What are the most common causes of PCB failures?

At Greasley’s we offer preventative maintenance to ensure any type of machinery rarely breaks down saving time and money in a business. We repair electronic circuit boards down to component level. I can save companies thousands, thus not eating into their profits with buying new units.

The most common causes of failure are:

Poor Quality Components: Closely placed traces and pathways, bad soldering to cold joints, poor connectivity between circuit boards, insufficient board thickness, and use of counterfeit components are common examples of inferior PCB quality.

·        Material Defects

·        Bending and Breaking

Environmental Factors: Exposure to heat, foreign objects (insects), dust and moisture, accidental impact (drops and falls), and power overloads/surges can be causes of circuit board failure. However, the most damaging cause of premature circuit board failure is electrostatic discharge (ESD) at the assembly stage.

·        Thermal Stress

Age: Failures caused by age cannot be avoided, but the costs of replacing components can be controlled by swapping old parts for new ones. This is much more economical than buying a new PCB.

 Component Design Failure: Incorrect placement of components, power failure, and overheating due to lack of space on a PCB, are just a few examples of things that can go wrong at the design and manufacturing stage. Although this maybe unlikely this can be very inconvenient and expensive to justify!

·        Soldering Issues

·        Chemical (Fluid) Leakage

·        Component Barrier Breakage

·        Bad Component Placement

The best action to for any industry with PCB problems is call Greasley Electronics on 01530 835823. To get in touch click here or send me an image with a brief description of the fault Diagnosis and I can look at the problem in the first instance. With over 30 years experience in the industry 9 times out of 10 I can predict the fault and often repair!