Reducing contamination in the printed circuit board industry for the improvement of the process and human health

Abstract

In this work, an electronic manufacturing company is studied in terms of contamination. The aim of this study was to determine contamination problems, along with their causes and sources. Improvements aimed at reducing the contaminants in the process are suggested, and a positive effect is expected in both the defective parts per million (PPM) of the final products and in human health. It is concluded that negative externalities in the form of industrial contamination may be an important subject for future studies, due to the impact in both the final products and human health.

The environment has become, in general, one of the most important topics of the present. It led to the establishment of strict rules by the governments with the aim to protect the environment and preserve energetic resources. Policies related to environmental protection can be interpreted within the conceptual framework of economic externalities. The generation of pollution and contaminants is a negative externality which is almost inevitable in any production process and their costs are not, generally, adequately accounted for (Eisenack, 2014). Energy consumption, air pollution and industrial waste have raised special attention in public authorities which are responsible by the environment. These factors influence industries, research centers and universities in the search for alternative manufacturing processes with the goal of creating technologies that minimize or avoid the production of waste which could harm the environment (Silva, et al, 2013). This study identifies contaminating agents on the environment of the production process of an electronic component industrial facility and has the aim of evidencing possible contamination sources. The study was conducted by looking with special attention at conditions that would favor contamination, by searching for the existence of contamination in the material entry phases, on the production process and on several and activities namely: screwing, soldering, mounting, storage. Critical problems of these areas were studied based on the assessment of the presence of the contaminants in the facility environment. The study of the contamination process is sequentially presented, along with its characteristics derived from the research done inside the production area. A synthesis of recommendations is presented, with the objective to attenuate the incidence of damage to the production process and to attenuate the health damage to the workers.