3-D x-ray inspection system slashes test time

MAY 11--GenRad Inc. (Westford, MA: www.genrad.com), an electronics test- and manufacturing-systems supplier, has sold an automated GR-X Station 3-D x-ray inspection system to Excelsior Manufacturing (San Jose, CA) that is expected to cut printed-circuit board inspection test time by 1500%. The patented inspection system combines the GenRad production-proven Transmission 2-D and Digital Tomosynthesis 3-D inspection techniques into a single chassis. It inspects boards up to 18 x 22 in., offers a test rate of up to 3.0 square inches per second, and comes with two sets of fields of views--0.8 or 0.5 in.--to meet inspection requirements. The 32-bit inspection platform uses the Linux operating system.

Manny Lee, Excelsior president and chief executive officer, says,"The x-ray system will improve inspection time for our most complex 2500-component boards to four minutes from 30 minutes." Excelsior also is deploying GenRad's Force/Strategist software for distributed test environments. "This software will allow us to quickly distribute test programs to the appropriate system, including our non-GenRad systems," states Lee.