What Is The Importance Of X-ray Inspection?

X-ray inspection has been a huge breakthrough for the manufacturing industry. It allows both designers and engineers to check and detect any defects in their devices or other components.

This is particularly effective during mass production and allows companies to provide customers with the highest quality products and circuit boards, whilst also helping to save them money.

That being said, for manufacturers, a combination of both X-ray inspection and functional testing must be used to get the best results and provide peace of mind.

In the guide below, we’ll take a closer look at how this process works and why X-ray inspection is so important to the manufacturing sector.

Read on to find out more.

How does X-ray inspection work?

Before we begin looking at the benefits and importance of X-rays in manufacturing, let’s first look at how these actually work. For the most part, these will detect issues in components like BGA, soldering and any CSP defects.

As the device or component is scanned, the actual X-rays will pass through the item and show areas of greater or lower density on the screen or final imagery. We typically understand these as the lighter or darker areas of an X-ray image.

Essentially what this means is that any cracks, crevices or damage will show up as a lighter patch on the image because there is more air and space in between, rather than a darker patch of dense materials like solder, for example. This allows testers to check for any areas of weakness where cracks or damage may be present.

This is a very basic explanation of what happens and there is a lot more at work during the manufacturing and testing process. However, this simplified understanding will lead us nicely on to our next point.

Why is X-ray beneficial for inspecting products in manufacturing?

No matter what product or component a company creates, it’s worth thinking about X-ray scanning as an option.

With this in mind, we’ll now look at some of the benefits of X-ray inspection in manufacturing and why this has become so important to businesses in the sector.

It’s a form of non-destructive testing (NDT)

One of the key reasons that X-ray inspection is so important in the industry is that it is a non-destructive testing (NDT) method. As the X-rays are able to penetrate components and products without causing any physical damage and making them unusable, this means that everything tested can still be used and sold.

Not only this, but it means that no products are damaged whilst they are being tested, becoming weaker and inaccurate in the process. Again, ensuring everything can be used or sold.

You can ensure a higher quality of products

The X-rays are used to look for hidden defects that otherwise would not be visible to the naked eye. By identifying any damage or inconsistencies within these items in this way, they can be repaired or removed from production, if they are too defective.

This ensures a higher quality of products are always being sold to customers and clients.

It allows for mass production

Following on from this, as manufacturers will generally mass produce their products, being able to achieve reliable and accurate results without too much human intervention is so important. This allows for the mass production of goods and means the business can fulfil bigger orders, whilst also helping to keep costs down for both them and their customers.

An X-ray can increase performance ratios

When products are poorly or incorrectly made, they have a shorter life cycle and lower performance ratios. This can be costly to businesses. Plus, failure to meet industrial standards and quality requirements can lead to a bad reputation and even larger troubles further down the line.

Using X-rays to inspect products and ensure they meet the standards is a good way to increase performance ratios, and as a result, profits for the business.

You’ll get more feedback early on

X-rays are a very important tool in detecting issues and defects early on in the manufacturing process. This can help manufacturers to tackle any issues and ensure they perfect their product specifications or assembly before they continue producing them.

This, in turn, ensures that no materials or products are compromised or damaged and that they aren’t wasted.

This allows for new designs or production processes

Sometimes there can be inconsistencies with new designs or slightly different materials and components used in new design processes. In these cases, using X-rays can help to highlight any issues with the new design and to ensure that any new parts can still perform as they should and offer the best possible end product.

Clients can access this information

Last but not least, clients that are buying products or components from a company may specify that they want the reports and images of any inconsistencies found by the manufacturer during the testing process.

Using X-rays to do this allows manufacturers to provide detailed reports to customers or clients about any issues or fixes that have been made so that everyone is on the same page.

In summary

As you can see, there are lots of reasons why using X-ray inspection is important in the manufacturing industry. It allows producers to make the most accurate and effective products or components and to prove to their customers that this is what they are doing.

It also allows them to find any issues and fix these right away for maximum quality and performance ratios. It’s a win-win for both parties.