Distribution
Sponsored by Spotlight on Princeps
Established in 2006, Princeps is an accredited specialist distributor of difficult-to-source and obsolete electronic, electrical and e-mech components for hi-rel and advanced industry sectors. Here, CIE talks to sales director David Nash about how the company has evolved to meet the changing needs of different sectors
CIE: What are the advantages of using Princeps as a distributor? David Nash: Being an independent distributor means Princeps can find products from the manufacturer, from the distribution partner franchise network or, failing that, if you can’t find the product, we would then search the open market. The benefits of all three give agility and flexibility to the customer. A lot of manufacturers and fabs have stopped production in the last few years due to COVID, which has made it even harder to find components. One of the challenges that comes with that, when you’re going into the open market, is counterfeit issues. So, we take the pain away for the customer.
CIE: How has the company evolved over the years? David Nash: In addition to being accredited to AS9120 “Quality Management Systems- Aerospace Requirements for Stockist Distributors”, one thing that we did heavily invest in from 2016 was to gain accreditation for the aerospace standard AS6081. [The standard was created by the global engineering association SAE International to provide uniform requirements, practices, and methods for a higher level of protection against the purchasing and supplying of fraudulent/counterfeit electronic parts within the military and aerospace industries. The standard requires detailed test and inspection methodology documentation including results, sample size, acceptance/rejection criteria, disposition, and which recognized industry standard test or inspection methods were used to ensure that substandard parts do not get overlooked during inspection]. On top of that we implemented some AS6081 in-house test and inspection capabilities. Only a few of us in the UK do that. We have a test plan of six different modules that the components go through, made up of physical- and paperwork checks. This signs the components off to aerospace standard, so you can guarantee that they’re authentic parts.
But every product that comes through our 30 October 2023 Components in Electronics
door has to go through pretty rigorous checks, we’re not just what you’d say, a ‘box mover’. For anyone ordering a standard product, even if it’s going into a very simple application, we want it to work, we want it to do what it says. That’s where we add value to a customer. Since 2006, we’ve built up a really vast supply chain that we vet regularly to make sure we’re on top of what we should be quality-wise.
We also have many other accreditations and certifications, such as the Cyber Essentials certification scheme, which is a platform where we can exchange data – emails and files – securely, with very high protection, because we have to have that when we’re dealing with MoD contractors.
CIE: What has been your biggest
achievement since coming onboard as sales director? David Nash: My role as sales director over the last two years has been to try and take us to the next level of ideas and direction and since I’ve come on board, I’ve helped grow the franchise network.
For instance, we’ve recently signed a partnership agreement with on-systems – a UK designer and manufacturer of power systems for harsh environments. They used to be a customer and the reason we supply to them is because of our strengths in counterfeit mitigation.
From now on, Princeps will stock and supply on-systems’ standard power supply units, which will free-up on-systems to focus more on research and development for custom solutions. Design engineers will also benefit from easier, faster access to single units and small quantities of power supplies with short lead times.
We also have another manufacturer called Brainboxes, which we do exactly the same sort of setup for, and they make Ethernet connections and anything to do with telecoms.
www.cieonline.co.uk.uk
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