News

Robins only AF base to manufacture printed wiring boards

  • Published
  • By Jenny Gordon
  • Robins Public Affairs
When no one else can make or find circuit boards that have become obsolete, folks with manufacturing capabilities in the 569th Electronics Maintenance Squadron are always up to the task.

"The printed wiring board manufacturing capability in the 569th EMXS is unique to the Air Force," said Connie Huffman, 569th EMXS physical scientist. "It's configured to fulfill a broad range of customers' electronics circuitry needs, from aging weapon systems with very low-level volume, to a myriad of automatic test equipment, the spectrum of flexible circuitry, and avionics unit redesigns."

The shop - which is the only one certified in the Air Force - received its first certification in 1996, providing printed wiring boards manufactured to the exact specifications of the military performance standard, Mil-PRF-55110.

Printed wiring boards are created from copper clad fiberglass laminate sheets, which are etched to produce a final circuitry pattern.

Electronic components are then mounted on the circuits, resulting in a circuit card assembly - basically, circuit card assemblies come in all different shapes and sizes and are found in some form in every electronics device.

Boards can be single-sided with one copper layer, double-sided with two copper layers, or multi-layered. The bulk of the workload for many years in the squadron's manufacturing was a 17-layer backplane, which went on old 386 processor drives which flew aboard F-16s. Flexible circuit boards have also been produced in the squadron.

Re-manufacturing replacement circuit cards is regularly accomplished for line replaceable unit repairs and automatic test stations. The shop is the only one in the Air Force which performs production-level manufacturing of bare printed wiring boards for LRUs.

A small team does everything from selection of raw material to final inspection of completed bare boards.

Manufacturing steps include photo-imaging, machining and chemical processes. They're able to diversify and improvise to meet customer demands.

"The shop provides value to the Air Force and other military customers by being small enough to maintain agility in manufacturing processes, thus ensuring continuous process improvement," said Huffman.

One interesting recent project was a redesign of a faceplate that sits in an F-15 cockpit. A dark cockpit can result in a surprisingly bright environment for pilots who sit in the presence of illuminated switches, controls and other components.

Prior to redesign, the faceplate had not been night vision-compatible and had included a non-reparable circuit. However, it was replaced with a reparable, single-sided circuit - created by the 569th EMXS - that included night vision compatibility.

Perhaps most importantly, the shop contributes to properly functioning, secure defense systems, mitigating threats to the supply chain and providing a source for high quality, trustworthy printed circuit boards, thereby maintaining military superiority.