary to enable easy and accurate product selection. The products are held in-stock for next-day delivery direct to customers.

» Contact details for RS Components

Rugged, quick-latch connectors are ideal for rail applications

The Deutsch Quick Connect (QC) range of circular connectors available from Aerco, is a cost-effective, rugged, quick-latch interconnect solution designed for use in demanding environments and this, combined with the quick connect facility, makes them ideal for trackside maintenance and other applications in the rail industry.

The QC range is made from Ultem, a high temperature, corrosion resistant, composite material and uses an ingenious quick-latch mechanism that provides an audible mating click and allows smooth, disengagement by simply depressing the coupling mechanism on the receptacle. This feature also ensures that the connectors cannot be unmated by pulling or accidentally stressing the cable.

Available in two, seven, and 12-way configurations with the two-way version capable of handling 13A per contact, the QC range is designed to provide users with the flexibility of choosing between a simple wire seal, compression gland or over-moulding to provide environmental sealing up to IP68. Designed to meet the BS EN60320-2-2 specification, the recently launched 3-way version enables the Quick Connect to be used in those applications where 13A, 240V mains connection is required.

The connectors have a temperature rating of 150ºC, a high resistance to shock and vibration, are resistant to many chemicals found in harsh environments and can be washed, sterilised and autoclaved without any detriment to performance.

» Contact Details for Aerco Limited