Smart Sock, Smart PUP (Patient Is Up)

by ADL Technology

Socks, as wearable technology, are making a difference in hospital settings.

How electronic, wearable technology is making a difference.

When most people think about wearable technology, they tend to think about anything from watches that monitor steps and heart rate to virtual reality headsets.  While these products are fun, useful, and becoming increasingly commonplace, we would like to share with you a technological advance which is making a critical difference in the lives of patients in hospital and care facilities.

One of our clients, Palarum, has developed wearable technology, in the form of socks that use an electronic sensor to geolocate a patient and their movement activity via a wireless network.  These IOT enabled socks also provide analytics that differentiate when a patient is moving in bed or attempts to get out of bed unassisted.  The data is is collected and then transmitted via WiFi to a badge worn by caregivers notifying them of a patient’s activity.

Easier access to this type of data from wearable technology can:

  • Decrease hospital liabilities from falls
  • Significantly improve response time to patients needs
  • Reduce staff fatigue by providing easier monitoring

When properly implemented, these socks can reduce falls by 50%. This is a noteworthy statistic when you reflect on the adverse effects of falls for patients and the financial impact to hospitals. Consider that every year nearly 700,000 to 1 million patients fall during a hospital stay and the value of the product becomes apparent.  Given that the average financial cost for a patient fall is over $10,000 per fall ($10 Billion annually); using these hi-tech wearables has the potential to generate a huge savings.  The financial costs don’t take into consideration the personal cost and frustration for patients and their families when falls occur.

What does all this have to do with ADL?  ADL is responsible for making the PC Boards and enclosures which are used in these socks and the caregiver badges.  We are proud of being selected as a partner for this project because it:

  • Reflects our commitment to quality
  • Demonstrates our ability to build PC boards, assemblies, and more advanced integrations
  • Provide design support for products as they evolve

What’s your next project for wearable technology or a medical device?   Contact ADL Technology so we can partner with you to build a better world.

ADL Technology’s growth provides new job opportunities

by ADL Technology

ADL Hiring EngineersRecent growth at our Columbus Ohio facility  means that we have new job opportunities for engineers with design, manufacturing and electrical engineering experience.  ADL is currently looking to hire for the following positions

  • Senior Electrical Design Engineer. Project Lead Engineer that develops new and improves existing products for contract manufacturing customers; often directs the work of others and provides technical leadership; supports contract manufacturing efforts.
  • Design Engineer. Develop new and improve existing products for contract manufacturing customers, support contract manufacturing efforts.
  • Manufacturing Engineer. Perform design reviews with DFM, DFT, DFA and NPI. Conduct research for new equipment and processes improvements, develop proposals for equipment with capital justifications, and perform root cause defect analysis for cost of quality (COQ) reviews. Work with engineering and production associates to maintain, troubleshoot, service, and provide technical support for all SM and TH PCB production equipment.
  • Supply Chain Manager. The Supply Chain Manager preferably has years of experience in procurement of electronic components, has already established contacts with distributors / brokers, has solid and proven experience in PCB manufacturing and full box build environments and can perform the duties of an Expert Buyer (lead by example. Will coach/mentor other buyers in best practices/lean strategies to maximize inventory turns, have material arrive on time and manage >$25M annual spend. The candidate will successfully lead a team of buyers to develop and manage the buying/planning of materials and services required to support production and repair operations, and product transitions for our contract PCBA/Box Build manufacturing process.

For those not familiar with our company, LSI ADL Technology is an Electronics Manufacturing Services company which produces Circuit Board Assemblies, Box Build and Cable Assemblies in the Industrial OEM and Lighting markets. Our production work ranges from running Surface Mount Technology Lines, Wave Solder Machines, Potting Machines and Wire Processing equipment in addition to Soldering, Manual Assembly, Conformal Coating & Testing of products.

