Farnell has today announced it has been granted a certificate of membership signifying the company’s commitment to transparency in international commercial transactions by TRACE International Inc. (TRACE). TRACE is a non-profit membership association that pools resources to provide practical and cost-effective anti-bribery compliance solutions for multinational companies.

This certification supports the work the company has done to implement the requirements of the UK Bribery Act, introduced in 2011, and its broader approach to ethical business behavior.

The Bribery Act extends to behavior by UK companies anywhere in the world and, as a multinational organisation, Farnell has therefore re-assessed all of its policies and procedures and introduced updated and common approaches in every one of its international locations. The Act also introduces new and stringent requirements covering gifts and hospitality that might be, or give the appearance of corruption.

The company has reinforced its total commitment to ethical behavior by providing comprehensive training and guidance to employees all around the world – another example of providing assurance to its customers and suppliers at a time when the reputation and standing of businesses around the world is under the microscope.

Steven Webb, group Company Secretary said “We are delighted to receive this confirmation from TRACE following their review. We see it as vital that our customers and our suppliers can have confidence in dealing with Farnell and this is just the latest in a number of areas where we aim to take a lead in setting standards for our industry, from our comprehensive legislation guidance available through the element14 community, to our innovative packaging solutions and now in this area of ethical business practice.”

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Premier Farnell plc today announced that it has added Digilent to its global distribution portfolio.

Digilent has a wide range of products for academic, industry professionals and academics in electrical and computer engineering fields. These include the FPGA and microcontroller development boards, JTAG programming solutions for Xilinx FPGAs and the Electronics Explorer Kit – a personal circuit design station. Recently, Digilent launched the chipKIT line – 32-bit-microcontroller-based platforms for the Arduino™ community. Additionally, Digilent offers a wide range of peripheral modules including robotics platforms, A-D and D-A, sensors, actuators to extend the capabilities of development boards. Digilent products are available from Premier Farnell’s operating businesses of Farnell, Newark element14 and element14.

“This agreement reflects our core business strategy which focuses on supporting our global base of electronic design engineers and enhancing our product offerings to our customers around the world,” said Mike Buffham, Director of product and Electronic Design Engineering at Premier Farnell. “This adds to our existing strong supplier relationships and we are excited by the opportunity this brings us, enabling us to strengthen our existing customer base and attract new ones globally.”

“Partnering with Premier Farnell will greatly increase our mutual customers’ exposure to our kits,” said Clint Cole, president of Digilent, Inc. “We look forward to working together to help solve the complex programming needs of today’s engineers.”

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Premier Farnell plc today announced it has entered into an agreement to distribute ARM development tools, software, evaluation boards and debug hardware across the Americas through its Newark element14 brand. As a result of the deal, Premier Farnell will be adding ARM products to its portfolio of electronic design solutions available in the region.

With the addition of ARM products, Premier Farnell strengthens its position as a source of engineering knowledge and solutions that improve design productivity, with the industry’s leading suppliers of design solutions. Premier Farnell’s technical support engineers will receive training on ARM system design tools to provide first line support for customers when product sales launch in early 2012.

“We are pleased to build on our excellent relationship with Premier Farnell to make ARM system design solutions available to Premier Farnell’s design engineering community in the Americas,” said Mark Onions, director of marketing, system design division, ARM. “Premier Farnell’s innovative approach of combining the power of community and designer engagement with ecommerce adds great value to the wider ARM ecosystem.”

Speaking about the agreement David Shen, Chief Technology Officer at Premier Farnell, said “This announcement continues to demonstrate our commitment to the design engineering community, bringing together the best suppliers with truly innovative routes-to-market. ARM is a global leader whose technology is at the forefront of embedded systems designs and we are delighted to be working with them.”

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Farnell, the leading multi-channel electronics distributor, has been approached by the UK Government’s Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) to produce a background piece on RoHS and WEEE recasts (RoHS 2 and WEEE 2). Farnell will also be helping to promote a series of roadshows the Government department are running across various regions to enable users or producers of electrical and electronic equipment understand the major developments in European legislation affecting the electronics industry.

In 2010, Farnell launched the industry’s most comprehensive electronics industry legislation information portal on element14, the innovative online technology resource and community for electronic design engineers. The portal has been a one stop shop for electronic design engineers looking for the latest updates, reference guides to complex and lengthy legislation, featuring discussion groups and a blog discussing the latest trends within the industry. Design engineers directly interact and converse with Gary Nevison, Farnell’s Head of Legislation and Compliance, and other peers to ask specific questions regarding their legislation compliance concerns.

“Having a UK Government department approach Farnell to raise awareness on the significant subject of RoHS and WEEE recast shows how we, as a business, are providing bespoke, independent, expertise in the electronics legislation space,” said Gary Nevison. “We are delighted our opinion is valued by the BIS and are keen to assist and promote the forthcoming roadshows by offering our best support.”
Business Minister Mark Prisk said, “We are pleased that Farnell are able to support us in the delivery of our environmental roadshows, which will assist businesses in understanding the European directives that will impact them as we look to renewed growth.”

The roadshows, which will take place across the UK, are free half day events where people can find about these changes and how they will impact business, identify the requirements for business compliance and refresh awareness of obligations.

Further details and dates of events available at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/roadshows

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Farnell, the leading multi-channel electronics distributor, has announced it is stocking the new Weidmuller CH20M modular electronics housing, designed to enclose individual electronic assemblies for installation in electrical cabinets & distribution systems for electronic design engineers as well as maintenance and repair professionals.

