Services

At Challenger Solutions Limited we believe in investing in the future. We have assembled an enviable team of highly skilled and experienced staff together with the latest in state-of-the-art assembly and inspection equipment in order to offer more to our customers than our competitors.

BGA Assembly, rework and inspection

As trends towards smaller packages, finer pitch and tighter tolerances have progresssed we have found the ability to utilise BGA and MicroBGA packages with confidence increasingly vital to our customers.

We cater for anything from one off prototypes to medium volume assembly and offer BGA and MicroBGA placement, rework and inspection using market leading imaging systems such as Ersa Scope and X-Ray.

Visual inspection of the solder joints underneath a BGA package used to be impossible, however with the Ersa Scopes' magnification and photographic imaging capabilities bridging and non-contact or non-melted solder paste failures can be identified and reworked.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to know more about BGA assembly or any of our services.

Fixtureless In-Circuit Test - Flying Probe

In order to address the issue of populated board test in medium to high volume we have added a FICT (Fixtureless In-Circuit Test) machine to our line-up of equipment. We have chosen the Seica Pilot LX model largely due to its overall versatility. It is a flying probe tester so set-up is a software exercise only and doesn't require a fixture, this makes the preparation stage much faster and allows us to test a greater variety of boards at a significantly reduced cost. The Pilot LX functions as a complete test platform offering not only in-circuit test but functional test, optical inspection, on-board programming of digital components, "vectorless" test technologies and boundary scan allowing us to offer a variety of test strategies most appropriate to each customers' needs.

We would always prefer to test wherever possible, contact us to discuss your test requirements.

Automated Optical Inspection

We have been very pleased to announce the addition of AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) to our surface mount assembly facility. AOI is an extremely effective tool designed to automatically inspect component placement and solder joint quality. It is able to check for missing components, misalignment, incorrect polarity, insufficient solder and component turnover.

It is also able to detect incorrect component placement due to its ability to read the part number, date code or any other information printed on the surface of the component using a powerful OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine.

A true colour camera system allows for highly accurate inspection capabilities and angled lighting gives the ability to judge the quality of solder joints after reflow.

The system is PC based and the database of passed and failed images allows the updating and improving of inspection results as it is continually applied.

Overall process control and quality is also improved by using the machines' ability to track and eliminate defects found on previously inspected assemblies.

X-Ray Inspection

The latest addition to our range of inspection equipment is the Piergiacomi XBIM50 desktop X-Ray machine. As the popularity of BGA packages increases we are fitting an ever-growing number and variety of them and consequently feel the need to be able to demonstrate to our customers the integrity and reliability of the solder joints.

We have used ERSA scope optical inspection as a means of determining this but nothing is as conclusive as the evidence of an X-Ray.

For every BGA we fit we are able to provide a live camera image as well as a 3D representation of every solder ball, giving our customers total peace of mind that there are no nasty surprises lurking under their BGA's.

We are also able to offer this as a service to customers whose BGA's we have not fitted. If you are at all concerned about the quality of the BGA's or indeed any of the packages involved in your designs please feel free to contact us about X-Ray inspection. We will be happy to provide images and offer design or layout advice should there be any problems with those used.

High volume Assembly

We strive to offer our customers a service that best suits their requirements and for some that may mean looking to an offshore assembly facility in order to remain competitive. This is a great idea in principal but all too often is fraught with communication and quality problems and the reality can be disastrous.

Our solution is a dedicated office in Suzhou, China run by an English manager with experienced and qualified English speaking staff in constant contact with our local facility. This allows us to source raw materials and labour from within the established manufacturing facilities of Suzhou, only 50 miles from Shanghai at extremely competitive rates and manage every step of the process from the our office in Essex.

Services range from simple through hole through to very high technology surface mount printed circuit board assembly, cable assemblies, metal and plastic enclosures, full turnkey box build and test. Samples are produced for test and approval ahead of production and our facility in South Woodham Ferrers can back up delivery with fast turnaround product should it be necessary.

If low risk, high volume assembly is what you're looking for then contact the Challenger Solutions sales team for further details.