Elemaster, founded in 1978, is recognised as the largest ODM-EMS (Original Design Manufacturer – Electronics Manufacturing Services) in Italy and among the ten largest in Europe. With an annual growth rate of 15-20% and a consolidated turnover close to €400 million, Elemaster has consolidated its leading position in the industry.
Today, Elemaster is the benchmark for customer growth and competitiveness, thanks to its Design & Manufacturing services for electronic boards and complete devices.
Eletech: the Innovative heart of Elemaster
Eletech represents the innovative heart of the Elemaster Group.
Founded in 2000, Eletech is part of Elemaster’s International Design Centres, together with Elemaster Germany. These design centres are distinguished by the high quality of their Research and Development (R&D) services, employing more than 100 professionals encompassing system-, hardware-, PCB layout-, software-, mechanical and test engineers. The latter, in addition to concentrating on the production of small series, contributes to the design and development of new projects.
Eletech’s skills and sectors
Eletech has developed over 650 projects in a wide range of sectors, including:
- Railways and Transport
- Electromedical Devices
- Space and Defence
- High-Tech Mobility
- Automation and Energy
These sectors require compliance with stringent regulations and standards for development processes, such as ISO 22163 for railways and ISO 13485 for electromedical devices, for which Eletech is certified. The experience accumulated enables Eletech to manage complex projects involving functional safety, such as braking systems or train power systems, up to the highest SIL4 (Safety Integrity Level).
Eletech was born as an offshoot of Elemaster to support Elemaster’s Customers who, in addition to production, needed to design new products or redesign/optimise/cost-reduce products in production.
Eletech today represents an entry point: the Customer can go directly to Eletech and ask for the design service.
The project is developed from the beginning until full certification, then supporting the design transfer into production.
Project management and quality
Thanks to an established organisational structure, Eletech applies strict quality control to project management to ensure high design standards.
Within Eletech, several competencies ensure effective project management and quality:
- Project Manager: responsible for communication regarding planning, project status and budget management.
- Technical Leader: manages the technical aspects of requirements, implementation and troubleshooting during the design phases.
- Quality Leader: ensures that the development process complies with operating procedures and the internal quality system, managing project documentation and configuration control.
The design team may vary depending on the design phase and the complexity of the product, and is generally composed of these figures:
- System Engineer: collaborates with the customer in drafting system requirements, defines the architecture of the assigned product that meets the system requirements, reviews risk analysis and test strategies.
- HW/SW ME Team Lead: coordinates internal and external resources in specific disciplines
- NPI Engineer: is responsible for ensuring the DFM (Design for Manufacturing) and DFA (Design for Assembly) of the design by, for example, verifying through dedicated tools that the designers’ design is manufacturable and assembled according to reference standards.
- Test Engineer: is responsible for defining test processes in production, and develops test equipment to ensure that manufactured products meet quality standards and specifications before being delivered to customers.
- Quality Assurance & Quality Engineer: ensures that the design process complies with established operating procedures and quality standards. It also performs conformity tests to verify that products comply with applicable regulations, standards and technical specifications before they are placed on the market.
Eletech has a Quality Management System (QMS) certified according to ISO/TS 22163 (IRIS standard) for product development in the railway sector and
ISO 13485 for the electromedical sector that require a rigorous design and test flow to ensure safety, reliability and interoperability.
Collaboration models with Customers
Eletech offers two main models of collaboration with Customers:
- Co-Design: Eletech integrates with the customer’s team to share tasks and responsibilities, providing expertise and support in a collaborative manner.
- Turnkey Collaboration: in Turn-Key mode, Eletech manages the entire product development process. The customer provides the product requirements, desired functionality and necessary iterations. In collaboration with the customer, Eletech elaborates these requirements in detail and takes care of the entire product life cycle, from design to final testing. The result is a turnkey product that fully meets the agreed requirements.
Eletech is not only limited to the initial design phase (concept phase), but also intervenes in subsequent phases, offering a full range of services including:
- Re-Design: revision and optimisation of existing designs, either partially or fully realised.- PCB Layout Development.
- Industrialisation and Transfer to Production: management of the transition from design to production, ensuring that the design is ready for mass production. These include DFM analysis for components, DFA for the assembly process and DFT for test strategies.
- Test bench production and setup for the production line
- Rapid Prototyping and Testing (NPI Lab) for electronic boards and complete devices.
- ISO 17025/ILAC (EMC, Safety, Environmental) accredited Test Lab to perform pre-compliance testing and compliance testing, as well as making suggestions for design optimisation and passing tests.
- Startup boost: start-ups often face complex technical challenges that require specialised expertise to certify and bring innovative products into production.
Even when a product is already in production, Eletech can offer the following services - Value Engineering: design optimisation to improve cost efficiency without compromising functionality.
- Product Maintenance and Sustaining: management of obsolete or discontinued components, providing maintenance and sustainability solutions to ensure production continuity in the long term. (for more details read the article on maintenance)
For example, in the railway sector, the required production life can extend up to 20-25 years. During this period, original components may no longer be available. Eletech restructures the design by replacing obsolete components with modern equivalents, allowing production to continue without significant interruptions.
With Turn-Key mode and a wide range of advanced services, Eletech is committed to providing complete, tailor-made solutions that support customers at every stage of the product lifecycle, from concept to continuous production.