What is reliability?

Reliability refers to “trusted” and “trusted”, and refers to the ability of a product to perform a specified function under specified conditions and within a specified time. For terminal products, the higher the reliability, the higher the usage guarantee.

PCB reliability refers to the ability of the “bare board” to meet the production conditions of the subsequent PCBA assembly, and under a specific working environment and operating conditions, it can maintain normal operating functions for a certain period of time.

How does reliability develop into a social focus?

In the 1950s, during the Korean War, 50% of US electronic equipment failed during storage, and 60% of airborne electronic equipment could not be used after being shipped to the Far East. The United States has found that unreliable electronic equipment affects the progress of the war, and the average annual maintenance cost is twice the cost of equipment purchase.

In 1949, the American Institute of Radio Engineers established the first reliability professional academic organization-Reliability Technology Group. In December 1950, the United States established the “Electronic Equipment Reliability Special Committee”. The military, weapon manufacturing companies and academia began to intervene in reliability research. By March 1952, it had put forward far-reaching suggestions; the research results should be applied first In the aerospace, military, electronics and other military industries, it gradually expanded to civilian industries.

In the 1960s, with the rapid development of the aerospace industry, reliability design and test methods were accepted and applied to avionics systems, and reliability engineering has developed rapidly! In 1965, the United States issued the “System and Equipment Reliability Outline Requirements”. Reliability engineering activities were combined with traditional design, development, and production to obtain good benefits. ROHM Aviation Development Center established a reliability analysis center, engaged in the reliability research of electronic and electromechanical, mechanical parts and electronic systems related to electronic equipment, including reliability prediction, reliability allocation, reliability testing, reliability physics, and reliability Sexual data collection, analysis, etc.

In the mid-1970s, the life cycle cost problem of the US defense weapon system was prominent. People deeply realized that reliability engineering is an important tool to reduce life cost. Reliability factories have been further developed, and stricter, more realistic, and more effective designs have been developed. And test methods have been adopted, driving the rapid development of failure research and analysis techniques.

Since the 1990s, reliability engineering has developed from military industrial enterprises to civil electronic information industry, transportation, service, energy and other industries, from professional to “common industry”. The ISO9001 quality management system includes reliability management as an important part of the review, and professional technical standards related to reliability have been incorporated into the quality management system documents, becoming a “must do” management clause.

Today, reliability management has been widely accepted by all walks of life in society, and the company’s business philosophy has generally changed from the previous “I want to pay attention to product reliability” to the current “I want to pay great attention to product reliability”!

Why is reliability more valued?

In 1986, the US space shuttle “Challenger” exploded 76 seconds after take-off, killing 7 astronauts and losing $1.3 billion. The root cause of the accident was actually due to a seal failure!

In the 1990s, the United States UL issued a document saying that PCBs produced in China caused many equipment and equipment fires in the United States. The reason is that China’s PCB factories used non-flame retardant plates, but they were marked with UL.

According to official statistics, PCBA’s compensation for reliability failures accounts for more than 90% of external failure costs!

According to GE’s analysis, for continuous operation equipment such as energy, transportation, mining, communications, industrial control, and medical treatment, even if the reliability is increased by 1%, the cost is increased by 10%. PCBA has high reliability, maintenance costs and downtime losses can be greatly reduced, and assets and life safety are more guaranteed!

Today, looking at the world, country-to-country competition has evolved into enterprise-to-enterprise competition. Reliability engineering is the threshold for companies to develop global competition, and it is also a magic weapon for companies to stand out in the increasingly fierce market.