Looking at the fine print
31st May 2018
As the foundation of any electronic product, the quality of each PCBA has to be the highest priority. At Offshore Electronics, we have been working hard for many years to ensure that our testing and quality standards are second to none. With our latest ‘new recruits’ - two fully digital HD microscopes – that job has become even more straightforward for our quality assessors.
Sam Loveridge, Offshore Electronic’s Quality Engineering Manager saw the benefits of the latest high definition camera inspection systems when visiting a customer. Within weeks, two new Blundell Inspex HD 1080p full digital microscopes had arrived at the production facility in Guernsey.
Digital magnification and image capture
In the past, a Mantis static fixed bench magnifier was used to assess the PCBAs. It had two magnification zoom options – x4 and x10 – and like a traditional microscope only one user at a time could see the PCBA being assessed. Now, the digital microscopes link to HD screens so their images can be seen by the team, making the process more collaborative. The magnification is significantly more advanced as well, with the team able to magnify from 1.8x to 98x.
Gathering inspection knowledge
The new microscopes also have a removable USB storage image capture facility, so analysed images can be saved and uploaded. This now enables the quality assessors to add the images to the build information on the tablets that are used by production. Production staff can see immediately any issues that need to be corrected on the production floor. All these images are also added to the company’s compendium of inspection knowledge, so that any faults can be recorded and lessons learned for future production.
Although inspection processes at Offshore Electronics have always been rigorous, the addition of the digital microscopes has helped the team to check more PCBAs at any one time and become more efficient in their processes. With this in mind, the ‘new recruits’ look like they are here to stay!
To find out more, please contact us or email [email protected]
