Page 20 - PCMI Journal July 2018

David Allen | Emeritus Professor | Cranfield University | UK Photochemical Machining: Where has it come from, and where is it going?
Figure 3. Photograph showing an Industrial Engraving Co. operator, circa 1950, heating a MagnasleeveTM over a gas element prior to removing it from the press cylinder. (Courtesy of Ken Marino from the historical archive of Orbel Co., Easton, PA, USA)
A subdivision of V Siviter Smith, Microponent Development Ltd was set-up in Livery Street, Birmingham in the early 1960s (Figure 4) to develop PCM into a viable business. Microponent Development Ltd enjoyed success and moved once more to nearby Belmont Row, using its photomechanical expertise to manufacture plated through hole printed circuits for a growing electronics industry. In the late 1960s, Siviter Smith Group was placed into receivership. Norman Marrett, a former employee who had formed his own company, Fotomechanix Ltd., manufacturing and selling pre-sensitised PCB material and other associated products, acquired Microponent Development Ltd. The company merged with Micrometallic in 2004 to form Precision Micro.
Issue 131 July 2018 PCMI Journal 19