Always remember the Electronic Axis of Evil: Moisture, Heat, and Dirt. If you can avoid these, your circuit boards will last longer.

Four Top Reasons For Circuit Board Failure and Tips to Identify The Problems & Causes:

1. Discrete Component Failure. (Includes capacitors, resistors, zener diodes, diodes, GALs, PALs, IC’s, Microprocessors, Driver Chips) Causes of failure: normal component aging, excessive heat, over or under voltage surges and sags, rises in ESR (equivalent series resistance) values, corrosion and drying (esp. of electrolytic capacitors). These problems can sometimes be visible to the naked eye such as blown/burned components or obvious corrosion, but usually these items need to be checked with meters.

2. Power Component Failure. (Includes transformers, transistors, IGBT modules, rectifiers).  Causes of failure: heat, over or under voltage, normal component aging. Some problems can be visible such as exploded components, or, more often, they could look perfectly good and require meter testing of each component.

3. Trace Damage. (These are the conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets and laminated onto the non-conductive substrate) Causes of failure: power surges, lightning strikes, use of inappropriate acid core solder causing shorts, contamination such as metallic dust. Trace damage is often visible to the naked eye and can often, though not always, be repaired.

4. Physical damage - This is plain, old damage such as when your NASCAR-wannabe forklift driver skewers it like a sausage on a grill. Don’t think it doesn’t happen…we’ve seen it. This is sometimes repairable; replacement is often the only option.

Repairing printed circuit boards can be a bit like surgery: lots of testing, probing and prepping followed by precise repair work and retesting before the patient is ready to go back to work. The good news is, your board is most likely repairable.

Reliability was followed, in descending order, by quality, safety, maintenance, service, price, throughput, technology, noise, speed, and “green”.

Maintenance ranked 4th out of 11 so we know it’s pretty high on your list.  Nobody wants equipment that is difficult or excessively expensive to maintain.  Downtime is lost time and lost time is lost money.  

Save money in the long run by purchasing quality industrial electronic equipment with a good warranty.  And when that warranty runs out, or the OEM does not provide responsive service, send your repairs to a reliable expert. 

The ACS tech team is trained and experienced in the repair of virtually all types of industrial electronics including drives, PLCs, power supplies, controls, encoders, servo motors, CNC equipment, printed circuit boards, touch screens, stepper motors, CRT monitors, test equipment and more.  We service most brands including Yaskawa, Okuma and Mitsubishi.  Rush service is available upon request.

With the economy just beginning to climb out of the basement, saving money is a  high priority for all of us.  The pain of this recession will stick with us for a long while (I promise I will not get political here! That would be a whole ‘nother conversation.  LOL).  

So, let me reiterate the absolute necessity of repairing your existing electronic equipment whenever possible.  For a lot less money – sometimes as much as 75% less than the cost of new – you can repair.

OK, I know you’re busy.  Maybe you’ve got lots of equipment and weren’t sure whether the item was still under warranty (we can help track warranty information) or maybe you had 20 line operators hounding you for repair or replace decisions and it seemed way easier to just buy new that week (we can help solve this dilemma with our rush service).  

And have you taken a look at your shelves full of  “does not work” equipment with dust on them in your storage area?  Much of that equipment can be repaired. 

And if not, we can dispose of it properly so you can rest assured that even if it was not repairable, you are still being environmentally responsible.  Environmental requirements being what they are today, this is not to be lightly dismissed.

As you have probably discovered, some OEM’s can be pretty twitchy about the warranty coverage.  (We’re not twitchy at all -you get a 12 month warranty on the whole unit, not just the repair!)

Repairing your equipment will reduce your overall expenses, keep you environmentally responsible by reusing, and will reduce your equipment inventory.  It’s all good and you can’t go wrong by going the electronic repair route. 

Check out our website at www.acsindustrial.com or call our customer service team directly at 800-605-6419 for more information.  We repair virtually all types of industrial electronics including circuit boards, monitors, touch screens, drives, servo and stepper motors, encoders, controls, power supplies, test equipment, and more.

The concern is there on the part of  many CEO’s and managers but the question they often have is, “Where do we start?”   You can start by thinking outside the OSHA box.  Assuming you have already met the minimum OSHA standards, do a hazard assessment.  Look at past history, look at insurance forms, reports on injuries,  where have the injuries and illnesses taken place, ask your employees what could be done better. 

