Conekt, the engineering consultancy arm of TRW Automotive, today unveiled a euro 330k investment in its UK based Reliability & Mechatronics Group; itself a centre of excellence for failure analysis. The investment includes a Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope (VPSEM), a highly versatile microscope that extends Conekt's analysis capability to large sample sizes and crucially reduces results turnaround time and service cost.
With enhanced high resolution images and faster scan speeds the VPSEM allows consultant engineers to quickly examine traditionally "difficult" samples by eliminating time-consuming sample preparation. For example whole PCB'
s can now be examined without any pre-treatment or destruction to determine failure mode or perform contamination analysis.
"All Engineers and Manufacturers are under increasing market pressure to guarantee the reliability and quality of their products and components" explained Chris Tarling, Business Manager for Conekt's Engineering Services Division. "We specialise in product validation and analysis and the new VPSEM will enable us to provide customers with high quality imaging to support analytical examinations. However, the new investment is only a tool to enable our engineering team to apply their knowledge and expertise to help clients eliminate design issues that could reduce reliability and increase warranty costs".
Chris continued: "Over the last year, Conekt has made significant investment in analytical and validation capabilities to stay ahead of our customer requirements and changes in legislation. Conekt's new VPSEM system is one of the highest specified available and reinforces Conekt's position as one of the leading product development centres".
The S-3700N VPSEM, supplied by Hitachi High-Technologies, replaces an existing resource. It joins Conekt's recently acquired real-time X-Ray analysis system and will be seen in action at Conekt's forthcoming Reliability and Failure Analysis open day on Wednesday 20th February 2008. So why not visit our UKAS Accredited facility and:
• Bring your sample materials and assemblies along for us to demonstrate our failure analysis capabilities
• Discuss how we can support your design and certification
• See our range of test facilities and talk with our engineers
To avoid disappointment email conekt.enquiries@trw.com for your free appointment!
