1500 Volt Hi Pot Core Tester

(Problem) If you were wondering (maybe you weren't??) how to test for neck downs in the lamination process that will eventually render the whole circuit board useless if not caught here, because it is not repairable later, this is the Gizmo to test it. Some large panels were worth $1 Million in lost revenue to companies like IBM, so avoiding things that can't be repaired is good.

(Solution) The way to look for these tiny epoxy anomalies was to place the core (the copper- colored thing on the bottom) then close the top and put 1500 volts between the top and bottom of the thin core (which is one layer of a circuit board composed of up to 50 layers). This was done very nicely by contacting each surface electrically with nickel plated cloth backed with foam and squish it hard so there is good contact on both surfaces. Of course (naturally) the two surfaces had to be very flat and electrically isolated from the metallic frame, so the operator would not get zapped with 1500 volts. How we made these two 28" x 32" surfaces flat within .004" was very interesting and very creative. Send me an email and I will bore you with the details! Click here for details