Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1533904
Questions for a Contract Testing Company: As a contract inspection provider, what are the most common reasons customers turn to X-ray inspection services for their circuit assemblies? Robert Boguski: e reasons would include precise defect detection at higher resolution and magnification (we have a more powerful X-ray system than the customer, and they are skeptical about results from their own sys- tem); that X-ray sees what other inspection methods don't (obvious example: under- neath BGAs); and failure analysis, meaning that I know a problem exists, because there is an electrical failure, but thus far I haven't been able to verify/validate the root cause. Other reasons include a need for second opinion, lack of X-ray capability at their own facility, and customer feedback, usually in the form of rejections and/or field failures. Sometimes, the equipment or process isn't working. It's 4 p.m. Friday at the end of the quarter, and money is riding on the problem being resolved. It feels like we're all going to die. What best practices do you follow to ensure consistency and accuracy when inspecting a wide variety of assemblies from different manufacturers? Boguski: Never take the customer's descrip- tion of the problem at face value. Frequently we find problems on the board, but in a dif- ferent location than the customer initially suspects. I recommend that you look at the entire board. Don't focus solely on the custom- er's area of interest. Ask the customer at the beginning of the engagement whether our finding nothing wrong would be a good thing or a bad thing. eir answer tells a lot. Give the customer realistic expectations of the probability of finding the suspected defect. e more realistic the front-end set- ting, the calmer the relationship. If you man- age the time and expectations at the begin- ning, there are typically fewer surprises and recriminations at the end. Can you share an example of a particularly challenging inspection case where X-ray technology provided critical insights that other inspection methods could not? Boguski: We recently did several projects for a medical startup, in which we were asked to X-ray and CT scan human blood vessels for signs of calcified plaque buildup. e images were used in clinical trials of a medical prod- uct. We had to design a process to reliably handle human tissue, especially to hold it steady during the imaging process (vibra- tion distorts images). It took several months of trial-and-error engineering to achieve a repeatable, reliable process, but in the end, we did it, and the customer was happy. How do you work with customers to interpret X-ray findings and help them resolve potential manufacturing defects or quality/reliability concerns? Boguski: With a customer new to our service, the best way is to review the images of the first job with them, explaining to the unini- tiated in X-ray technology exactly what they are seeing, and why what they are seeing either is or isn't a legitimate defect. is can 30 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2025 Rob Boguski