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Quality Stuff
Quality assurance at Epner can be thought
of as two separate but complimentary concepts: Quality Facts
and Quality Philosophy.
The facts list the tools that make the philosophy
happen and lists the certifications we have earned. In 2002
the company received its ISO 9002 Certification, and holds
quality certifications from all the major aerospace contractors.
The philosophy is backed up by the tools
and instruments that first, verify that the plating baths
are in tolerance and second that the customers specs have
been exactly met.
That said, without the trained, conscientious
team of some forty dedicated employees, those wonderful tools
are worthless.
Quality Facts
- Epner is NADCAP Certified
Nadcap used to be an acronym NADCAP
(National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation
Program) but was changed to Nadcap in recognition of the
internationalization of the program. It is the leading,
worldwide cooperative program of major companies designed
to manage a cost effective consensus approach to special
processes and products and provide continual improvement
within the aerospace industry.
- Epner is an ISO 9002 certified supplier.
- Epner supplies
PPAP documentation to two major automotive manufacturers.
- Of course
Mil-I-45208…and all major aerospace contractors.
The following are some of the instruments
and tools that, along with the dedication and passion for
plating of its personnel, bring Epner Technology’s quality
philosophy to life.
Atomic Absorption
Spectrophotometer Model Varian AA110
Varian Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer.
A key to maintaining each plating and prep
line constituents upper and lower control limits is the Atomic
Absorption Spectrophotometer. Able to measure a bath impurity
down to one part-per-billion, the AA is at the heart of Epner’s
process control discipline.
Fisher Scope
X-Ray Fluorescence, Twin City X-Ray Fluorescence
Fisher Scope X-Ray Fluorescence Unit.
All XRF units can make non-contact thickness
measurements and create statistical data. The Fisher Scope
System XDL-XYMZ is unique in its ability to measure both individual
and multiple layers of plating concurrently. At Epner, two
XRF units are kept busy all day verifying that the customer’s
specification is exactly met.
Twin Cities X-Ray Fluorescence Unit.
Custom Helium-Neon
Laser Test Position
The helium-neon laser test is used
at ETI's quality control lab to measure both reflectivity
and optical shape of missile guidance beacon reflectors.
Used to certify more than 700,000 Optical
Guidance Beacons for the Hughes Aircraft TOW Missile. This
small die cast aluminum reflector was nickel and LaserGold
plated and then passed through this HeNe Laser “go-nogo”
gauge.
AmRay Model
1000 Scanning Electron Microscope
An invaluable tool for characterization
of surface morphology on the Laser Gold and LaserBlack deposits.
This microscope is also extremely useful for defect analysis.
Zygo Laser
Micrometer
Purchased originally to certify the diameter on some 13 million
infrared lightpipes , a critical part of the Gillette Ear
Thermometer, the Zygo “mike” has had numerous other
product applications.
Unitron Binocular
Metallograph
This tool is used to read the extremely thin layers of plating
that have been microsectioned and optically polished. Made
virtually obsolete by the XRF and the SEM it is still useful
as the referee instrument for thickness determination.
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Epner's Laser Gold
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Quality Philosophy
Epner Technology’s quality philosophy
is driven by a deep commitment to process control. It
is one thing to develop a process that will produce
good parts…quite another to produce those parts
day in and day out. Tight process control makes it happen!
But the controlling of a plating process
which is, after all, a dynamic system, is particularly
daunting. The prep tanks, the plating tanks the ubiquitous
rinse tanks; each have an array of variables that must
be held within defined upper and lower control limits.
The
Problem:
Cross-contamination caused by the entrapped solution
in the geometry of the part as it moves down the plating
line, (in spite of thorough rinsing), is one source
of trouble.
Another is the subtle chemistry changes that occur in
a plating bath as the parts being plated deplete various
bath constituents. Even as the tanks lie dormant they
change as decomposition products slowly accumulate.
The
Answer:
At Epner, a brand new laboratory is equipped with the
latest analytical instruments. Instruments as diverse
as a Varian Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer that
can measures in parts-per-billion, to a Spiral Contractometer
for plating bath stress measurement, give Epner’s
Ph.D. Chemist the hardware to monitor the entire plating
system. Computer programs display the real time “chemical
health” of each solution in the shop. Indeed, Epner’s
analytical laboratory is the key process control tool
that keeps Epner Technology doing blister-free plating
that actually meets the drawing specs!
Critical
Final Thought
The Process Control Laboratory staff play three key
roles at Epner. First, is to keep the “tools of
production”, our plating solutions, “sharp”.
Second, to support Steve Candiloro in his research and
development function, and perhaps most critical, supervise
and maintain our waste treatment operation.
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Perkin-Elmer Lambda 750 Infrared Spectrophotometer
with intergrating sphere & specular reflectance accessory.
With its integrating sphere
attachment, the Lambda 720 is the heart of Laser Gold quality
maintenance. It measures total infrared reflectivity
(i.e. specular and diffuse) in the range of from 700nm
to 2500nm and is calibrated to the NIST
Standard 2011, supplied by Epner to the then, NBS,
for more than fifteen years.
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