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The Rockford Group
Making harnesses & assemblies
with military precision
Rockford Group is the UK's largest independent manufacturer of military
wiring harnesses and cable assemblies. It has been addressing the requirements
of the military market for many years and, in this high reliability and
increasingly competitive marketplace, has been involved in many of the largest
and most prestigious military contracts let over the last decade.
Wholly owned by the working directors, it comprises three companies serving
predominantly the military but also some specialist commercial industry
requirements for cable assemblies, wiring harnesses and associated
sub-assemblies - including mains distribution and PLC controlled systems.
The Rockford cable assembly and specialist wiring workshops are complemented
by its quality sheet metal fabricating business and in-house finishing facility to
offer a complete assembly service, from ISO 9001 design to finished assemblies,
manufactured and tested to defence standards. The company also operates a
thriving connector distribution business, is a Franchised Distributor for AB and
TEC military connectors and maintains a varied stock holding in excess of
12 million units.
The Rockford story began back in 1978, when Rockford Marks was formed
to specialise in the manufacture of military cable assemblies and wiring
harnesses. This company grew steadily within its own financial resources
and, in 1984, opened a sister company, Rockford Components, to supply
connectors to major OEMs.
Photograph shows Rockford Group's new premises. The building was
formerly the Mission Support Centre for the USAF 81st Tactical
Fighter Wing at RAF Bentwaters.
During the 1990s the Rockford businesses continued to flourish. As the
harnessing and assembly business necessitated the holding of extensive
connector stocks, it was a logical progression to become a distributor for
these items and Rockford is now a Franchise Distributor for the specialist
military connectors of ABB and Litton-Veam (TEC). A series of shrewd
acquisitions expanded the company's capabilities and, with the purchase
of Wiremek, it added mains distribution panel manufacture and building
management systems, using PLC controllers, to its area of expertise. In
1998 the group bought the sheet-metal fabrication and PCB assembly divisions
of the electronics company IEL. With the sheet-metal fabrication business
came a Weidemann twenty-two station CNC controlled punch and a 100 ton,
5 axis Amada CNC controlled press brake, enabling the company to produce
a wide range of frames, racks and enclosures in most common materials
ranging in thickness from 0.5mm to 6mm. The acquisition of the PCB
assembly business has added conventional and surface mount PCB boards,
manufactured to customers' design and specification, to the product offering.
"The bringing together of all these capabilities enables us to offer customers
a one-stop-shop for system design and build programmes" explained
Commercial Director, Steve Hayter.
He continued, "Our complete engineering solutions encompass design,
manufacture and supply of cable assemblies and wiring harnesses,
manufacture of PCB assemblies and supply of a complete package of
ancilliary equipment and services including metal fabrications, precision
turned components, paint finishing and silk screening and all from
within Rockford's own facilities."
For land forces these included a part of the largest military cable assembly
contract in the 90's, producing hull harnesses for the Challenger 2 main
battle tank and followed by the design and manufacture of turret harnesses
for the recent European Challenger 2E upgrade.
The Company is currently producing wiring harnesses and driver
instrument panels for the Piranha, 8-wheel armoured vehicle and
working on prototype harness design and build for MRAV, the multi
role armoured vehicle due to enter service in 2005. On a project for
Bosch Rexroth and Williams Fairey Engineering, Rockford not only
designed and built the cable harnesses but also manufactured all the
enclosures for the HDSB Heavy Dry Support Bridge deployment
vehicle for the American D.o.D.
Photograph shows an operative wiring up an interface adaptor for the
Merlin avionics test set (MATS), which Rockford manufactured for
Serco Test Systems.
In the military aerospace field, its work in high specification harnessing
and assemblies extends to the building of complete avionics test sets
and includes systems for Merlin, Sea King, Tornado and Harrier aircraft.
"In addition to our extensive manufacturing expertise, considerable investment
in state-of-the-art software technologies is responsible for keeping us at the
forefront of cable assembly design" added Steve, "Our design capability
gets us into projects at an early stage and enables us to add value to our
contribution."
