17th February 2025
A coating technology specialist that protects millions of electronic devices every year has extended its manufacturing outsourcing partnership with PP Control & Automation (PP C&A).
P2i, which celebrated 20 years in business in 2024, is using the West Midlands based manufacturer to help it bring its new 18L machine to market, delivering a solution that applies the thinnest, most robust liquid protection possible to mobile phones, medical implants and automotive electronics.
The new system takes all the firm’s capabilities and condenses them into a smaller, standalone unit that is less than half the previous model’s footprint and can be used on any shopfloor in the world.
It took PP C&A just six months from the idea and machine design files being sent to producing the machine, which has already been sold to five customers across the world.
Phil Millard, Head of Engineering at P2i
“PP Control & Automation has been our manufacturing partner for more than half of our company life and its ‘DNA’ was embedded into our hugely successful existing machines. Getting them involved in our next generation 18L model at the earliest possible stage was the natural decision,” explained Phil Millard, Head of Engineering at P2i.
“It’s proven New Product Introduction (NPI) expertise was at the heart of the build, identifying a host of cost downs and build efficiencies and, importantly, assisting with the production engineering process.”
He continued: “Completing the first build in six months was some achievement. This incredibly quick turnaround was only made possible due to the entrenched relationship we share and the complete transparency we hold, where iterations are welcomed and acted upon to improve the process and the end-use application.”
P2i’s coating technology works at the molecular level thanks to its unique Plasma Enhanced Vapour Deposition chamber.
Despite a host of global challenges leading to unprecedented supply chain disruption and soaring energy prices, the ambitious nano coating specialist has continued to increase its global presence, customer satisfaction levels and market diversification.
It now currently employs over 190 people globally at its facilities in Oxford in the UK, Shenzhen in China and satellite offices in Asia and the rest of the world, including technical/sales offices in India and the USA.
Tony Hague, CEO at PP Control & Automation, picked up the story: “NPI is all about learning as you go and settling upon the best possible production method, driving out costs and identifying where we can speed up the build.
“Our partnership with P2i is a fantastic example of how strategic outsourcing should work. On the 18L, we have been able to eliminate 20 hours from the build process, whilst still delivering the performance and quality demanded by the client.
“To develop a high-tech machine in just six months is some achievement, but I believe we’ll be even quicker next time. We both view iterations as a great learning process and this approach has delivered some fantastic bottom-line benefits.”
P2i is expecting demand for these systems to outstrip earlier models and PP Control & Automation has responding by building a dedicated cell capable of creating tens of units every week.
On this particular model, PP C&A has taken on more supply chain responsibility and is now offering ‘Factory Acceptance Test’ meaning when machines head to Oxfordshire they have been tested and are working efficiently.
Martin Tolliday, Chief Operating Officer at P2i, concluded: “Our expertise is in designing and developing machines that can apply ultra-thin coatings to a wide range of applications, helping increasingly reduce the amount of e-waste produced across the world every year.
“Our technology is our USP and, to get the most out of it, we leverage PP C&A’s 50 years+ of machine build expertise as our manufacturing partner. It is a vitally important relationship that is pivotal to us growing and taking advantage of new opportunities. “The partnership is only going to get stronger. Whilst our 18L model is being rolled out, we are already working on the next generation of equipment that will provide the fastest and largest coating application capability we’ve ever produced.”
A coating technology specialist that protects millions of electronic devices every year has extended its manufacturing outsourcing partnership with PP Control & Automation.
Add to basket
In your basket
Ian Knight, Chief Information Officer at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) challenges the prevailing, often vague narrative around AI adoption and reframes the conversation around a more practical starting point: operational constraints.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept for manufacturers. It is already being explored across quotation, production planning, engineering, quality, supply chain and customer service functions. Yet, for many organisations, the gap between experimentation and meaningful operational impact remains difficult to close.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
On paper, defined discipline-specific suppliers can look organised. However, every additional supplier introduces another handoff, and every handoff creates another point where time, quality, communication and accountability can be lost.
Very rarely does growth not surface because an OEM lacks ambition. Shortcomings arise because operating models built to support such ambition don’t evolve quickly enough.
Recent weeks have brought two important industry moments into sharp focus, concluding that demand for AI and automation is rising, but investment, skills, and long-term thinking must follow.
For decades, one question has sat at the heart of operational strategy for machine builders and OEMs: make or buy? It’s a familiar debate and it isn’t the wrong question by any means, but perhaps it is an incomplete one.
In most machine building businesses, change is still treated as an exception. A late-stage drawing revision, component substitution, or wiring tweak discovered during build. Each one is handled, resolved, and signed off. And then everyone moves on. But what if that’s the wrong way to think about it? What if change isn’t the disruption to the system but the system itself?
