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PCB Assembly
A good electronics manufacturer tailors the reliability of his processes and assemblies to suit his customer base. AirBorn Electronics designs and manufactures Printed Circuit board assemblies to a standard compatible with professional quality equipment. Many of our customers sell expensive niche market equipment. They really do not want to have a breakdown caused by a manufacturers decision to use an economical 10c IC socket in place of a more reliable 50c part. We have other clients who sell into higher volume commodity-product markets, and different design rules apply to their work due to the economies of scale.
Our assemblies are designed to be maintainable, repairable, durable and easily installed. The difference between a printed circuit board that is easy to work with and a PCB which bedevils technicians can be as simple as proper labelling, connectors and sockets. At AirBorn Electronics we have developed some maxims which we try to work by -
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AirBorn Electronics manufactures products to a professional equipment standard:
- IC Sockets used are Gas tight machine screw construction with 4 prong gold plated mating surfaces.
- Data connectors have Gold plated mating surfaces, tinned or chromated housings.
- PCB Laminates are professionally manufactured using Fibreglass FR4 stock, soldermask over bare copper (top & bottom), PTH, tinned and silkscreen encoded with a full component identification legend.
- All connectors are polarised, with numbering clearly marked.
- All interboard cabling is stranded. All light wire is tinned stranded.
- Components subject to lowered MTBF due to external adverse factors (e.g. line drivers) are socketed.
- All socketed components are identified, with orientation shown.
- All parts used are first grade, new, manufacturers product meeting the full manufacturers specification.
- All non-substitutable-at-repair components are clearly marked.
- All parts & PCBs have been processed under anti-static conditions.
Quality is not goodness. -- Sandia National Labs documentIt is surprising how many ISO9000 Manufacturers produce atleast some equipment that complies only with items (8) and (10) - it is because quality of manufacturing starts with the design.
Its all very well to have an ISO9000 Manufacturer produce your boards, but if the design is not up to scratch the end result will ofcourse be faithfully reproduced ISO9000 compliant junk. Standards rarely specify quality of design - indeed, when they try to do this they usually create such a rigid inflexible environment that nothing useful gets produced. Even with our "top ten" criteria above, there will be projects where the best design choice involves breaking one of the rules. It is fantastic to have a strong standards base for your products and designs, but by and of itself it is not the whole answer.By extending the engineering design into the specification of the manufacturing operation, AirBorn Electronics can increase the quality of the final product. By being available to respond to the changing engineering requirements that arise from time to time in manufacturing, we can help ensure the highest quality final product in the longer term.
AirBorn Electronics' custom design does not carry with it an obligation to have us involved with the product manufacturing - the customer owns the design. The fact that many of our customers do choose to have us involved with the manufacture (and not just the design) of their PCBs perhaps illustrates that we have the quality/price tradeoff set at the right point for our market. Experience counts for a lot.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is. -- Yogi Berra (attributed to)
Overview