Type Public Website uk.farnell.com Founded 1939 | Industry Electronics Headquarters Leeds Parent organization Premier Farnell | |
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Key people Peter Birks, Business President, Sales & Marketing of Farnell element14 | ||
Farnell element14 electronic design engineers video
Farnell element14 is a distributor of technology products and solutions for electronic system design, maintenance and repair. Operating in 28 countries across Europe, with two regional distribution hubs in Belgium and the UK, it employs circa 1,200 people. It is the European trading brand of global electronics distributor Premier Farnell.
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Electronica 2014 show preview farnell element14
History
The company, which was established as the European arm of Premier Farnell, introduced the element14 brand name in 2010, replacing the legacy brands of Premier Electronics, Farnell and Farnell-Newark with Farnell element14 and Newark element14. The name was taken from silicon, the 14th element in the Periodic Table, which is widely used in electronic components such as integrated circuits and discrete semiconductors.
Community
Farnell element14 has circa 300,000 registered users, as of March 2015.
Products
Farnell element14 stocks circa 600,000 products from circa 3,500 suppliers including Vishay, TE Connectivity, Molex, Microchip Technology, National Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics, Epcos, KEMET Corporation, Altera, Omron, Bridgelux, Texas Instruments and Panasonic.
It is a manufacturer and distributor of the Raspberry Pi miniature computer and it brought production of this device to the UK in September 2012, creating 30 extra jobs at Sony’s Pencoed plant near Bridgend, Wales.
Development kits (often called ‘dev kits’) are a major specialism of Farnell element14. These are hardware kits typically centred around a particular microprocessor or microcontroller and are used by design engineers to develop and prototype new products. A survey of engineers on the element14 Community identified the big areas for the market in 2014-2015 as being lighting control, sensing and wireless. Another growth area for Farnell element14 is the Internet of Things (IoT), which was the predominant theme at its stall at the electronica fair held in Munich on 11-14 November 2014, showcasing element14 IoT products such as the RIoTboard.
The BBC announced on 7 July 2015 that it was launching a new computer device called the micro:bit that would be given to every Year 7 school pupil in the UK (amounting to around one million computers) in October 2015 as part of its Make It Digital initiative. Farnell element14 was named as one of the major partners in the consortium behind the micro:bit, taking responsibility for sourcing of components and overseeing the manufacturing process.
Awards
Farnell element14 won the "Diverse Company Award" category in the 2013 UK National Diversity Awards.
It was awarded "Platinum Big Tick" status for the fourth year in a row in 2014 in the BiTC Corporate Responsibility Index