Hi, I've just joined after several lurking years! Just wanted to give my experience of working at Ultra.
I started my apprenticeship in 1968 at the Gosport plant. I worked in every part of the factory and really enjoyed my time there. My instructor was the great Harry Harrop, a brilliant self taught engineer who was pretty tough on us, but as a group of hormonal adolescents he needed to be!
During my time they were phasing out 1400's and ramping up 1500's. If I remember correctly there were three new 1500 PCB manufacturing areas, and just one old 1400 PCB area. Each area consisted of three lines where one third of the parts were fitted in strips at the top, middle and bottom of the board. If you look closely at either of the boards you can often see the three horizontal lines of flux from the different wave soldering machines.
All components were hand stuffed by female operators, probably about 10-15 per line. At the end of each line was a 'Routiner', a piece of equipment that used air pressure to connect pogo pins to the board. It made basic resistance checks to various points on the board. There would be two operators at this station plus a couple of floating technicians (who would work between the lines) to debug and fix any problems. As I recall, nearly all the problems were due to incorrect component values, often due to lack of training or concentration. It would be quite common to get a run of the same problem (eg 'R27' wrong value), until the supervisor addressed the problem with the operator or line stockist.
The first time the board was semi powered up would be at the next stage, Alignment, with probably around 10-12 qualified operators per line using wobbulator consoles (designed in house), and yes 1400's were always problematical. Often a 'perfect' alignment would have unacceptable buzz when the completed set was powered up at Final Test, leading to highly unauthorised twiddling.
My favourite area was Final Test, there were quite a few lines. The conveyor would move the powered sets on small pallets along the line at a slow walking pace with operators walking along wooden duckboards about six inches high as they set up the scan coils, height, width, geometry and checked customer controls (this way of working would be impossible under todays H&S), the whole line had mirrors on the other side to enable the operator to see the screen. If a set failed the operator leaned across and raised the mirror, sliding the faulty set onto rollers into a bay behind where there was a technician and room for three sets. The technician would have a bench and normally just an AVO. Either side of him were the small roller tracks, room for three in and three out. When a repair was complete he'd wait for a gap in the main line, lift the back of the mirror and push out the set. There were lots of technicians at Final Test, and there was an area on each line with more sophisticated test equipment, together with a collection of 'nuggets' - sets that had difficult or time consuming problems, normally a more senior technician would look at these. Often, as apprentices we would be working/training on them.
The posh wooden HMV's, always a great looking set were disappearing during my time there. They opened up the POP shop, Print On Plastics, which was a major new high tech venture. This meant all their cabinets were made on site complete with 'woodgrain' finish. We had a couple of carpenters who did remedial work on wooden cabinets, who were no longer required unfortunately.
Towards the end of my apprenticeship I worked in the Design Lab and then got a job in the Engineering Liaison lab. It's surprising these days how few people worked in these areas, probably about eight or nine in each, but a really clever bunch. Being a bit of a dogsbody, one of my first jobs was to go through loads of field returns of 1500 frame output transformers that were 'ticking' (a common early fault). I had to solder and desolder dozens into a test set and listen with a stethoscope to evaluate how bad they were and advise the supplier. Another problem was the perennial 1400 buzz, this was very much old news by now - it was causing great problems in the field but I think everyone in the engineering departments had moved on. I seem to recall the final mod was to put a metal plate onto one of the IF cans attached by a PTFE screw. This was pretty ineffective as I found out in later years as a senior engineer at Radio Rentals.
There were so many interesting areas, great people and funny episodes at the Gosport factory!
Pete
A very interesting insight, Thanks for posting. Thorn 1400s and 1500s were a big part of my early career. 1400s were bought cheaply when I was in my teens still at school , repaired and sold on. 1500s were still commonly seen for repair when I had left school. What I find strange is that I saw many completely knacked Mazda tubes back then. I would expect any now to be had it, and yet I have two 1400s and a 1500 all with really good Mazda tubes.
I remember battling with the 1400 Buzz! Frame transformers often went dry jointed which was a nice easy little earner. A noisy transformer was removed, put in the vice and given a good squeeze!
Rich
Ah yes, the plate and PTFE screw. This was not for intercarrier buzz but radiation from the frame scan coils being picked up by the ratio detector can as you will know. Not every 1400 had objectionable intercarrier buzz (most did though) but field engineers would mistakenly attack the IF alignment instead of hinging out the chassis where the frame induced buzz would miraculously disappear.
Wrong components being fitted seems to have always been a problem. A work colleague of mine who used to work at Semitech in Jarrow which was part of Nokia TV operations used to tell a story. One day an automated component insertion machine was inserting an electrolytic with the wrong polarity. The completed sets were put on test and made their way overhead on a slow conveyor system powered up. As the sets passed overhead after about 5 minutes running they got to around the middle of the factory, each set would go off with a loud bang and smoke one after another as it destroyed its SMPS.
John.
Fascinating to hear factory stories. There were many similarities and differences with each manufacturer.
With the Oz Pye CTV lines in Marrickvile in the early 70s, there were two main PCBs used in the T29, T30 and T34 chassis.
Parts were hand-stuffed into boards that were clamped into a frame with a steel "slash plate" underneath that had holes that lined up with those in the PCB. When all parts were fitted, a bag of glass beads was clamped over them and a hydraulically-operated knife sheared off the component wires. The slash plate was then removed and the board assembly placed on the wave solder machine, complete with bags of glass beads. (This assembly method had the side benefit of making the boards easy to service because the lack of a wire crimp-down made it easy to remove parts.)
Completed boards were automatically bed-of-nails compared with a known-good board (using a bank of uniselectors!). The signal ("Chroma") boards would then proceed to alignment, then on to final assembly.
As cost pressures rose, cabinet making was moved in-house and the cabinets were folded up from vinyl laminated chipboard pre-grooved flatpacks. Just two operators did this, the plastic mask with its integrated CRT mounting studs was stapled and hot-melt glued onto the flat sheet which was then folded up around the mask, glued and stapled. It took less than a minute to make a cabinet for a 26" TV.
A fair bit of automation was used, examples were the NC turret coil winders and the wiring loom making machines. I have mentioned before the WW2-vintage plant that impregnated LOPTs with Berry-Wiggins compound. Would have made a great set for a horror movie!
The machine that tested the IR remotes with 16 finger-simulating solenoids was impressive and fun to watch, but apparently it broke down a lot!
I didn't work there but I was shown around the factory because at the time I was an important customer.
Ah yes, the plate and PTFE screw. This was not for intercarrier buzz but radiation from the frame scan coils being picked up by the ratio detector can as you will know. Not every 1400 had objectionable intercarrier buzz (most did though) but field engineers would mistakenly attack the IF alignment instead of hinging out the chassis where the frame induced buzz would miraculously disappear.
That reminds me of a third type of 1400 buzz John!
The job ticket said 'buzzing and slides across floor', the description caused much hilarity that morning in the workshop. The lady made me a cuppa and said to wait a few minutes.
Sure enough a really loud vibration started, and the set (with the standard screw in legs) started moving on the lino floor, still giving a good picture.
It was the system switch solenoid failing, jammed and melting. I guess she was lucky it wasn't left unattended too long!
Pete
