Instrumentation Monthly Test | Measurement | Control
Brainboxes, a developer of serial and remote I/O devices, is celebrating thirty years in business. Dating back to humble beginnings when the company’s founder, Eamonn Walsh, started up the firm in his family home, Brainboxes has grown into a business operating a manufacturing facility serving customers worldwide with offices in the UK, US and Japan. Key customers include Cummins, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Panasonic, Reuters and Santander.
Brainboxes manufactures and supports its own core technologies, including Ethernet, USB, Bluetooth, ExpressCard, PCI Express and PCI products. Highly qualified software and hardware engineers deliver custom-made industrial automation and test and measurement solutions.
Eamonn Walsh, MD of Brainboxes, commented: “There is no doubt that the Brainboxes journey has been an integral part of my life. There have been many significant milestones along the way including launching the first PCI modem into the networking market, designing the special effects control system for hit West End musical Miss Saigon in 1989 and demonstrating the world’s first PCMCIA Bluetooth card using CSR Bluecore chip. Developing our own ASICs for our core product was a crucial step for the company. We mopped up all the logic into one chip and were able to lower BOM costs, increase reliability, reduce build time and product area whilst simultaneously protecting our IP.”
Since 1984, the company has achieved ISO 9001 accreditation (covering excellence in design, manufacturing and distribution), ISO 14001 environmental accreditation and Investors in People status for exceptional development and training of staff.
Brainboxes is also a multi-award winning company scooping Liverpool Echo’s Flying Start business competition, winning the European Manufacturer of the Year category in the Elektra Awards run by the publisher of Electronics Weekly, and being named the Small Business of the Year and Champions of Best Practice by the Manufacturing Institute.
“We have also needed to overcome the challenges of huge economic, social and technological changes too during the past 30 years. Yet, the fundamental aspirations I had for the business back in 1984 remain equally valid today. Developing reliable, high performance products and solutions, and offering excellence in after-sales support are a core part of our success,” added Mr Walsh.