The CH20M is an IP20 modular housing for individual electronic assemblies offering efficiency and innovative design for production and applications that is tailored to meet the customer’s specific requirements.

The CH20M range includes housing with widths (pitch sizes) of 12mm, 22.5 mm and 45mm. The 22.5-mm housing not only offers sufficient space for electronics assemblies but also for large operating and display surfaces as well.

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Farnell has added three new designs of LED lighting connectors to the range of products it offers from interconnection specialist JAE. The agreement between the two companies, which includes an exclusivity period of six months, will see Farnell become the first European distributor to stock the ES3 series.

Offered in a choice of PCB card edge (Cableless), wire-to-board (cable insertion), and discrete wire clamp formats, the ES3 series provides an efficient method of achieving interconnections between LED mounting PCBs and other circuitry in LED module designs. All three connector formats are manufactured from a durable high temperature resin and are designed for surface mounting.

With a low-profile mounted height of just 1.6mm, ES3 LED lighting connectors are well-suited to space constrained designs. By allowing a cableless design, both the number of parts required and the time to complete assembly can be reduced. ES3 LED lighting connectors are rated to 1A and have an operating temperature range of -40 º C to +105 º C.

The new connectors complement the wide range of solid state lighting products already stocked by Farnell and featured, along with comprehensive supporting information, on the company’s Lighting Solutions microsite.

Visit http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-37099 for further details.

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Farnell has secured an exclusive distribution agreement with electrical / electronic equipment safety product specialist Peccater. Farnell will offer the company’s innovative Thermiac devices that provide a unique solution to protect against equipment damage and fire risks caused by overheating when operating temperatures exceed 80ºC.

Unlike conventional circuit protection devices, Thermiac devices become a non-reversible closed circuit in the event of a fault, allowing the driving of trips or warning features such as audible alarms. Extremely small in size, Thermiac devices are available with 3 V and 220 V ratings in both axial leaded and surface mount formats. They can be crimped or fastened in place; axial leaded parts may also be soldered.

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Farnell, the leading multi-channel electronics distributor, has launched an innovative scheme to re-use packaging that would otherwise be disposed of by its customers, saving costs and benefitting the environment. In addition, the company has worked with its local Leeds branch of Remploy, the national provider of employment services to people suffering from complex barriers to work, to create job opportunities as part of the process.

The new approach encourages customers to return packaging used to transport semiconductors sold by Farnell to the company free of charge. The service has been welcomed by customers who would otherwise have had the burden of disposing of the packaging themselves. Once returned, Farnell takes the most environmentally friendly route, by re-using the packaging for future sales, as a result reducing the cost of purchasing new packaging.

Customers simply request a recycling pack from their Farnell account manager and, when they have a full box to return, they use their standard product returns process to have this collected free of charge. Some of the packaging requires sorting and cleaning before it can be re-used, a part of the process where Remploy were more than happy to support.

“Offering a service that is of benefit to customers, protects the environment and makes great business sense is exactly what we look for to support our sustainability strategy,” said Steven Webb, Company Secretary and General Counsel for Premier Farnell. “When you add in the benefit of creating a new employment opportunity for local people, this really is the perfect win, win, win solution.”

“We’re delighted to be working with Farnell, supporting a new development in their customer offering. We can see the clear benefits for them, their customers and the environment, as well as our employees,” says Tina Brown, Factory Manager at Remploy Leeds. “All of the people who work here are disabled & have complex needs which can make it challenging for them to find employment in mainstream businesses, this kind of work has great benefits for both them and the trainees we support.”

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Farnell, the leading multi-channel electronics distributor, has been shortlisted at this year’s EConsultancy Innovation Awards under the Innovation in eCommerce category. In this highly competitive shortlist, Farnell is up against Tesco, ASOS & Profero, Keybroker, miiCard, nToklo and Somo.

Farnell, a part of the Premier Farnell Group, has excelled throughout the year with a number of innovative web-based initiatives and now transacts more than 70 per cent of its business in Europe via eCommerce channels. This figure continues to grow as increasing numbers of customers select the web as their channel of choice.

Farnell’s exclusive online eCommunity, element14, has been a significant factor in boosting the online experience for electronic design engineers. The community was further enhanced with the launch of the Knode on element14, the world’s first interactive design automation hub for electronic design engineers.

“Being shortlisted for this award is excellent news and evidence of the hard and innovative work our teams have put in to make it happen,” said Neil Harrison, President of Farnell Europe. “Our digital offerings for the iPhone, iPad and Google Android applications, and the launch of a dedicated Facebook F-Commerce App for engineers are just a few of the many initiatives that reflect our focus on enhancing our customers’ online experience.”

Econsultancy’s annual Innovation Awards highlight the finest creative thinking across the digital industry. This year more than 450 companies entered the awards, out of which 150 made the shortlist across 19 categories. The innovation in eCommerce category recognises an approach, idea, practice or technology which holds out the promise of being a smarter, better, way of doing things within the eCommerce space.

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the Park Lane Hotel in London on 23 February 2012.

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Farnell, today announced it is to stock  a new range of flexible flat cable (FFC) and flat printed circuit (FPC) interconnect products from Würth Elektronik. The products provide a wide choice of solutions to meet interconnect requirements in display applications.

The new connectors are available in the most popular pitch sizes of 1mm and 0.5mm and with various configurations including top or bottom contact in both vertical and horizontal formats. Parts are available with a choice of contacts ranging from six through to 50.  Cable assemblies can be supplied with lengths of either 50mm or 200mm and with reverse or same side contacts.

Further information available on the element14 community

The Farnell range of Würth Elektronik products is available for same day shipping.