Investment in Automatic Optical Inspection equipment to improve quality and throughput

Controlled Speed Engineering (CSE), a UK-based contract electronics manufacturer, has invested in an Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) system from Saki Corporation, which dramatically reduces inspection time and improves accuracy. This means that CSE can improve the throughput of boards at its manufacturing facility, while also minimizing any errors.

"With this new machine, we're able to inspect boards to a much higher standard than can be achieved manually," said Phil Burns, managing director at CSE. "Used together with our already impressive investment in manufacturing equipment, our customers will now get their products more quickly, and at a much higher quality."



The new inspection equipment has also improved CSE's flexibility. It can often give the level of confidence from a visual inspection that would have previously required a full test, helping CSE to respond quickly to customer requests and provide a rapid turnaround service.

With the move to automatic inspection, CSE has been able to redeploy the six staff who were previously engaged in manual inspection. This has improved productivity, enabling the firm to remain highly competitive and keep costs down for customers.

As well as optical inspection, CSE provides full functionality testing, based on test rigs designed and built in-house. By increasing the speed of testing, this equipment quadruples the company's throughput. To improve reliability and avoid early life failures, CSE also offers an extended burn-in testing service.

The Saki BF18D-P40 system provides high resolution imaging, high accuracy optics and large PCB clearance to allow inspection of boards with tall components. It can scan and capture images of an entire PCB in a single pass, with an average scanning speed of 14 seconds for the maximum 10 inch x 13 inch PCB. It can also scan multiple PCBs simultaneously.

Defects picked up by the AOI system include missing components, incorrectly orientated components, poor quality and dry solder joints, incorrect solder depth, and incorrect part numbers on components.

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