Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1518339
28 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2024 are not only built to the highest standards but also aligned with the evolving needs of con- sumers and industries alike. Can you walk us through a complex box-build project your company worked on? Specifi- cally, detail how your company addressed any technical challenges that arose, including any innovative solutions you implemented to overcome them. Allison Budvarson: OBM FG recently went through an NPI build for a new and very com- plex box-build assembly, which included sev- eral densely populated PCBAs, wire assem- blies, mechanical assembly, and test require- ments. is is a project we have been work- ing on with our customer over several months, which started with building the PCBAs and then moving to box-build. We're unique in that we offer a dedicated work cell for our customers to utilize during an NPI, so that we can work side by side with them on our shop floor during product realiza- tion. In this case, when it came time to assem- ble the box-build, the customer spent a week in our facility with us, assembling the first arti- cles and working through test while we created assembly documentation and set up a 5S work cell to accommodate production qualities in the future. One of the challenges in a project with this many subassemblies and assembly steps was how and where to insert inspection and test points to accomplish the most effi- cient and high-quality assembly process. Chris Denney: We don't really get involved in anything I would call a "complex" box-build. Most of the box-build we do is small enough to sit on a workbench, nothing larger than a VCR. (Does anybody even know what those are any- more?) I recall working on this one particular box build that involved two circuit boards sand- wiched together and then crammed inside a small plastic case about the size of an iPhone. All the components on this board were through-hole components and included a large serial port that the end user would inter- face with. Because of the thinness of the plas- tic case and the fact that two circuit boards were being sandwiched together, it required us to cut all the through-hole pins flush to the PCB and fold other devices flat to the board to keep it compact enough to fit into the case. e design was so old that the customer was forced to ship serial-to-USB adapters with each order they sent to customers. It also used rectangu- lar LEDs to provide feedback to the user, but these rectangular LEDs were very difficult to align with the plastic case's overlay. Being that it was all through-hole, it was already time-consuming and expensive for us to assemble. We asked the customer if they would be interested in changing the design to use sur- face mount devices, but all their engineers had either le for other jobs or retired. We decided to take on the task ourselves instead. We rede- signed it with all surface mount devices (except for the LEDs), got everything to fit onto a sin- gle PCB, and changed the serial port to a USB port. e last thing we tackled was getting the LEDs to align to the overlay properly without Chris Denney