May20
Shipping carton drop/impact test condition

Do you know how vendor ensure that their products are not damaged during shipping due to handling by transporters or delivery personnel? Reputable vendors put effort into designing and selecting suitable packaging materials for shipping to ensure the quality of their products. This article will introduce how vendor test whether their cardboard packaging meets general shipping requirements.

The electronic industry grows quickly. Each vendor takes responsible to his own component only to make it good and low cost. Take a flashlight manufacturer as example. There are bulb, wires, switch, spring, and plastic or metal housing make up the flashlight. The manufacturer buys all the sub-components from each supplier and assembles them together to fabricate the flashlight then sell to end-user.

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May14
Temperature Environmental Cycle Profile

temperature cycle storage environmental test profile

The purpose of temperature environmental test is that the good are shipped by various types of carriers and experience a wide range of storage temperatures, depending on the customer environment, hence the need for this kind of testing. Further, certain components and assemblies are sensitive to these temperature extremes and could be weakened due to induced stresses. Therefore, it is important that a logical sequence of testing be followed in order to observe these effects and assure the product’s performance under various temperature conditions and after temperature extremes have been applied.

(Note: This test didn’t include the humidity.)

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May12
Humidity Temperature Cycle Profile

Humidity Temperature Cycle Profile

The humidity test is designed to determine the effects of humidity on the product and assure that the product will meet published specifications while being subjected to high humidity conditions. This is an accelerated test to uncover failure modes in components, assemblies and process, which may appear in the field during normal service, while keeping test time at a minimum. Performance tests are made at various intervals of the test duration and each test must pass for the design to meet the requirements of this section.

Hygroscopic materials (e.g., printed circuit boards, molded plastics, sealed components, etc.) will absorb moisture proportional to the applied vapor pressure and time of application. Excessive moisture penetration may cause swelling of material or contamination actions, destroying functional ability as well as causing leakage paths between sensitive circuits, result when moisture reacts with trapped chemicals from construction processes causing corrosion or severe etching of metal surfaces. In some cases dendritic growth can cause short circuits or high voltage flashover between closely spaced traces or pin spacing. The following humidity test is designed to accelerate the occurrence of these failure mechanisms if they exist.

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May05
Why Burn/In(B/I) still cannot screen out the DDR soldering fail?

We recently encountered a soldering issue with a DDR memory BGA (Ball Grid Array). The problem identified was HIP (Head-In-Pillow) — two balls with non-wetting under the BGA package were affected. To investigate, we sent someone to the field to assess the customer’s operation, discovering that the product failed to power on. Interestingly, applying finger pressure to the DDR memory component would successfully power it on.

Why did this occur? The production line claimed the products underwent a 12-hour power-on Burn/In (B/I) process at 40°C but didn’t screen out the defect. So, why did we still observe this type of BGA soldering defect in the field?

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May01
Why Do Screw Bosses Crack After Mold-In Screw Inserts? Common Causes and Solutions

screw boss broken

This story is long-standing memory, but WorkingBear is documenting it here for reference and as a learning record.

One day, we received a customer complaint regarding a product with a plastic housing that had cracked. The issue was visually striking, with noticeable cracks on the outside of the plastic casing. The situation called for immediate investigation.

After examining several defective plastic parts, we discovered that all the cracks were located at the screw boss area. The cracks extended from the inside of the plastic housing outward. Interestingly, the screw boss was designed with a mold-in screw insert, which had been installed during the injection molding process. Based on our initial analysis, it appeared that the issue could be related to the screw boss mechanical design or the injection molding conditions.

To help others facing similar issues (and to serve as a personal memo), WorkingBear has compiled a list of potential causes for screw boss cracks for reference.

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