 

Meet Jonathan Verity

by ADL Technology
ADL Technology's Assistant General Manager, Jonathan Verity

Jonathan Verity, ADL Technology’s Assistant General Manager

At ADL Technology, Jonathan Verity is the Assistant General Manager, he is directly responsible for daily operations. As the Assistant General Manager, his primary responsibility is to be a leader and help the team find solutions to problems and then organize their implementation. He spends his day checking in with the team, following up on projects, analyzing data to make informed decisions and other related work.

To be a good leader Jonathan Verity believes that you have to first serve everyone else’s needs before your own, so he tries to make that his main focus. To quote Verity, “I am a servant leader. Two of the most important skills for a leader include being a great listener and being empathetic. Beyond that I would say being trustworthy; people have to be able to rely on your word and that only comes from proving it.”

Jonathan’s entire career has been in manufacturing and operations management. Within his prior company, he moved around in various roles over the years, but all of them were in operations and supply chain management. He actually learned about, and worked with ADL, in his last job. For about 8 years, as customer, Jonathan worked with the ADL team and had a good relationship with everyone. In early 2022, Dave Feeney and Jonathan Verity were networking over lunch and their conversation led to him joining Feeney’s team at ADL. Jonathan was attracted to the opportunity not only because of culture and the people at ADL but also because his experience was a good fit for their team. In addition to his work experience, Jonathan Verity has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA with specializations in project management and supply chain management.

If Jonathan had to pick three words to describe ADL, they would be flexible, accommodating, and reliable. His goal at ADL is simply to support ADL and give the people what they need to be successful and support the qualities evoked by the words above. From there, Verity will focus on growing the business and allowing ADL’s people to execute to the best of their ability and remove hurdles that make their jobs difficult. In turn, his position as Assistant General Manager, will allow him to continually refine his skills as a manager and leader. Jonathan is seeking to gain more experience and building new relationships as Assistant General Manager.

When not at ADL, Johnathan enjoys watching adventure/spy movies like Indiana Jones and the Bourne Series. He like to read books as well, Dan Brown and Michael Crichton are favorite authors. He probably doesn’t have as much time to read or watch movies as he used to; he and his wife are busy with a toddler and 3 dogs. Undoubtedly, he is introducing her to his love of music, he enjoys all kinds and discovering new artists. His interest in discovering new musicians is mirrored by his love for cooking, trying new foods, and traveling. For the latter, Taiwan is a particular favorite.

His personal motto “Know your worth” is balanced by the fact that he is inspired by anyone who cares more about others than they do about themselves. Both thoughts are probably influenced by his interest in the author and philosopher, Alan Watts. Pretty smart for someone who has had less than 12 real birthdays. Yes, Johnathan was born on February 29th in leap year, so he only gets a real birthday every four years! No matter when his real birthday is, ADL is really glad to have him on staff, welcome Jonathan!

Flexibility

by ADL Technology

When an OEM, DOD contractor,  or consumer manufacturer introduces a new product that contains electronics, changes sometimes need to be made to either the design or the layout of the PCB.  Design flexibility is vital from your supplier; it doesn’t matter whether the product is simple or complex, changes to the PCB’s form, fit, or function can be required because of changes in

  • product functionality requirements
  • availability of components
  • diversification for market applications
  • weight or other dimensional requirements to meet end item application
  • performance assessment after prototype evaluation

Companies like ADL who have both in-house electronic design and manufacturing capabilities make ideal partners because they are flexible enough to provide seamless assistance when design revisions are needed. At ADL we can provide you with access to our in-house experts in Design For Manufacturing (DFM) who serve as guides for any changes needed.  Our staff can advise you how to make changes such as:

  • maximize a layout to reduce schedule and production risks
  • optimize your business processes, cost, and design stability throughout the product lifecycle
  • track changes and part numbers for component end of life and availability

If changes are needed to the production of your PCB we can quickly implement them on our shop floor.

