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Application Case Study
Electronics Industry - Product testing |
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Thomson Consumer Electronics Cuts Testing Time
Reprinted from Quality
Magazine, a Chilton publication, May 1996 |
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| by: |
Robert Lancaster, Senior Mechanical Engineer
Thompson Consumer Electronics
Product protection lab, Indianapolis |
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Benefits |
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Results available in
30 sec. vs. 5 min. |
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$1.6 million savings
on packaging |
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Ability to record
twice as many events |
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Increased
willingness of engineers to run more tests |
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At Thomson electronics we look for mechanical failures, such as
cracked plastic cabinets, deformed or broken support ribs, or broken glue joints. In the
chassis, we look for cracks in printed-circuit boards, broken solder joints, loose
connectors, and broken leads.
Once we’ve identified a problem, we have two options:
improve the packaging to eliminate the problems pinpointed in testing or redesign the
product to make it more rugged. The latter is more efficient and cost-effective, but
requires a solid understanding of why the product failed during testing.
In addition to knowing why a product failed, knowing how it
responded during a test is important. For example, a printed circuit board that bends
during a shock test may not fail during a test, but engineers want to redesign it because
of the potential for failures. A flexing board might return to its original condition
after a stress or drop test and visual evidence of its condition during the test is the
only way to identify that it might fail in the future.
Previous technologies provided some insight to the testing
process, but each offered its own shortcomings. A high-speed, instant – film system
provided rapid feedback but poor image quality. Traditional high-speed film cameras
provided higher quality and faster frame rates, but less immediacy. |
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of the page - |
Our current system, an
EktaPro motion analyzer from Eastman Kodak Co., Motion Analysis Systems
Div. [Note - Redlake MASD, Inc., has acquired the Motion Analysis Systems Division From Eastman Kodak]
records sharp, full-color images at speeds as fast as a 200 kB digital data file. Images
can be viewed on a Super VGA color monitor at any of several playback speeds. We use
on-board, dynamic random access memory during testing and archive results.
We achieve great precision in our testing because the control
circuit on a shock table triggers recording. In most cases, we partition storage to allow
for 113 frames per event (a shock pulse of 20 msec. Requires 60 frames to show the static
product before the pulse, then the product’s reaction to the pulse until it appears
to be at rest again).
The biggest advantage of the analyzer is that it allows us to
immediately analyze data. We run a test, analyze it visually, and have answers in minutes.
The immediacy of the results, 30 sec. vs. 5 min., also means that we actually record more
events than we did with film-perhaps twice as many. The analyzer also helps with more
extensive testing. For example, we were able to determine the reason for a problem in a
recent series of tests within days, instead of weeks. This same series of tests also
garnered a $1.6 million saving in packaging costs.
Another benefit is that engineers are more willing to set up a
test. In the past, they might have been forced to guess at the cause of a problem so that
production could resume, rather than wait a few days for film to be processed. The
headaches associated with retests also are a thing of the past. Now, if one camera angle
fails to provide the information we need, we simply reposition the camera and run a second
test.
Capturing images digitally provides valuable flexibility. Images
can be appended to e-mail messages and computer-generated reports. We can select a group
of several key images from a test and send them to design engineers electronically. The
analyzer also offers us the ability to superimpose grids on a screen to measure
displacement of key structures during testing. |
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Kodak
and EktaPro are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company. |
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Cameras -
Cameras typically used in
the electronics industry - |
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