Ah, our little green friends…the printed circuit board. Taken for granted until they fail, circuit boards are key to the operation of virtually everything these days. So if you are suspicious, or even absolutely certain, that your circuit board is the problem, you may need some advice as well as circuit board repair or replacement.

Always remember the Electronic Axis of Evil: Moisture, Heat, and Dirt. If you can avoid these, your circuit boards will last longer.

Four Top Reasons For Circuit Board Failure and Tips to Identify The Problems & Causes:

1. Discrete Component Failure. (Includes capacitors, resistors, zener diodes, diodes, GALs, PALs, IC’s, Microprocessors, Driver Chips) Causes of failure: normal component aging, excessive heat, over or under voltage surges and sags, rises in ESR (equivalent series resistance) values, corrosion and drying (esp. of electrolytic capacitors). These problems can sometimes be visible to the naked eye such as blown/burned components or obvious corrosion, but usually these items need to be checked with meters.

2. Power Component Failure. (Includes transformers, transistors, IGBT modules, rectifiers).  Causes of failure: heat, over or under voltage, normal component aging. Some problems can be visible such as exploded components, or, more often, they could look perfectly good and require meter testing of each component.

3. Trace Damage. (These are the conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper/silver coated sheets and laminated onto the non-conductive substrate) Causes of failure: power surges, lightning strikes, use of inappropriate acid core solder causing shorts, contamination such as metallic dust. Trace damage is often visible to the naked eye and can often, though not always, be repaired.

4. Physical damage - This is plain, old damage such as when your NASCAR-wannabe forklift driver skewers it like a sausage on a grill. Don’t think it doesn’t happen…we’ve seen it! This is sometimes repairable; replacement is often the only option.

Repairing printed circuit boards can be a bit like surgery: lots of testing, probing and prepping followed by precise repair work and retesting before the patient is ready to go back to work. The good news is, your board is most likely repairable.

Reliability was followed, in descending order, by quality, safety, maintenance, service, price, throughput, technology, noise, speed, and “green”.

Maintenance ranked 4th out of 11 so we know it’s pretty high on your list.  Nobody wants equipment that is difficult or excessively expensive to maintain.  Downtime is lost time and lost time is lost money.  

Save money in the long run by purchasing quality industrial electronic equipment with a good warranty.  And when that warranty runs out, or the OEM does not provide responsive service, send your repairs to a reliable expert. 

The ACS tech team is trained and experienced in the repair of virtually all types of industrial electronics including drives, PLCs, power supplies, controls, encoders, servo motors, CNC equipment, printed circuit boards, touch screens, stepper motors, CRT monitors, test equipment and more.  We service most brands including Yaskawa, Okuma and Mitsubishi.  Rush service is available upon request.

It would appear that a cultural shift is in the wind and that safety attitudes and practices are changing – for the better.  There is a realization that a safe working environment is beneficial not only to employees but to the bottom line.

The concern is there on the part of  many CEO’s and managers but the question they often have is, “Where do we start?”  

You can start by thinking outside the OSHA box.  Assuming you have already met the minimum OSHA standards, do a hazard assessment.  Look at past history, look at insurance forms, reports on injuries,  where have the injuries and illnesses taken place, ask your employees what could be done better. 

Once you know where you stand and have identified problems, it’s time to implement training and commit to measuring the effectiveness of the new safety programs. 

Make your safety policy clearly defined based on industry standards, governmental regulations, and best practices with documented step-by-step procedures tailored to your specific locations and activities.

Don’t forget to reward success because in the end, success will reward you with a better looking bottom line.  

If you want more help, check out some helpful documents such as the NFPA’s “The Electrical Safety Program Book” which you can get from their website or visit the National Safety Council’s website www.nsc.org.

Keeping your equipment in good repair is also important for safety.  ACS Industrial Services repair provides power supply repair, servo motor repair,  safety PLC repair , test equipment, monitors, drives, encoders, controls, circuit boards, CNC equipment and much more.  Our tech team is working hard every day to keep our customer’s industrial electronic equipment in safe working order.  For more information see our website at www.acsindustrial.com or call our customer service team at 800-605-6419.

The catalog can be searched two ways.  Either by letter or part number. For example, if you have a Mitsubishi Servo Motor that needs repair, click the “M” and you will be taken to the page with all the manufacturers that begin with “M”.

If you have a model number like, 1326AB-B520E-S2L, Enter it in the search box at, http://www.acsindustrial.com/repair-catalog/search.php?c=m.

In the event your item is not listed, don’t worry… we can probably repair your item.  If you call, one of our technical repair reps will be glad to discuss your specific item, 1-800-605-6419.

ACS is proud to announce that we are listed on Kelly Search, http://www.kellysearch.com/us-company-900078290.html.  We are always looking for new ways to make YOUR job easier.

ACS repairs just about any industrial circuit board with highly experienced, expert technicians and fast service. Circuit boards that other repair houses return as unrepairable or beyond economical repair can often be repaired by our highly experienced tech team.

Your circuit boards are evaluated, repaired and returned to you in perfect working order and if your circuit boards cannot be repaired, you don’t pay. Thats right… YOU DON’T PAY ONE PENNY IF WE CANNOT FIX YOUR CIRCUIT BOARDS!

CNC circuit boards, PLC Circuit boards, and other circuit boards that are used in industrial equipment and machinery are our  business. The repair of your industrial circuit boards are covered by a comprehensive one year warranty. Please contact us at 800-605-6419. Email: service@acsindustrial.com so that we can be of service to you.  Or visit us at www.acsindustrial.com.  Our customer service team is ready to help you.

ACS offers a one year warranty on repaired items. We are very proud of our low rate of warranty claims. If you want to feel confident that your Allen-Bradley items are being treated as if they were our own equipment and you want the highest level of technical experience working on your equipment, send it to ACS for a no-charge evaluation. We will evaluate the equipment and get back to you with a price quote in just a few days. For info, please call one of our customer service reps at 800-605-6419.  We will be happy to help coordinate an evaluation of your defective items. Or visit us at www.acsindustrial.com.  We want to hear from you today.