Case Studies
OEM - Advertising Industry
The circuit board assemblies for this product are mounted to the outside of an aircraft. These assemblies are exposed to different climate conditions, including UV exposure.
Technical situation
Customer contacted PRS for engineering support and to request an engineered process for their application. The circuit board assemblies for this product are mounted to the outside of an aircraft. These assemblies are exposed to different climate conditions, including UV exposure. Additionally the aircraft had to meet certain weight requirements.
Solution
Based on data provided by the OEM and CM, PRS recommended a combination of three processes: plasma treatments, conformal coating application and potting/encapsulation methods. Due to the complex nature of the project PRS designed, tested and implemented a combined six different chemistries and introduced proprietary application methodologies to achieve the customer's desired performance parameters.
Materials:
- A one part urethane conformal coating with superior chemical resistance surface hardness properties, material flexibility, moisture resistance and tack free performance post exposure to UV light.
- Water repellant black urethane coating which provides superb adhesion to coated surfaces.
- High performance bonding conformal coating which features outstanding physical and electrical properties and extremely low out-gassing.
- A clear one part polyurethane conformal coating formulated specifically for the use of light emitting diode (LED) applications.
- Glass microspheres used as a space filler for weight reduction.
- Single component UV curable translucent epoxy with excellent dielectric constant.
Plasma treatments were implemented to allow better adhesion between processes. Using the above materials and technical approaches PRS developed a sequence process creating a “lean” manufacturing cell to speed the product through the manufacturing process with a calculated high first time yield.
Benefits
The initial shipsets processed by PRS resulted in high first time yields as projected. With the program's progress came customer design changes and upgrades affecting the PRS contribution in the supply chain. However with the technical foundation and cell manufacturing approach in place PRS easily processed the ECO's and moved the subsequent shipsets through the cell inside the customers scheduled delivery line. PRS concurrent engineering approach with a cell/lean manufacturing slant proves extraordinarily apropos to today's customer dynamic demands and needs.