Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1428512
46 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 Johnson: What does everything else add? Capers: Just more layers of protection and assurance. Usually, if you can get through sol- der paste inspection and AOI, you've got a high probability that your boards are good. ICT becomes a requirement from a customer if that's what they want and what they want to pay for. We can build it into the quote; we just need to know exactly what you need. Usually there's additional test time for a flying probe and ICT if they want that. Since we're talking about test and inspection, there are other things that we can do. For instance, we do environmental stress testing to make sure that the products can withstand the extreme cold to extreme heat. We test them aer they come out of the tem- perature chamber. Military is extremely hard. Commercial is pretty easy, if you ask me. Johnson: e more complex customers are obviously looking for more thorough test and inspection, which means you must have that onsite. Does that trickle down to your less- demanding customers? Does that just become a part of the process, or do you reserve that for when you're getting paid for it? Capers: We reserve it for when we're getting paid. AOI is a given, like I said, it's just some- thing we do. We can either do 100% AOI or we can sample depending on the customer. If it's a military-type product, it's going to get 100% AOI. It gets a little more attention than the cheap $15 assemblies. It's because you don't want those boards to come back. If you must scrap for any reason, it's going to cost you much more vs. scrapping a $20 board, which you can throw in the dumpster. Johnson: What do you see of most strategic importance when it comes to investing in test and inspection for the next year or two? Capers: If you walk around the show floor at IPC APEX EXPO, you will see a lot of empha- boards. ey want to make sure everything's done up front. Because when they put this board in their equipment, it's going to work. ey're a little more stringent on the requirements. ey like things in place, like solder paste inspection; 3D AOI is a given these days, in my opinion. Fly- ing probe test is almost a given as well. For the manufacturer, it ensures aer all these other process steps, it gives them peace of mind that their processes are tight and they're building boards without shorts, without opens, and everything like that. It helps identify defects before they make it out the door. Anytime something comes back in the door, it's going to cost you money to fix, remedy, refund, or credit it. We're trying to avoid stuff coming back in the door. We even do incoming inspection on materials that come in the back door to make sure that, if they're sending us a 10K resistor, it measures 10K before we stick it in inventory. e rest of the testing—AOI and flying probe test—are just things to ensure that your in- house processes are consistent. e two most important things that an EMS company can do is SPI solder paste inspection on the front end before they place parts on a board and then AOI to make sure that everything that's hap- pened—from solder paste to pick-and-place to reflow—when it makes it over to AOI, it should catch any defect that those machines are designed to do. Anytime something comes back in the door, it's going to cost you money to fix, remedy, refund, or credit it. We're trying to avoid stuff coming back in the door.