X-Ray inspection machine purchase guide

Support. You will want a radiation survey done annually. At a previous company having the manufacturer do it would have meant paying for the air fare and hotel for their tech to do it. I had found a company that usually did other things but could do it for us but then they were unsure of regulations specific to X-ray machines for electronics inspection. And we had to find someone else.

The X-ray machine we have here has a radiation survey done by the company that sold it to us.

You would get more radiation eating lunch outside on a sunny day than from operating the X-ray machine all day. But you want to be able to show that it is safe.

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We have a Glenbrook Jewel Box 70T, purchased about 5 years ago, Think it was around $60K quoted price (we traded in our old Glenbrook for a discount), Software pretty basic, can store images and has some graphics and image processing capability. It has a PCB manipulator to allow positioning of PCB at any angle. We found that very useful for through hole as you can verify solder hole fill to ensure meeting IPC-610. They have very good technical support and for about $2k/year will come out and verify unit functionality and measure radiation leakage to satisfy any safety requirements. (have no affiliation with Glenbrook)

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Things to consider:

Tube type : sealed or open ? open tubes require more maintenance.

Customer base: How many machines are in your region. Ask for several references.

Support: Ask them how many service engineers are local.

Maintenance cost : Calibration and surveys.

Set up a purchase agreement where you only pay upon your acceptance.

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Specs like beam voltage, current and focal point size are important considerations for image quality and you can spend hours going down the rabbit hole learning about them. Fundamentally, what really matters is if you can get an image clear enough to see what you want to see. I would suggest taking sample boards to which ever vendors you are considering and have them do a live demo. Best if you have boards with known defects you can examine.

Are you using Xray as a production inspection tool, or for trouble shooting and process validation? The type and sophistication of the software will be important depending on what your doing with the Xray.

The ability to rotate the board to view from different angles is critical. Not all defects are clear from a top down view, you want the ability to see from an oblique angle as well.

Glenbrook makes good machines that won't break your budget. Nordson Dage makes great machines but at a higher price point then Glenbrook.

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