{{Infobox company , name = Rapid Electronics Ltd , logo = , type = Limited , foundation = 1979 , founder = Mike Lee, Chris Stevenson , location_city =

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

, location_country = UK , industry =

Electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

, products =

Electronic components An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not ...

, cables & connectors, electrical & educational products , num_employees = 150 , homepage
www.rapidonline.com
Rapid Electronics is a UK distributor of

electronic components An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not ...

and

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

products, and supporter of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

and educational initiatives, based in

History

Rapid Electronics was established by Mike Lee and Chris Stevenson in 1979. The company at this time was based in a converted barn above a garage at Aylesford, Kent and held stock of around 200 products. Rapid started by advertising in the retail electronics press to generate sales and a small single sheet catalogue was mailed to customers. From 1981 the focus was developing sales into electronics departments at universities and colleges and this strategy was successful over the next 10 years. Due to expansion the company moved to Boxted in Essex in 1983 and continued to grow. Increasing sales led to a number of further moves to larger premises in the Colchester area, culminating in the building of the current 18,000sq.ft premises in Severalls Lane, Colchester. In late 2012 the company became part of the German-owned

Conrad Electronic Conrad Electronic SE is a German retailer of electronic products based in Hirschau. Company profile The company was founded in Berlin in 1923 by Max Conrad, and moved to Hirschau in 1946, where it was led by Max Conrad's son Werner. In 1973, ...

and by 2014 Rapid had increased its stock-holding to over 100,000 products. Employing around 150 people, the company is currently located in premises close to the A12 and the

Colchester Community Stadium Colchester Community Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as the JobServe Community Stadium, is a football stadium in Colchester, England. It is the home of Colchester United Football Club. It has a capacity of 10,105 and opened in August 20 ...

Products

The company's core products are electrical components such as

resistors A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active el ...

capacitors A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in an electric field by virtue of accumulating electric charges on two close surfaces insulated from each other. It is a passive electronic component with two terminals. The effect of a ...

and

LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

Customers

Among the company's customers are electrical contractors, design engineers and assembly manufacturers, users of open source programming hardware such as

Arduino Arduino () is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed unde ...

and

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...

, makers of audio equipment,

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

and

model railway Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

enthusiasts.. Rapid Electronics is also a supplier to

primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

secondary schools A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

institutions in the UK, specialising in equipment for the

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

areas of the

National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...

Educational initiatives

From 2004 to 2013 Rapid Electronics partnered

Toyota Manufacturing UK Established in 1989, Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd is the British manufacturing subsidiary of Toyota. The main factory is at Burnaston in Derbyshire, with an engine factory located in Deeside, North Wales. Construction of the Burnaston fac ...

developing and co-ordinating the Toyota Technology Challenge, latterly known as the Toyota STEM Challenge. Pupils designed, built and raced environmentally friendly vehicles using

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...

PIC microcontroller PIC (usually pronounced as ''"pick"'') is a family of microcontrollers made by Microchip Technology, derived from the PIC1650"PICmicro Family Tree", PIC16F Seminar Presentation originally developed by General Instrument's Microelectronics ...

technology. Rapid helps co-ordinate the UK Championships for the VEX Robotics Design System, an educational robotics platform, alongside other partners such as

National Grid plc National Grid plc is a British multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, England. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom, where it owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission networks ...

and Teach Design. The company has supported many educational projects, initiatives and competitions, including Near Space school projects, the Jaguar Maths in Motion Challenge, the Suffolk Creative Computing Club, the Formula Gravity racing project and individual schools in robotics and science themed competitions. Rapid also provides resources and technical support to the Young Engineers organisation, which runs a network of

challenges and clubs across the UK.Young Engineers Club Network
/ref>

References

Electronic component distributors