Ray Price, a quality assurance technician, assembles Trackers inside Huntron’s Mill Creek facility. The devices are later tested before being shipped out all over the world.
Brad Grams, president and co-owner of Huntron, stands next to a rack of assembled Trackers undergoing final testing before shipment.
Front control circuit boards are ready to be assembled into Trackers.
A closeup of needles on a robotic testing machine, one of Huntron’s Access Probers. The needles can probe microscopic parts on a circuit board that are too small to check by hand.
Curtis Smith operates a computer controlling one of Huntron’s robotic Access Probers inside Huntron’s classroom. Smith was training an Air Force technician how to use the robot to diagnose a circuit board in an airplane electronics system.
Alan Howard, vice president and co-owner at Huntron, oversees day-to-day operations at the facility.
Price sits at a bank of computers as he runs Trackers through final software tests before shipment.
Jacob Schmidt carefully and precisely assembles a dual-headed robotic Access Prober in Huntron’s facility.
Ray Price, a quality assurance technician, assembles Trackers inside Huntron’s Mill Creek facility. The devices are later tested before being shipped out all over the world.
Huntron Inc., a small company in Mill Creek, estimates it has so far saved the U.S. military (and taxpayers) more than $1 billion, not to mention countless dollars saved for companies and organizations worldwide.
How? By making hand-operated and robotic devices that probe circuit boards so clients can test, diagnose, and fix problems themselves rather than ship the board or product the board controls back to its manufacturer. Circuit boards are the “brains” for modern machines and systems.
Brad Grams, president and co-owner of Huntron, stands next to a rack of assembled Trackers undergoing final testing before shipment.
Front control circuit boards are ready to be assembled into Trackers.
If a customer sends a board back to an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for repair, which is typically a flat-rate repair, it can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000, “and it could be a 50-cent part that’s bad on it,” said Brad Grams, president and co-owner of Huntron.
That’s why Huntron’s diagnostic tools pay for themselves quickly. Its equipment costs anywhere from about $5,000 for its hand-operated tools, branded as Trackers, to about $120,000 for robotic testing machines, called Access Probers. It ships hundreds of its testing devices annually.
A closeup of needles on a robotic testing machine, one of Huntron’s Access Probers. The needles can probe microscopic parts on a circuit board that are too small to check by hand.
Curtis Smith operates a computer controlling one of Huntron’s robotic Access Probers inside Huntron’s classroom. Smith was training an Air Force technician how to use the robot to diagnose a circuit board in an airplane electronics system.
Huntron’s largest market is military and aerospace, followed by medical equipment, then casinos, Grams said.That’s right: Slot machines run on circuit boards, and a slot that doesn’t work isn’t making money. Other customers include airlines, automakers, manufacturers of commercial electronic equipment, search engine companies, and national security organizations, to name but a few.
Anyone looking to repair a circuit board or test a circuit board is a customer, Grams said.
Huntron, founded in 1976, sells its equipment worldwide, directly and through distributors.
Alan Howard, vice president and co-owner at Huntron, oversees day-to-day operations at the facility.
Its longest-running product has been its Tracker, to which hand-held probes are attached. A worker touches the metal probes to circuit board pins, creating a contact connection for the Tracker to diagnose problems.
“Our bread and butter has always been giving people tools to help them fix boards that used to work and don’t anymore,” said Alan Howard, vice president and co-owner, who oversees the Mill Creek facility.
As circuitry has gotten smaller and more sophisticated, Huntron has developed robotic diagnostic equipment that, using a camera, automatically touches needlelike probes to microscopic pins on the board to run diagnostics. Huntron also has noncontact technology to measure radiated emissions from boards.
Robotic Access Probers can “see” tiny circuitry better than humans and perform more tests quicker and with accuracy to 20 microns or less, Grams said.
Price sits at a bank of computers as he runs Trackers through final software tests before shipment.
“The newest market we’re getting into is actually the design world because even a design engineer that’s built the prototype can’t hand-probe it anymore, so they use our robotics,” Grams said.
Huntron assembles the Trackers and Access Probers in its Mill Creek factory, building the devices from parts that it sources as much as possible from regional and U.S. suppliers. Seven people work in the spacious facility: two in assembly, and five in sales and administration.
The devices are all tested in the factory before shipment.
Jacob Schmidt carefully and precisely assembles a dual-headed robotic Access Prober in Huntron’s facility.
Huntron also has a classroom where it trains customers how to use its diagnostic equipment. It brings people into Mill Creek from companies and organizations around the world, Grams said.
The day 425 Business visited Huntron, a U.S. Air Force technician was learning to use one of Huntron’s robots to diagnose a circuit board in an airplane electronics system.