Recorded conversations and interviews on electronics design and manufacturing with the editors of PCD&F/Circuits Assembly, brought to you by the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA)
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 25, 2019
Tuesday Jun 25, 2019
Yash Sutariya is the President of Saturn Electronics Corporation, Saturn Flex Systems, and Saturn PCB Services, all PCB-centric operating entities. Today, we’ll discuss what every buyer of printed circuit boards should be concerned about and Yash will offer a few auditing tips that would be helpful when auditing or selecting a PCB supplier. Yash is the author of "PCB Reliability: Auditing Your Supply Chain to Insure It," a paper he presented at SMTAI 2018.
Monday Jun 10, 2019
Monday Jun 10, 2019
Automated optical inspection (AOI) and solder paste inspection (SPI) system supplier Brian D'Amico covers AOI and SPI best practices with Mike Konrad. Modern circuit assemblies are difficult, if not impossible, to inspect without the aid of advanced inspection systems. Brian has been in the electronics assembly equipment industry for 36 years. His knowledge (and passion) for inspection technology is truly impressive.
Monday Jun 03, 2019
Monday Jun 03, 2019
Zach Dismukes is manager of sales and service for Bowman Analytics on the West Coast and a specialist in XRF products. He has spent the past decade in XRF and x-ray technology. He also has a masters in chemistry from the University of Illinois.
He discusses use of XRF as a quality control tool, measuring coating thickness, compares benchtop versus handheld units, and explains how to ensure consistency throughout the workday with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow.
Tuesday May 28, 2019
Tuesday May 28, 2019
What happens when an electronic contract manufacturer follows their customer’s instructions to the detriment of the product? Product failures, blame, drama, and a really big lawsuit.
Mike Konrad reviews the trials and tribulations of a contract manufacturer and their customer. Assembly residue-related failures (ECM) contributed to product failures, product recalls, and, ultimately, a multi-million-dollar lawsuit.
Misguided “best practice” techniques only made matters worse. This podcast will discuss what factors contributed to the “perfect storm” of product failures. Factors that go as far back to original product designs, printed circuit board fabrication, storage and handling, assembly, testing, and coating. While mistakes were made all along the way, product failures could have been avoided with a few simple process changes, adding mere pennies to the cost of each assembly while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation.
Monday May 20, 2019
Monday May 20, 2019
What's the optimal way to handle and store solder paste for electronics assembly? Tim O'Neill of AIM Solder shares advice and tales from the front in the latest edition of The Screw-ups.
Thursday May 16, 2019
Thursday May 16, 2019
Jim Barry is sales & marketing manager and technical liaison at PCB Technologies, a fabricator of rigid, rigid-flex and flex PCBs for high-rel applications. Jim has been in the PCB industry since the 1970s, and has prior experience with flex fabricators like Parlex and Eltek and EMS companies including Bull Technologies. He is one of the presenters at the upcoming SMTA Capital Chapter Technical Day in June. This all-day workshop features three talks on DFM/design for reliability/thermal and RF mitigation concerns. He previews the workshop with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow.
Tuesday May 07, 2019
Tuesday May 07, 2019
Kent McLeroth has been chief executive of Zuken Americas since 2015. He joined the PCB design software developer in 1995 after more than a decade designing hardware for a major defense contractor, where he was a Zuken customer. He discusses Zuken's growth, strategic acquisitions and outlook with PCB Chat's Mike Buetow.
Tuesday Apr 30, 2019
Tuesday Apr 30, 2019
Kyle Miller is Zuken's manager of Lightning, Design Force and related routing technology. He has a doctorate in artificial intelligence, and is heading Zuken's efforts into applying AI and machine learning to develop next-generation PCB placement and routing. He speaks with PCB Chat's Mike Buetow from Zuken Innovation World, where he gave a presentation on the progress of AI in ECAD, and why designers shouldn't fear for their jobs.
Monday Apr 29, 2019
Monday Apr 29, 2019
Fred Schenkelberg is an international authority on reliability engineering. He is the reliability expert at FMS Reliability, a reliability engineering and management consulting firm he founded in 2004. Fred left Hewlett Packard’s Reliability Team where he helped create a culture of reliability across HP to assist other organizations. His passion is working with teams to improve product reliability, customer satisfaction, and efficiencies in product development; and to reduce product risk and warranty costs. Fred has bachelor's of science in physics from the United States Military Academy and a master's of science in statistics from Stanford.
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
MB Allen is manager of applications and sales for the Americas and Europe. Formerly a product manager MB coordinated the advancement of new products and features to accommodate customer needs. Her technical expertise, relationships with valued partners and customers, and many years of experience aid in the future development and improvements of her company's product offerings. MB has worked in the electronics industry for 31 years and been associated with KIC for 30 years with both national and international positions.
We discuss thermal management and assembly thermal profiling as a means to better reliability.