Change Effects on Production and Delivery

A word to the customer, changes after the initial layout or BOM can be disruptive to the production flow of the EMS but are necessary at times.  However, a more flexible EMS partner, such as ADL, will understand that a product schedule, particularly the critical path of the project, is essential in delivering a new product to market. A good EMS will understand and help circumvent the barriers to market entry through timely changes to their own schedules when possible. Another key element in flexibility for an EMS is that start-ups may be inaccurate when determining their sales forecast. For example, they may request a certain amount of product to be delivered to them quarterly. If initial sales projections fall behind and the consumer wants to push delivery out to later in the blanket order to protect their cash, a good EMS will have in place a way to work with you. Ask your EMS up front and keep them well informed so they can accommodate your request.  They may require an additional charge to cover expenses, not an additional convenience fee.

How important is flexibility?

To quote one of our customers, a predictive maintenance service provider in manufacturing who ADL began a relationship when they were a start up, “Time and ease of business…Your team has been proactive…we need business partners with the same desire to be one step ahead for the best customer experience.” We are now years into this relationship, which continues to grow and their product’s continue to evolve.

Our job as a supplier/partner is to provide our customers with not only today’s solutions but tomorrow’s as well.

Contact Us for More Information

For more information,  contact us today

We are hiring!

by ADL Technology

Working at ADL

LSI ADL Technology is a customer-centric company with a goal of exceeding customer expectations through continuous improvement. With core values of Leadership, Strength and Innovation, we look for dynamic team players who want to make a positive difference.  We offer a diverse environment with opportunities to work with an excellent team providing world class products & services.

We encourage you to join the LSI Talent Community!

A list of all positions open at all the LSI Industries facilities is available on the LSI career portal. The list below are career opportunities at ADL Technology in Columbus, OH.

  • Coating Prep. Prepare electronic assemblies before and after the coating and/or potting process
  • SB Coating Technician. Encapsulate prepared printed circuit boards and electronic assemblies using coating and potting materials.
  • Assembly. Prepare components and build upon printed circuit boards. Conduct mechanical and electrical assembly of PCB products. Assemble products until they are completed to acceptance test procedures and routing operations.
  • Solderer. Hand solder and repair printed circuit boards to meet IPC specifications and assure quality standards and meet customer demands. Assemble products until they are completed to acceptance test procedures and routing operations.
    Machine Operator. Operate and maintain surface mount and/or auto insertion machines that assemble and solder printed circuit boards.
  • Maintenance Tech. Perform highly diversified duties to install, troubleshoot, repair and maintain production and facility equipment according to safety, predictive and productive maintenance systems and processes. Perform general, routine, and emergency machine, electric, building preventative maintenance and grounds keeping.
  • Receiving Clerk. Verifies and keeps records on incoming and outgoing shipments and prepares items for shipment by performing the following duties to quality and productivity standards. Ensures finished products are packaged and stored in a safe and quality-assured manner and prepared to be shipped to meet consumer needs
  • Shipping/Packaging Clerk. Ensures finished products are packaged and stored in a safe and quality-assured manner and prepared to be shipped to meet consumer needs. Prepares items for shipment by performing the following duties to quality and productivity standards.
  • Warehouser. Manages and ensures efficiency of inventory storage and accuracy, dock management and the kitting of jobs to production.
  • Electronics Design Engineer. Develop new and improve existing products for contract manufacturing customers, support contract manufacturing efforts
  • Electronics Engineering Technician. Support electronics design, test engineering, and test department activities
  • Manufacturing Engineer.  To maintain, troubleshoot, service, and provide technical support for all PCB production equipment, to include TH Component Prep machines, lead and lead free Wave Solder machines, and Selective Solder machines.




More than just a vendor, a partner as well!

by ADL Technology
View your EMS as a partner!

Viewing the electronic manufacturing services you work with as a your consultant and partner, not just another vendor.

To those in need of a great EMS provider, an EMS should not be thought of as a vendor. Instead, try viewing them as your consultant and partner.

