Outsource/Insource

Getting digital and power help when you need it.

Looking for Electronic Design Outsourcing?

 Delivering on a tight schedule to get the product to market is a stressful challenge. Not having the people to take care of your power electronics is difficult. Resourcing can be desperate and the timeframes for delivery are closing fast. There is often simply way too much to do and not the right people to do it. Electronics outsourcing can help combat the above problems and reduce the worry of not having the time, capability or resources required for a particular project. Make the smart choice and talk to the experts at ELMG today about the electrical design outsourcing services we offer.

Are these familiar problems?

“Our resourcing is desperate. We are looking for a P.E. Engineer, a project manager and a mechanical guy.“

“And in the meantime we need thirty of these power converters – can you design, manufacture, test and deliver them?”

“We need a pre-production converter designed, developed and built. And it needs to be compliant for Europe and China.”

“Our parent company does well at this but they have far more development resource.”

ELMG can help.

Are you worried that you aren’t going to make the release target date?

Not having a product on time results is lost sales.   Stressed out managers looking over development teams shoulders, worried VPs and eventually difficult conversations about what went wrong and why.  Avoiding schedule slips and not letting down the team ensures that the project does not get cancelled. Being the VP or R and D manager on deck when things do not get delivered is a difficult and uncomfortable situation.

ELMG Outsource

Outsource development using ELMG power electronics, digital control, FPGA and DSP know-how and expertise.  We will simply take your power electronics problem and deal with it and deal to it.

ELMG can do the development as you need.  A pre-production prototype converter for a specialised UPS, motor drive or an active filter, a short run of one hundred communications links or some power and digital engineering resource to add virtually to your team.

Outsourced FPGA firmware and software development for custom digital power hardware.

“I am very pleased with both pieces of work especially given the low level of detail in our specs.”

 

Purpose

Over the past twenty five years we have gathered lots and lots of expertise and experience in designing power converters, developing power converters, getting power converters compliant, getting power converters into production and supporting and sustaining them in production.  This is our purpose when you outsource with us.  We apply all our knowledge, know-how and passion to get you the product you need.

Communications You may have heard about problems in outsourced projects where communications breakdown has led to late delivery of product that does not meet the specification.  And it happens this is true.  It does not happen on our outsource The solution to poor communication is always to communicate more effectively.  Together we will have an agreed communication plan. And we use internet meetings, internet accessible document archives and work flow management tools to keep us all informed of the progress.

Specifications Having a good specification for what gets developed always helps to get the right thing developed.  The first step in the development is the specification where we together work to make the specification.  This specification is the beginning of success.  By combining ELMG digital power know how and your application know how together we get a clear understanding of the requirements.

Delivery and handover Transferring an outsource technology development can seem the most time consuming part of the process.  Complete transfer and hand-over is required in outsource development.  By using an agreed acceptance test plan and clear hand over procedure any issues arising can be dealt with quickly and effectively.

Manufacturing

We manufacture power electronics control systems. We are specialist in managing short run manufacture and testing of assemblies including

• PCBAs
• Communication links
• Complete power converters

Design and build of the complete power converters

PCB assemblies for control of power converters or communications links.

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Fifty plastic fiber optic communications links.

The delivery of 50 fiber optic communications link units to a large power electronics OEMs to integrate into their new high voltage product is typical of the high value short run ELMG Digital Power manufacturing capability. ELMG used a previously qualified contract manufacturing partner to do PCBA construction and ELMG also supervised the production run. Upon completion all final test and assembly was completed at ELMG Digital Power utilising automated JTAG based boundary scan test tools. The tested PCBAs with OEM part numbers were then shipped into stock at the OEM.

Each unit is tested using boundary scan and functional test.

Fiber optic connectors with dust covers in place.

4B5B encoding

PCBA for testing

JTAG Boundary Scan for testing.

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Two Hundred Precision Current Sources

The delivery of two hundred precision current sources for use in maritime temperature sensing was a challenge that ELMG manufacturing accepted. These current sources had very high reliability and low drift requirements. The ELMG designed PCBA was manufactured by a qualified contract manufacturer. ELMG then assembled the PCBAs into the customised enclosure. To ensure that the drift requirement was met all the units are calibrated and the calibration is recorded against the serial number. All the units are then HASS tested to ensure that the construction is correct and robust. The calibration drift is recorded and the units are recalibrated. This HASS tests ensure that the aging is accelerated and ensures drift in the field is minimal. The drift is recorded and then the units are soak tested for ten weeks. The drift is again recorded, the units recalibrated and shipped to the customer.

Manufacturing Process

Units in temperature chamber for HASS run.	Extended soak testing for 10 weeks.	Shock and vibration test during development.
Custom mounting bracket.	Front panel detail	EMC Test result during development.
Fabrication drawings for bracket.	Vibration withstand increased by addition of moisture resistant (white) polymer material.	HASS temperature cycle profile.