Qualitel uses the XTV-160 Electronics X-ray to build reliability into its products for aerospace, medical, commercial, and military customers. The system inspects parts during manufacturing to ensure product reliability and quality. Defective parts can result in accidents, product recalls, and other negative outcomes.
The X-ray system can reveal defective parts that are too small to notice otherwise. The system inspects parts during manufacturing to ensure product quality.
Some of the company’s parts can be extremely small and highly sensitive. For instance, some of the circuit boards have up to 24 layers with 290 ball grid array (BGA) chips on one board. A typical cell phone’s circuit board has up to 12 layers with a BGA chip.
To address these needs, the engineering team chose Nikon to develop the inspection system. Nikon installed its XTV-160 Electronics X-ray Inspection system at the Qualitel facility in Everett, WA. The team now uses the system in new product introduction for initial product evaluation and regular production sampling. Products enter the Nikon X-ray to set up all BGA processes. The system’s joystick allows inspectors to have greater control as they ensure that the small components, many of which are buried in layers of circuitry, meet the company’s stringent specifications.
Nikon installed the XTV-160 Electronics X-ray inspection equipment at Qualitel for product evaluation and production sampling.
Besides chip components, the team uses the X-ray to evaluate other components such as cables, connectors, and printed circuit boards (PCBs). The high-powered system allows their customers to use it for failure analysis. The system can help evaluate manufacturer’s defects without destroying the part.
The X-ray system is also equipped with computer tomography (CT) software that creates 3D models. The team uses this capability to identify potential cracks in their products. Without this feature, it would be impossible to distinguish a crack from a dot on a single image.
Nikon
www.nikonusa.com
Qualitel
www.qualitelcorp.com
::Design World::
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense, Medical-device manufacture, TEST & MEASUREMENT