The gray area in your business relationship with an EMS can and should become very, very thin.  Customers should allow the curtains to be drawn and allow the EMS provider to have first-hand knowledge of your needs, so they bring their knowledge and skills to the table. They should be anxious to do it since it will allow the process to be more effective and efficient! If you are working with an EMS provider that doesn’t seem excited about having a close working relationship with you, you are with the wrong company.

Start with Communication

One of the keys to any successful partnership is communication.  Make sure everyone is in the loop! When you have a product team meeting, is there any rationale to leave out any team member? Even if they are not in the critical chain for the discussion for that particular meeting, having situational awareness of the project and each team member’s responsibility and progress is invaluable. Don’t exclude your EMS provider from that information. The EMS provider wants to know what your concerns will be so they can contribute to the overall planning and support your product’s evolution. Remember, you hired them or are hiring them because of their expertise in the EMS industry.

Developing Your Partnership Together with Communication

One of our customers, a producer of antimicrobial lighting who we have been with from the infancy of their product line stated, “I always appreciate it when Dave’s team makes comments on how to improve or what aspects of a PCB design effect the ability to produce it efficiently.” Ask your EMS what their commitment is and will be to the team. Ask simple, broad questions such as:

  • Will they attend a weekly or bi-weekly meeting?
  • How do you think you might help us in this project?

Remember, I am in sales, and I want to obtain and keep customers by making sure they are satisfied with our work. Ask me this question and I will be excited to answer it because you are giving me a chance to be a partner and excel instead of just providing parts.

To read about how we partner with clients visit our case studies page

Getting On Board with Product Evolution

by ADL Technology

Many products have become “smart.” A great example is vacuum cleaners, they have sensors that tell you when a canister needs to be emptied or automatically adjust to the floor surface. Fully autmoated systems will actually learn the layout of your space so they can clean up virtually automatically.

Even the simplest of tools we use today are increasingly complex.  Consumer, industrial, medical, transportation, and military tools are becoming smarter and more easily managed, even from a distance.  For example, we expect:

  • our vacuum cleaners to learn our house’s layout, our fridges to tell us when we need milk, or the lights to come on automatically when it is dark.
  • shop floor manufacturing devices to alert when tasks are done, when they need maintenance, and how many pieces have been completed.
  • Medical devices to send patient data to remote providers, facility doors to open with a wave of the hand, and medical carts track medications and supplies that have been dispensed.

All of these applications are the results of taking basic tools and adding functionality and these product enhancements require printed circuit boards assemblies aka PCBAs.  PCBA’s serve as the products brain; connecting the electronic components in these devices such as sensors, cable assemblies, and software so they can store and transmit data.  Whether the data provided is a convenience or mission critical data it is truly amazing how many items contain Printed Circuit Boards and how much we have come to rely on such tools at home and at work.

ADL’s surface mount machine allows ADL to optimize the process to build multiple printed circuit board assemblies at a time.

The ubiquity of smart devices comes at a cost.  Just like any other industry, there is a tremendous range in quality of the printed circuit boards and components in the products around us. One of the choices manufacturers’ make is the level of quality needed for any given device.

At ADL the boards we create go into products used in anything from healthcare to industrial tools.  That is why our boards go through both visual, automated and functional quality checks throughout production.  We also provide design support from prototyping through production to ensure that the boards meet your specifications and product requirements.

For more information,  contact us today for a  Quote for your next project.

