Quality improvement in printed board assembly design

A study of the Inert Gas Wavesoldering Process has been undertaken as part of the design and construction of a knowledge based system (KBS). The KBS will be required to contribute to a quality improvement in the manufacture of printed board assemblies (PBA) and in particular the defect level of the wavesoldering process for Nortel, (Northern Ireland) Ltd. at their Monkstown manufacturing facility. The project involved the formal study of the manufacturing processes used during the manufacture of highly complex and sophisticated PBA. The study methods used include academic research, carefully designed experiments by Nortel engineers, observations of the manufacturing processes and interviews with a wide range of Nortel personnel. A process model has been developed. This model adopts a high level approach to the problem area and as such embodies the ultimate goals of the proposed system. During the course of the project so far, in addition to the system process model development, part of the PBA KBS has also been initiated