Once you know where you stand and have identified problems, it’s time to implement training and commit to measuring the effectiveness of the new safety programs.  Make your safety policy clearly defined based on industry standards, governmental regulations, and best practices with documented step-by-step procedures tailored to your specific locations and activities.

Don’t forget to reward success because in the end, success will reward you with a better looking bottom line.  

If you want more help, check out some helpful documents such as the NFPA’s “The Electrical Safety Program Book” which you can get from their website or visit the National Safety Council’s website www.nsc.org.

Keeping your equipment in good repair is also important for safety – motors,  safety PLC repair , test equipment, monitors, drives, encoders, controls, circuit boards, CNC equipment and much more  Our tech team is working hard every day to keep our customer’s industrial electronic equipment in safe working order.  For more information see our website at www.acsindustrial.com or call our customer service team at 800-605-6419.

Lighting strikes can cause damage through  power surges called “transients” which happen when lightning strikes nearby hitting transmitting devices such as metallic plant equipment, pipes,  or wiring.  Even the magnetic field associated with lighting can cause damage to computers, disks, and tapes that  might show up days or weeks later.

Damage to electrical equipment can include flashover of insulation inside motors or transformers, vaporized traces on printed circuit boards, vaporized transistors and integrated circuits, blown fuses, and more.  None of it good. 

The cost of lightning damage is downtime, reduced production, and equipment repair.  There are some things you can do to help minimize lightning damage:

0  Diversion:  ground metallic structures

0  Attenuation:  careful wiring such as metallic raceways, cable shields, twisted pairs, extensive grounding and earthing

o  Suppression:  up-to-date suppression devices

All that said, sometimes, your equipment will still suffer damage.  If that’s the case, let our tech team evaluate your item to see if it is repairable or “smoked”.   There is no cost for the evaluation and we can rush your repair back into production at your request.  Or, if it is “smoked” we can dispose of the item for you and, in some cases, obtain a replacement.  Check out our website at www.acsindustrial.com or call our ACS customer service team at 800-605-6419.  We are standing by to help you through the thunderstorm season!

One less circuit board potentially ending up in the local land fill does make a difference!

When your industrial electronics are damaged or defective, send them to ACS Industrial.  Let us help you make a difference – for the earth and for your pocketbook!

ACS Industrial repairs most types of industrial electronics …power supplies, circuit boards, encoders, drives, servo motors, stepper motors, monitors, PLC’s, test equipment. 

Visit our website at www.acsindustrial.com or call our courteous and helpful customer service representatives at 800-605-6419.

No matter which type of PM program your company subscribes to (Periodic, Planned, Predictive, or Preventive Maintenance) ACS Industrial is ready to help you test and repair your industrial electronics at a pace that suits your business. 

We will work with you according to your plan to keep your operator controls, PLC’s, drives, power supplies, motors, circuit boards, encoders, test equipment, and monitors well-maintained to eliminate failures. 

Good maintenance will help keep costs down in the long run and allow higher productivity.  Visit our website at www.acsindustrial.com or call us a 800-605-6419 to see how we can help you.

This kind of damage could look intimidating to some electronic repair technicians.  Not ACS Industrial.  We want you to send us the hard stuff. 

Our repair team is experienced and prepared.  If  it’s repairable at all, we will get it repaired.  We’ve seen all kinds of damage – burns (like in the photo), flood damage, lightning hits, breakage, dirt, you name it.  Power Supplies, Servo Drives, Servo Motors, Monitors, Circuit Boards, Encoders, Test Equipment, PLC’s and more.

Much of it is repairable and usually at a fraction of the cost of buying new.   In any economy, that’s smart business.

Let us get YOU out of a pickle.  Send our team your damaged electronics for a free evaluation and quote.  http://www.acsindustrial.com/repair_form/index.php When you approve the quote, we’ll get it repaired fast and safely ship it back to you.

If you have a damaged circuit board , ACS can help get it repaired, returned and back into operation fast. Each item repaired carries a One Year Warranty.

Save Money and Time by using the Electronic Repair Services at ACS Industrial. Call 800-605-6419 for more information or visit them at www.acsindustrial.com/circuit-board-repair.php.  Their services are clearly explained and the site is easy to use.