 

Conformal Coatings Basics

by ADL Technology

Conformal coatings are a protective coating that covers the components of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), or PCB Assembly (PCBA).   While it is simple to say that you want to protect a board, here are some of the key engineering considerations for conformal coatings

  1. Environmental Requirements: moisture, heat, abrasion, mold, mechanical stress
  2. Chemical corrosion protection
  3. Electrical properties, such as dielectric constant, insulation resistance, dissipation factor, and dielectric breakdown voltage
  4. Outgassing Level requirements
  5. Moisture absorption or vapor transmission requirements

Engineering requirements will usually indicate the coating type because different coating types have specific properties.  The primary types of coating types, properties and benefits are listed below:

Coating Type Properties and Benefits
Parylene Water resistant, thermal endurance, chemically inert, bio-compatible, low outgassing, dry lubricity, adhesion to other coatings
Acrylic Ease of rework, simple to dry, good moisture resistance, high fluorescence, and viscosity easy to adjust
Silicone wide range of temperature stability, flexibility, high dielectric strength, good moisture resistance, low surface energy after wetting
Polyurethane Good dielectric and moisture properties, solvent, and abrasion resistant, less reversion potential
Epoxy Water/humidity resistant, generally not permeable, high level of abrasion and chemical resistant.

ADL has selective conformal coating machines as one of their process options.

Applying Conformal Coatings

Coatings can be applied manually or automatically using a robotic assembly.  The choice of application method will depend on the viscosity of the material, number of units to be protected, and available equipment.  At ADL we offer both manual and automatic conformal coating application.

  1. Manual or automatic. The PCB or PCBA is dipped into the desired coating. While this is effective for larger production runs, maintaining consistency is more problematic, especially in terms of coating thickness, material slump, and purity.
  2. Manual only. production staff paint the coating on with a brush. Excellent for small runs or prototypes, this method is not suited for larger production runs.
  3. Manual or automatic. Overspray requires production staff to mask components that should not be coated.
  4. Needle.  Manual or automatic, this method uses a needle to dispense beads of coating material as needed. Masking is not needed and it tends to be precise and inexpensive.

Curing Methods

Since coatings are in a liquid form when applied, curing the coating properly is vital.   There are 4 ways to cure the conformal coatings added to PCBs:

  • Moisture. Boards are exposed to an controlled humidity level environment for a specific amount of time.
  • Heat curing. Uses convection and/or UV curing depending on the chemistry of the coating material.
  • UV cure. Coated boards are cured by exposing them to short periods of UV light. While this eliminates the need for ovens, the rapid change in temperature can cause components to break off.
  • Reactive/Solvent Curing. Conformal coating elements cure by chemical means, either due to an additive as the coating is applied or mixed.

ADL’s manufacturing facilities offers all four types of curing but we mostly use moisture and reactive curing.

Curing Considerations

Manual application of conformal coating

Making sure that your projects PCB’s are properly protected is a vital part of making sure your final product reflects the standards you company is known for. As you consider your next PCB project, do you want assistance answering the following coating questions?

  • What are environmental conditions does the board need to be protected against? Moisture? Chemicals? Erosion?
  • What temperature range will the electrical device function in?
  • Are there any specific physical, electrical, and chemical requirements for the coating material?
  • Are there any electrical, chemical, and mechanical compatibility considerations with the parts and substances to be coated
  • Is reworking or fixing the part once the coating is applied a consideration
  • Is the price of the coating or its application method a consideration?
  • Is the curing type or speed a consideration?

9 Tips for Effective PCB Assembly Testing

by ADL Technology

Testing your printed circuit board assembly is a balancing act.  You want to maximize the coverage of the test without making it cost prohibitive and bogging down the production process.  Having a good understanding of your PCB assembly and common failure modes is key to developing a test that is both thorough and cost-effective.  At ADL, we are constantly working with our customers to develop and improve their test requirements.

