Saturn is the first printed circuit board manufacturer in North
America to achieve TS16949, which is a world-wide quality standard
that will replace QS9000 in 2006. Please click here to view this certification.
As a result of our relationship with certain automotive customers,
Saturn has achieved high reliability certification for safety and
under-hood applications.
The certification process requires the PCB to pass a battery of tests
and to meet strict product specifications that address forward-looking
industry concerns.
One example of the tests is a thermocycling test, which is meant to
simulate a PCB in the field over time under the most extreme of
conditions. The test includes 1,000 cycles, each of which take one hour.
During each hour, the PCB is taken from room temperature to -40°C in 5
minutes. The PCB remains at that temperature for 25 minutes, and is then
taken to 125°C within 5 minutes. The PCB is then kept at this
temperature for 25 minutes, after which it is brought back to -45°C
within 5 minutes. After 1,000 cycles, the PCBs must maintain less than
10% resistance in order to pass. Only PCB fabricators with the most
reliable of plating lines are able to pass this test.
In addition to this test, we have performed extensive high
temperature storage, steady state humidity, surface ionic contamination,
flammability, solderability, resistance to chemical, and Autoclave
tests.
We at Saturn are proud to say that, as of January 2002, our process
has been certified for 2 layer PCBs. We are currently in the process of
certifying our 6-layer PCB fabrication process. The benefit to our
customers is that 100% of our products are run through this
high-reliability approved process!
 Download Our TS16949 Certification
(.pdf )
We are proud to have received AFL’s award for Outstanding
Engineering, Quality, & Delivery for 2002. One element
of this award is that we received only 21 ppms during 2002
for the approximately 800,000 units we shipped during that
time frame!
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