Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/976095
MAY 2018 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 11 functional testing targeted towards mass production. While it's relatively easy to test one device at a time, it's another story to test hundreds of them at once. He said these aspects must be taken into consideration at the design stage through a thorough design for testability (DFT) analysis targeted towards mass production. "To do so, it will require not only to be supported by design firms, but more importantly, by a manufactur- ing/assembly company integrating these DFT principles into their operations and processes," adds Kury. Yeung (IMI) said functional testing is a challenge, therefore test equipment manufacturers need to develop corre- sponding advanced testing devices to support 5G technology in differ- ent application areas. "It's important for test manufacturers to promote 5G R&D, because with these test systems, designers will be able to verify their 5G systems and project commercial capa - bilities." Yeung also highlighted several challenges that need to be ironed out when it comes to 5G, such as the lack of unified standards and the shortage of spectrum. Once these barriers have been over- come, 5G will be a revolution, says Yeung. "When 5G becomes widely avail- able, it will be the era of the Internet of Things, and peoples' lives will be more convenient than ever." This month's issue of SMT007 maga- zine examines these issues pertinent to the assembly industry when it comes to 5G; strategies—from a testing standpoint— to address these manufacturing issues; and the overall opportunities 5G will offer. SMT007 Stephen Las Marias is managing editor of SMT007 Magazine. He has been a technology editor for more than 14 years covering electronics, components, and industrial automation systems. Demo Shows How 5G Enables Real-Time Data Analyses and Adaptive Control of Production Processes The production of aero engines is a complex and expensive business, with the whole manufacturing chain of a compres- sor component known as blisk (blade-integrated disk) easily costing up to ($241K USD). In this environment, the highest levels of safety and quality standards must be observed, and computer-controlled machine tools have to be programmed to ensure that the components are produced exactly as stipu- lated in the design plans. While sensors continuously record measurements to check that everything is running according to plan and to enable any errors in the industrial production environment to be recog- nized at an early stage, however, as a rule, evaluation of the data is decentralized and takes place after a time lag. To address this, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft teamed up with Ericsson to offer a unique test environment for 5G applica- tions in industry. The partners used aero-engine component manufacture as an example to demonstrate live, for the first time, the opportunities provided by the technology at the Hanover Fair last month. In this demo, Fraunhofer has attached a specially-devel- oped sensor directly to the component, which transfers the vibration spectra of the blisk via 5G with sub-millisecond latency to software that recognizes immediately whether the vibrations exceed the permitted maximum or have reached critical frequencies and adapts the production process accordingly without delay. This demo underscores how 5G technology accommodates the use of wireless sensor connections for real time data anal- yses and adaptive control of production processes with short reaction times.