Here are 9 tips that we’ve learned over the years:

  1. Don’t rely solely on a visual inspection.  Even if your PCB assembly is simple, it can have problems that are invisible to the eye.  And if you have to return a failed unit to the manufacturer for repair, they have no way of troubleshooting it.
  2. A simple power-up test is a vast improvement over visual inspection.  It can help to ensure proper operation of all voltage rails, detect power-to-ground shorts, and identify polarized components that are incorrectly oriented.
  3. Design your board for ease of testing whenever possible.
    • Add test points to as many nets as possible.
    • Include a serial port for interacting with the PCBA and providing diagnostic data.
    • Provide ready access to all nets, pins and headers that are needed as part of the test.
  4. Provide your manufacturer with a “golden board” that can be used to validate the test procedure and test fixture.  A golden board is a perfectly functioning PCB assembly used as the gold standard for testing and production.
  5. Provide documentation that is as detailed as it needs to be – but no more so.  Underspecifying can lead to incorrect assumptions being made by technicians; over specifying can lengthen test time unnecessarily.
  6. As you learn more about failure modes of your product, update your test procedure accordingly.  Your contract manufacturer should be willing to work with you to change their test in order to help you weed out any recurring failures that are making it through to your shelves.
  7. It’s worth investing in your test fixture.
    • A custom test PC board or assembly can be designed and built for very low cost.
    • Consider an intermediate board for a connector that will be mated many times over its life.  When the connector starts to wear down, throw away the intermediate board and replace it with a new one rather than halting production while reworking the fixture.
    • Purchase the programmer recommended by the chip manufacturer for production applications rather than the lower-cost “lite” or “dev board” version that will wear out quickly.
  8. Consider incorporating LabVIEW or Python into your test procedure.  These tools are great for testing assemblies that are highly complex, for test procedures that are lengthy or easily automated, or for implementing record collection to ensure product traceability.  LabVIEW is also a very good way to translate a difficult-to-check reading into an easy pass/fail.  (Would you rather use a multimeter to verify a thousand times that 17 different test points are all between 3.768V and 3.876V, or look at a screen that tells you with a PASS or a FAIL?)
  9. Work with your manufacturer to optimize your test procedure.  They should be happy to provide feedback to you on where they commonly see failures, what steps slow them down, and how the overall efficiency and efficacy of the test can be improved.  Ultimately, this collaborative dialogue can be used to improve your design.

At ADL, we perform a full functional test of every PCB assembly that we build, and we work with our customers to develop test procedures that are thorough and efficient.  If you’re looking for a contract manufacturer who will partner with you to ensure your PCB assembly is built correctly, on time, and cost-effectively, contact us today!

Dealing with Manufacturing Hurdles

by ADL Technology

With the impact of the pandemic across the globe, consumers and manufacturers are both feeling the pinch of the decreasing availability of products and services.  For example, I wanted to upgrade a bicycle sprocket set on my road bike and I received an estimate of approximately 500 days!   In the world of Electronic Manufacturing Services, the pinch is just as real.  These hurdles can affect lead times and the pricing of electronic components in nearly unfathomable ways.

  • Lead times have seen increases of sometimes 4 and 5 times from what they were, if you can even find the electronic component you are looking for.
  • The law of supply and demand has seen increases in component prices of 500% and more!

At ADL Technology, one of our solutions is to let our our customers know of possible component shortfalls.  This is more than just good business, it indicative of how we view our work as a partnership. We take the time to:

  • review a customers’ Bill of Materials to identify components that are potentially at risk
  • make our customers aware of any potential issues

This project-specific component research allows our customers to review their sales forecast and manufacturing requirements.  The company can then determine if an early buy of the assembly or at-risk component should be considered.  This can save time, money and frustration for components with long lead times or anticipated shortages.  While some EMS providers or brokers have gobbled up parts, there is an argument both financial and ethical for doing this selectively.  For the purpose of this article, we as electronic manufacturers have a great opportunity to be the “partner” we truly want to be through with research and strategic planning  for specific projects. By taking a little extra time on the customer’s behalf and thinking as we should as if were on the staff of the company, we can smooth out the sales cycle.  Considering things from our partner/clients perspective makes for happier customers and less hair pulling moments for our production managers!

There are still hurdles to cross, but ingenuity, hard/smart work, and the will to “return to normal” will result in back to normal behaviors.

Let’s continue to do our part and see success for all.