Preemptive Issues

[Gransee]

Addressing the lens rattling issue in another thread got me to thinking. It would be nicer for our customers if they could know about these issues earlier. We see problems in production and start working on them. Someone posts to the CPF about the problem and I come on and post, "yeah we are aware of it and fixing it, send the unit back, etc".

I am not saying that my early posts would reduce the incidence of returns. And I am not saying we could accurately predict everything.

Some of the issues we are working on are yet to show up as problems in customers hands. Some things we notice never surface as problems for the end user. Someone might argue, "why unneccisarily worry people?"

At any rate, let me give this a try...

We are working on several issues right now:

- LED to Optic interface. This is how the NX05 optics mate to the luxeon star LED. So far, the problems in the field are cosmetic. A silicone-like goop is present between the black plastic shoulder of the LED package and the dome over the die. This goop is applied by the LED manufacturer. The pressure against and rotation of the NX05 in relation to the LED package causes some of this goop to transfer to the bottom of the NX05 optic. This creates a tell tail "farkle" when seen through the optic from the front. This has been seen on several brands of luxeon star flashlights, not just Arc's.

Henry and I have looked at this and we do not think the LED is damaged by this pressure since it is on the outer rim of the package. So this farkle seems to be simply a cosmetic issue at this point.

However, there is also a possibility that this pressure combined with the rotation of the optic to LED relationship (during assembly exclusively) may cause the LED to break loose from the PCB and rip it's leads off. I have seen this happen with a few units on the line. We don't have any evidence that this has been the reason that units went dead in the field (in fact, dead units are more rare now days), but it could conceiveably happen. Therefore, this is a more important issue.

So we are working on a procedure to keep the "silicone goop" off the lens and to limit rotation of the LED during assembly. A single solution will probally solve both issues.

I think most people will see just a cosmetic improvement over time in our production. I say this because we have yet to see evidence that this mating issue is manifesting in the more harmfull form, ie dead units.

The only other issue we have outstanding at the moment is methods for keeping the optics cleaner during production. It appears that we will have to invest in some sort of controlled enviroment system. I am looking at several solutions. Implimentation might take awhile since we weren't really budgeted for this expense at this time. The effect on the finished product will be cosmetic. Obviously, cometics is also important to us.

This should be all the issues we have outstanding at this time as relates to problem solving on the products.

Past issues we have addressed with at least some success includes:

Arc-AAA
o-ring placement
loose threads (head falling off)
waterproofing
battery brand compatibility
interior fouling
flickering
centering
lack of grease
tight heads
anodize issues
Retainer problems
QC procedures
etc..

Arc-LS
flex
tint
centering
interior fouling
anodize issues
battery compatibility/management
thread problems
lack of grease
optic clarity
heatsinking
waterproofing
thermal protection
switch flickering
Retainer problems
Rattling optics
QC procedures
etc..

And those are issues either solved completely or reduced.

Peter Gransee

 

[binky]

Originally posted by Gransee:
It appears that we will have to invest in some sort of controlled enviroment system. I am looking at several solutions.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Oh, I hope you don't have to go that route. Here's what I can offer from my experience in cleanrooms in academia:

- Space: Once it's cleanroom, it's useless for anything else. This sounds obvious, but it is an absolutely inadaptable, inflexible addition to sq. footage.

- Air handling: Those darned filters are expensive! And they've gotta be replaced regularly. And the air handling requires recirculation, regulated amount of fresh air (since that new air requires full scrubbing), separate heating/cooling and humidification all separate from the rest of the space. It's really like putting an entire building within a building. And you've gotta buy that one outright.

- Absolutely everything that is taken into the cleanroom has to be clean itself, or else the room is rendered rather useless. I'd presume for Arc that this means all flashlight parts would need to be (somehow) de-dusted prior to bringing them in. That's an entirely separate process that has to be completed outside of the cleanroom! Perhaps in a staging/transfer box, then put into a clean antistatic bag. So this is another entire staging area with its complexities. There's no point in taking a dusty cardboard box with who-knows-what all over it into the vestibule, so you really need some carts and static-free boxes or bags.

- The loads of Tyvek clothes/gloves/hats that are used & disposed of.

- All furniture, the flooring material, walls, ceiling, plumbing, electrical, everything within the room should be dustfree and especially important that none of it will fabricate dust.

Then there's the absolute fact that when the airhandler goes kaput (and it's a complex bunch of stuff) it's not only very expensive to repair, but the repairman has to be Mr. Specialty Repairman. And until it's fixed the cleanroom's unavailable because the positive pressure's not there to keep the dust out. This may be the most annoying and worst part; the downtime that hits with a double expense!!! The stupid fancy things blow regularly because there's (1) heat (2) cooling (3) filtering (4) multiple blowing stages (5) humidification (6) dehumidification (7) fresh-air inletting. NONE of these are passive systems. Zilch. Nada. Not even the filtering since it probably involves a static precipitator.

It's a building within a building, and you can't really go 'partway' to get any benefit at all of being a cleanroom. The only 'partway' you can do is the extent to which each piece of the whole system keeps the room clean, meaning that a chipmaker would get much higher-percentages of stuff out of the room, but have largely the same number of annoyingly numerous and specialized equipment.

Pete I don't mean to presume that you haven't considered all this. Maybe I'm just writing all this out of sympathy, I dunno. I just really hope that there are some other ways to keep the dust off of and out of the assemblage that don't include the cleanroom.

 

[binky]

And of course I'll point you to my suggestions of some passive solutions in another thread, with special emphasis on Thomas's implication that if we could unscrew the bezel then the dust gripers could take it upon themselves to get their light as clean as they wish and no need for the special room.

[edit] I'm not pointing a finger at those who'd gripe about dust in the light; After I turned on my Tigerlight for the first time, then next thing I did was unscrew the bezel and clean the bulb, reflector, and lens.