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.

Worried about the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) requirements for efficiency and no-load power consumption?  Confounded about why two seemingly-same power supplies can possibly perform differently?

If power supply selection, power supply repair, or other power supply issues are concerning you, then you will want to obtain the new, third edition of the Power Supply Technical Guide by XP Power.  The plan was to boil all this information down for you right here to make it easy, but, having just read this new guide myself, I can tell you…it is so jam packed with useful information that I have thrown my hands up and am just giving you the link.

You can find out current, need-to-know info about:

Power Conversion

Input Considerations

DC Output Considerations

Thermal Management

Reliability

Legislation

Technology Editorials

Best of all, it’s FREE.  You can download it as a PDF or print it out if you are one of those paper-lovin’ folks (I admit, I like to turn a page and haven’t yet succumbed to the Kindle’s wiles).  Here it is guys…tear it up! http://www.xppower.com/pdfs/TechGuide2010.pdf.

Call us at ACS Industrial Services if you’ve got power supply questions or questions about any other type of industrial electronic repairs.  We’re here to help!

I just checked out my new, totally cool android phone and sure enough, there are my paw prints leaving a “smudge trail” where I unlock the unit.  My phone is no big security breach, but this could affect touchscreen interfaces such as bank machines, voting machines, or any other public or industrial touchscreen requiring a graphical pattern password. 

While I wouldn’t lie awake worrying about this, don’t write it off either.  The underbelly of society seems to have no shame and no lack of perseverance in acquiring stuff that does not belong to them.  If you’re using secure touchscreens in your business, consider switching to an alphanumeric password on a keyboard if possible.  Or, you can also have users wipe their hands across the screen a few times or use a touchscreen-appropriate cleaning cloth.

Researchers are now investigating other devices that may be susceptible and various other types of smudge attacks such as heat trails caused by the heat transfer of a finger touching a screen.  Something new to worry about…

If you are worried that your industrial touchscreen monitor needs repair, send it in to our expert tech team for a free evaluation and quote.  We repair most touchscreen, LCD and CRT monitors including Allen Bradley touchscreens, ELO, Fanuc, LG, NEC, Microtouch, Okuma and many other touchscreen manufacturers.  Check out our website, www.acsindustrial.com  or call our helpful customer service staff at 800-605-6419.

Players have fun while experiencing how their reliability decisions will impact performance down the line and the overall business. Since this a virtual situation, your team can enjoy the challenge without worrying  about disastrous results.

It works like this:  players are members of a failing company.  Then, the game takes them through a series of real-life problems that require  reliability solutions to win the ABB Reliability Challenge.  The virtual manufacturing world gives players a sample of what companies may face in the real world. 

No matter what your plant produces, there are fundamentals that are critical to increasing production profitability that apply universally.  The game teaches several of these fundamentals using real-life examples. 

Sure beats another box lunch lecture!  Sign me up!  Maybe now I can beat my sons at Call of Duty 4 ….OK, probably not, but I’ll have fun trying.  You can check out the game at www.abb.com/reliabilitychallenge. Just so you know, I don’t own any stock in ABB and I’m not getting any commission here, just thought you might find this interesting.

Speaking of ABB, remember, we repair ABB electronic equipment from ABB  monitors to ABB motors.  If your ABB equipment is giving you a headache, send it in to the ACS tech team for a free evaluation.   Or call our helpful customer service team at 800-605-6419 if you’ve got questions. We are standing by to help you.

Supposedly the light they will emit will not only save energy, but also look more like incandescent bulbs. We can only hope.

You might already know that a few months ago the U.S. Department of Energy announced funding of more than $37 million to support high-efficiency, solid-state lighting (SSL) projects. Lighting accounts for nearly 24% of the total electricity generated in the U.S. today. That’s huge!

The DOE’s goal is to lower U.S. electricity costs by 33 percent by 2030, and at the same time, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. SSL uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and has the potential to be 10 times more energy-efficient than incandescent lighting. As manufacturers look for ways to reduce their energy costs, solid state lighting is likely to get a lot of serious consideration.

The Wall Street Journal reported that venture capital firms are beginning to focus on the lighting industry, with the expectation that the market — in particular LEDs and lighting control sectors — will grow significantly in the coming years.

One major problem that is being addressed is that LED luminaires are very heat sensitive. Excessive heat or inappropriate applications can dramatically affect performance. Well, we certainly know that heat is no friend to electronics of any kind. I’ve blogged about that before!

If your industrial electronics lose a battle with heat, send them in to our expert tech team. Whether you need power supply repair, servo motor repair, touch screen repair or virtually any type of industrial electronics repair, ACS is up to the task.

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.

By calculating a motor’s annual electricity usage based on its nominal efficiency and comparing it to the annual electricity usage of Baldor’s Standard-E and Super-E premium efficiency motors, it can then recommend, by catalog number, the appropriate Baldor motor for the application as well as information on the payback period for replacing the existing motor. 

Even better, it will also calculate useful information such as  the yearly electrical savings when a variable speed drive is used vs. a constant speed motor. 

But now you can have that service anywhere by downloading the Baldor BE$T app from itunes.  This version is also a smaller and easier to use package.  Sounds pretty cool to me.

Speaking of Baldor, ACS Industrial Services provides fast and expert repair services for all types of Baldor equipment. 

If  your Baldor motor  needs repair  or your Baldor Drive, head directly to our website where you will find a Repair/Free Evaluation Form and plenty of information www.acsindustrial.com .  Rush Service is available upon request.  You can also give our customer service team a call at 800-605-6419 for more information.

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.