The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Yes, we do design reviews. A review is most effective if it is an integral part of the development program. Some may call this a pro-active design review. However, when a product experiences high failure rates in the field, a reactive design review is necessary.

Elsyn participated in a reactive design review of a power supply board. This small, 2.25" x 2.75" circuit board contained a handful of simple components. Thousands were built and sold in the United States with a minimum of problems. However, when the product was introduced in France, field failures were common and quite dramatic.

The Ugly This picture shows the power supply board with significant damage, including fire damage and exploded components. After the manufacturer's quality control department was unable to learn why the units were failing, they called in Elsyn to determine the cause and find a way to stop it.

The Bad This picture shows the power supply board fresh from the manufacturer, before catastrophic failure. Experiments with a electrical surge generator showed that the board will self destruct when there are surges on the power lines. By analysis, we determined that the MOV was not sized correctly. Failure of the MOV causes components to fail, the circuit board traces to vaporize and, in some cases, the terminal block screw head to melt!

The Good This picture shows the equivalent power supply board designed by Elsyn. The board now passes surge tests specified in international standards. Problem solved - and thanks to Elsyn's innovative design, it costs less to manufacture than the Bad design!

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