Ensuring the reliable and safe operation of air transportation
often means that electronic assemblies and boards that malfunction or need
routine testing are returned to their respective OEMs for evaluation. This
creates expensive and inconvenient downtime for equipment out of service. In
order to reduce operating costs, and improve response times and shorten repair cycles,
operators often consider setting up a local electronic repair workshop within their
own maintenance centers to test and find faults with the electronic assemblies
and PCBs to avoid sending assemblies out of the building. This can not only
save time and money, but also reduces the unavailability of transport stock and
equipment. Reduced in-service breakdowns
and improved fleet capability ensure that transit systems run more smoothly,
and with happier customers!
Regular routine
maintenance is an essential aspect of the transport industry in all countries
as part of a strategy to keep ageing infrastructure running without delays. This
applies throughout the complete operation at all levels for system
infrastructures, communications and airframe’s on-board electronics that all
aspects of the transport system. Whether testing, repairing,
solving obsolescence issues or re-manufacturing obsolete devices, a complete
maintenance system can help keep vital electronics working, and bring increased
asset availability, shorter repair times, and the ability to support legacy and
third party equipment.
However,
sometimes repair shops are faced with repairing boards that lack sufficient
documentation – or the supplier is no longer in business. What to do?
Old and New
In many cases, transport infrastructures are made up of older, legacy equipment
combined with latest release products. The problem of incompatibility of test
equipment for each technology is thus an additional difficulty. Maximizing fleet availability through extending Mean Distance Between
Failure (MDBF) is a key parameter. Ageing electronic parts are subject to
increased failure rates and component obsolescence. Electronic circuits can be beyond economic
repair and require costly replacement.
All sectors of transportation have
similar problems. Aviation is one of the
most critical industries in which maintenance must leave no room for error, for
obvious reasons. While some aircraft still use technology from the 70s and 80s,
newer aircraft still have to follow a strict maintenance program of
state-of-the-art electronics on board. The long development programs for new
planes adds to this problem as the technology specified at the design stages can
become technically obsolete when reaching production.
The military transport sector also uses electronics on an extremely large
scale, ranging from radars, navigation and control electronics to portable,
telecommunication equipment for ground personnel. Defense products require a
long life span - some of the electronics in use are based on designs from as
far back as the 1970s! In some cases,
equipment that is deemed obsolete by one nation may be sold to another country
for continued use. This situation creates a lack of information and support for
the maintenance and repair of PCBs.
Choosing to
use in-house maintenance tools not only speeds up the repair process but also
broadens the range of equipment that can be fixed. Fast turnaround do-it-yourself testing gives
confidence in ensuring safety (circuits can be extensively
tested for full confidence, with improved reliability), extending product service
through refurbishment, time-savings with fast turnaround times for repairs by
technicians who need little training, and saving capital expenditures through maintenance
and life-extension of high value electronic circuits.
Everybody Needs One!
So the need for repair and maintenance can be found in all sectors of the
transport industry and applies to almost any product containing at least one
electronic PCB. In former times, numerous separate instruments, manually-wired
connections and a paper test procedures operated by skilled technicians was
adequate. These repairs
were covered by trained-technician repair shops in dedicated off-site repair
centers. Nowadays, with our emphasis on efficiency and reduced costs,
universal automated test systems have replaced individual test instruments, but
these can be extremely expensive and some of them come with a steep learning
curve.
Automatic test equipment (ATE) products perform
automated or computerized test procedures on a device under test, including functional
testing of ICs, analog and digital components, complete boards, etc. - and they
vary in complexity in order to provide repair capabilities with different
levels of test capabilities for differing board complexities. Computer-based
automated test procedures can run reliably and consistently with test results
being captured automatically, with high accuracy, high test speeds, and extreme
flexibility. Typical ATEs include: In-Circuit Testers, performing device level tests on components mounted circuit
boards; Functional Testers,
used to test full functionality of
boards and modules via edge connectors; Boundary Scan Testers for products that are
JTAG-compliant such as BGA, FPGA,
CPLDs, or even complete boards with a
JTAG connector.
ATEs have given power and Independence
to organizations when it comes to electronic repair. Becoming equipped with automatic testing means
that repair facilities don’t have to rely on outside contractors; they can
reduce repair time and cost and even refurbish and repair outdated and old
electronics.
Solutions
UK-based
ABI Electronics (www.abielectronics.com)
products are well-known around the world, but are just becoming known
in USA. Their BoardMaster
8000 PLUS is in use by airlines around the world to test electronics assemblies
using simple-to-follow sequences with built-in visual cues. ABI test systems can do side-by-side
comparisons of equipment to insure correct operation with little or no
documentation. In addition, ABI’s RevEng Schematic Learning Systems are used to
generate missing schematics in order to support repair processes on obsolete
equipment or products from defunct suppliers. ABI
products are employed in aviation repair by commercial airlines in the UK,
Turkey, Indonesia, New Zealand and the USA for all aspects of avionics,
including communications, navigation, monitoring, flight-control and simulators,
and management systems. On the ground, companies like Eurodisney in Paris use
ABI’s modules for their ride and park transport maintenance needs, allowing
less-trained operators to test complex boards.
When it comes to circuit
boards, it is more cost effective to repair than replace, and transport systems
have begun to realize this trend and have started incorporating ATEs into their
support and development infrastructure. Factors
to consider when selecting a suitable product include:
·
how costly is a complete system?
·
how steep is the learning curve?
·
is training included?
·
is the system expandable for future needs?
·
can the system cope with obsolete and state-of-the-art
electronics?
·
is full documentation supplied?
·
is the system usable with little training?
·
is the system intuitive or is it hard to reuse intermittently?
·
is the system interactive with videos, photos, Office
documents, to reduce risk of errors and repair time required?
Whether you are an engineer, service
manager, finance director, or managing director, there are test products to be
found which will provide solutions to meet individual requirements to keep transportation
electronics working and reduce system costs. While today’s ATE systems are modular and configurable to support
multiple different test methods they need to be easy to use and to become
familiar with. The criteria for selecting
suitable test systems for use in-house should include: simplicity of operation,
technical capability, product quality, reliability, flexibility, accurate fault
identification and long term support. The challenge is to find test equipment
that is capable of testing legacy equipment as well as latest-release products, that is flexible
to apply to a wide range of disparate products, that does not need extensive
training, and that can provide comprehensive final reports - and affordable
too. All very moving requirements!
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