Wharton Electronics
Wharton Electronics have been delivering precision time information for over 40 years.
A family run business, based in the United Kingdom, it was started by two brothers – Eric and Robert - who had an idea to build small digital clocks and ship them in the post.
Fast forward a number of decades and although the main business remains the design and manufacture of digital clock products, the products and range can no longer be described as small. The digital clocks and time zone displays that the company designs and manufactures are now sold in over 250 countries and territories worldwide.
Wharton digital clocks and time zone displays are supplied into most business sectors: education, military, healthcare, education and sport and transportation system of all types, as well as many other time and reliability critical applications.
The company focus on being the best supplier of digital clock products in the world and now have a huge product range.
David Christian, Technical Development Manager at Wharton Electronics explains, “Quality and innovation drives everything we do. Much of our product development is driven by customer request.
We are approached by companies with a product in mind and asked to find a workable solution.”
Thanks to Wharton’s experienced design team and in house manufacturing capability they are able to satisfy almost any request for time displays or control devices across the globe.
David adds, “Our reputation was built on a can do attitude and our “yes” response to our customers is something we have maintained over the decades.
We are able to offer solutions where other companies have failed.”
Mid-Fab Developments have been supplying a range of sheet metal fabrication services across the Wharton product range for over 15 years, including CNC bending, CNC punching, welding, fastener insertion, and polyester powder coating.
David explains, “Mid-Fab are our main sheet metalwork fabricators and provide the majority of our sheet metalwork services.”
The majority of work is CNC punching and CNC bending - punching 1.5 mm thick sheet metal creating holes for mounting electronics as well as bending profiled sheets of metal.
Mid-Fab manufacture the complete case for Wharton’s outdoor clocks which is punched, folded and welded 1.2mm steel sheet. The Mid Fab metalwork is then put through two further external processes: passivation and painting, before Wharton mount the electronics and add a glass window to produce an IP65 rated (waterproof) outdoor clock.
Manufacturing accuracy is critical to this job as the metalwork supplied by Mid Fab and the electronics need to align. If the fasteners do not match up with hole positions in the electronics (PCB) then the product cannot be assembled.
Mid-Fab also provide the complete case work for master clock products which undergo CNC bending, fastener insertion and powder coating.
These are the clocks that are used to synchronise computer systems in large organisations. They are used in conjunction with computer networking equipment to provide time information to all the clients’ computer systems.
David adds, “99% of our products are manufactured to order which means we can’t buy in large stocks of metalwork as many of our orders are not of a regular nature and come in sporadically. Also as many of our products are bespoke, we have to manage our stock effectively and keep it low.
The fact that our products are built to order and the bespoke nature means we can have short lead times and also small runs. Mid-Fab are always very accommodating and are excellent at meeting our schedule requirements. They are a great company to work with. They are very flexible - their flexibility is one of their major pluses, providing us with short runs if we require it.
They have a willingness to help and support us to move forward as a company which in turn, we hope, helps them move forward too.”