This is clearly visible in the extensive design office where ISO 9001
design and post-design services for cable assemblies and associated
mechanical sub-assemblies is undertaken from no fewer than five CAD
positions. The design team specialise in interconnection systems, using
the latest AUTO-CAD 2000 software, complemented by Visio Technical 2000
and overlaid with Raychem HarnWare software. Recent projects include the
Merlin helicopter MATS test sets, harnesses and cable assemblies which it
manufactured for Serco Test Systems, the placement of a range of cable
harnesses at a BNFL nuclear power station and a complete 19" rack and
MMI assembly built to withstand extreme mechanical conditions and with
full EMC screening. All drawings can be printed in-house up to A0 size
on the latest inkjet plotters and colour printers.
Photo shows a section of the cable assembly and specialist wiring
workshops at Rockford Group.
For a company renowned for its expertise in military harness assemblies,
Rockford Group's newly acquired premises could hardly be more appropriate.
In June this year, it completed a move into a 64,000 sq ft building on the
site of the former RAF Bentwaters USAF air-base in Suffolk, which
served as the Mission Support Centre during its occupation by the US Air
Force 81st Tactical Fighter Wing. This move enabled the company to
consolidate the business activities of all three of its factories under one roof -
with room to accommodate future planned expansion.
From here, the company works with many of the world's frontline defence
equipment suppliers. Although the military market accounts for some 80%
of the business activity, the company also manufactures harness systems
for industrial applications. In a recent design and install project for the nuclear
industry it rewired the reactor catenary, supplying fuelling equipment at Wylfa
Power Station for Magnox Generation and is currently producing rail rolling
stock cable harnesses for Pullman Design & Fabrication Ltd.
The comprehensive service offered on interconnection systems embraces
small development batch work through to full scale production runs across
a wide scope of manufacture, including:
Aircraft and associated wiring looms
RF and microwave flexible and rigid assemblies
Extendable coiled cable assemblies
EMC assemblies with knitted braid screening
High temperature engine harnesses and conduit assemblies
Intervehicle cable assemblies
Injection moulded connector cable assemblies
The specialist, high specification nature of Rockford's business is clearly
demonstrated by the fact that 25% of its 120 workforce is employed in
project management and inspection.
Electrical testing of finished product is computer aided on automatic test
equipment, learning from proven assemblies and providing print out data
to meet the customer requirement. Phase matching, VSWR and insertion
losses of coaxial cable assemblies are calculated using sophisticated
network analysers. The company has Thermatron chambers for environmental
and burn-in cycle testing from -85ēC to +150ēC.
Throughout its history Rockford Group has looked to add additional
in-house capabilities to its portfolio and the benefits of this policy are
today more evident than ever. The pressure on OEMs to constantly
review and reduce their internal overheads has led to a significant market
increase in the outsourcing of complete system manufacture.
Rockford has also been a specialist in worldwide component sourcing for
many years, with its own US based procurement division able to locate
and supply even the most difficult to find items. This procurement service
also assists in meeting the demand for reduced supplier numbers, by
enabling customers to obtain all their passive components, semi-conductors
and circular, square, multi-pin and coaxial connectors for military and industrial
applications from a single source. Several major OEMs have appointed
Rockford Group as their sole source of supply for this category of material.
This remarkable independent company has come a long way since its
beginnings 23 years ago, but it has lost none of its early drive and ambition.
It has a commitment to quality, service and value for money and continues
to expand its capabilities to offer its customers expertise in an ever-wider
range of complementary disciplines.
For further information contact Rockford Group, Rockford House,
Suffolk Drive, Rendlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 2TW.
Phone: +44 (0) 1394 420800 or Fax: +4 (0) 1394 420820.
E-mail Steve Hayter, Group Commercial Director at:
steve.hayter@rockford.co.uk
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