Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
We have test results but realize that testing didn’t go as planned.
What can we do to help prevent this scenario?
We talk about ways to partner with test engineers and test technicians and the importance of still maintaining their independence.
Chris and Fred discuss about what happens when we ‘defer’ maintenance … or do it later … or perhaps never. When is it OK to do this?
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Chris and Fred discuss ‘what can go wrong’ in scenarios where it is almost impossible to even comprehend might happen … like when something is really old! ᐅ Play Episode
Today, we’re diving into conformal coating best practices. With the explosion of IOT, the electrification of vehicles, and the miniaturization of circuit assemblies and associated components, many of which are operating in harsh environments, the need for conformal coating has never been greater.
Coating your assemblies? Where does one start? What material should one choose? Should it be applied in-house or through a contract-coating house? What are the best practices in materials selection, application, inspection, and thickness? So many questions!
To answer these and other questions, I invited a conformal coating expert to speak with me and hopefully shed some light on this subject.
My guest today is David Greenman.
David began his career in the conformal coating business working at Concoat, first distributing Humiseal products and eventually manufacturing them under license for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. After 25 years of distributing, then manufacturing Humiseal products under license, Chase Corp, which owns Humiseal purchased Concoat where David serves as Director of Humiseal UK, Europe, and India where he is responsible for Corporate Responsibility as well as supporting HumiSeal sales and technical teams.
Earlier in David’s career, he qualified as a Radio, TV/Electronics Engineer and became a member of The Society of Radio and Electronics Technicians that was eventually absorbed into The Institution of Engineering and Technology, of which he is still a member.
I’ve mentioned in previous episodes that it’s best to do FMEA early in the design concept phases of development.
Well, if we do FMEA early, then what can with do with it?
We explore a bit how to study any risk analyses (system risks, FMEA, hazard analysis) to help design-out problems, set-up design inputs, and help us figure out test methods. We also talk a bit about why a team is a necessary part of risk analyses.
In my opinion, as I do not know if this is true or not, every product or system failure has a cause. Causes are not exactly the same as what we call ‘failure mechanisms’, yet they are related in many cases. One more term to consider is ‘failure mode’, which refers to the symptoms or results of a failure. [Read more…]
Carl and Fred discussing advice for experienced engineers who are looking to change jobs or companies.
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Carl and Fred talking about their experiences in their own careers and advices for others in developing and taking advantage of career opportunities within a company.
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We can develop a severity rating scale based on us: our company, our customer, our product… And we can relate the categories that we use to the quality dimensions that matter to us.
We talk about the 7 principal quality dimensions of goods and services, the 5 principal dimensions of quality in customer service, and how we might customize our severity scale based on these dimensions.
Kirk and Fred discussing the use of current buzzwords in the field of reliability, the use of software data Failure Reporting and Corrective Action Systems (FRACAS) and how many reliability professionals jump to software automation to analyze reliability issues.
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Surface Mount Technology International 2022 is quickly approaching. My guests today are SMTA President Dr. Martin Anselm, a Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Technical Committee members Julie Silk of Keysight Technologies and Raiyo Aspandiar of Intel. Together, my guests review the technical conference tracks as well as special events taking place at the Expo.
Surface Mount Technology International
Conference: October 31st- November 3rd
Exposition: November 2nd-3rd
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
*Co-located with MD&M Minneapolis
For more detailed information on SMTAI, visit:
https://smta.org/mpage/smtai/
Kirk and Fred discussing how to determine reliability for an LED device that needs to be operational after 250 years storage.
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A force field analysis is a tool in the quality toolbox. Its typical use case is to help a team analyze a change by understanding the forces involved. We can also use it to help us solve a problem.
We can use a force field analysis to understand nuances or to get a handle on a change that involves many different people or departments.
We envision a force field analysis as a football field during a game. Listen-in and then gather your team and try it out for your next change!
