ATEQ is Available to Provide Consulting and Leak Testers For Smartphone Leak Testing Applications.
Smartphone manufacturers use a variety of sealing techniques to make sure all potential points of least resistance are watertight. Sometimes sealing is as straight forward as strategically using glue in the connection ports or to secure the glass to the phone. Areas like the cable connectors, may use rubber gaskets while headphone jacks and charging ports use rubber rings to seal the enclosures. Smartphone buttons often have a silicon rubber boot to separate the button from the electrical contacts within the phone. On areas that need to keep water out but let air pass through, like microphones and speakers, manufacturers use a water-resistant breathable mesh fabric membrane to act as a pressure vent. Sometimes ports, like the charging port, can be protected from water electronically, by being made of corrosion resistant metals and programmed to automatically shut off when not in use.
These seals all need to go through rigorous quality testing. The most important type of testing for the waterproofing process is leak testing. Waterproof smartphone manufacturers have dozens of leak testers, like ATEQ’s F28 lite, throughout their production lines to test the phone at various points during the assembly process. As each port is added to the phone, it can be leak tested with a differential pressure decay leak tester. This technology pressurizes the part with compressed air and measures the pressure drop, which would signify the air leak rate in that port. Once the phone is completely assembled and the screen is secured, it can be leak tested with ATEQ’s sealed component ingress leak testing method. By putting the completed sealed phone into an airtight chamber, the chamber can be pressurized with compressed air and the leak tester can measure if any air sinks into the phone. If a leak amount that is below the manufacturer-specified leak rate sinks in, the phone can be considered airtight enough to be classified as being “waterproof”.
ATEQ has developed solutions for hundreds of different consumer electronics leak testing applications for well known manufacturers over the last 40 years. Whether you are leak testing smartphones, watches, catheters, pacemakers, or a washing machine, ATEQ can work with you to provide efficient leak testers and develop integrated smartphone production leak and flow testing solutions.
Contact Us to speak with an expert ATEQ Application Engineer in your area. Read ATEQ’s full Leak Testing Waterproof Electronics article.
