Overview of Uticor

AVG, an American Group of companies, is vertically integrated to design and manufacture state of the art electronic products, cost effectively, for the best Return On Investment for our customers.

Significant Highlights and Core Competencies
American Price in Manufacturing
Innovation by Design
HALT Based Design Process (Highly Accelerated Life Test)
Traits of AVG Products

Significant Highlights and Core Competencies

  • Established in 1975, AVG has introduced more than 500 innovative new products.
  • Extensive hardware, firmware, & software design capability, in Illinois & Iowa.
  • Holds 20+ Patents & 15 New Pending
  • Has an installed base of over $1 Billion in fortune 500 companies such as Ford, GM, P&G, Abbot, Miller, & IBM.
  • PCB fabrication.
  • 3 EMS Plants for Complete Turn Key Assembly & Box Build.
  • Thick Film Hybrids.
  • One of the largest semi-conductor FABs.
  • Known for “Uticor Tough,” High Reliability, HALT-HASSed Products, designed to operate in harsh industrial environments.
  • In the fore-front of High Technology such as BGA and controlled impedance high density board products.

American Pride in Manufacturing

All Research, Development and Manufacturing for Uticor is done at our plant in Bettendorf, IA.

In the Automation industry, you know us as the designers and manufacturers of the Uticor Toughpanel and Tough Smart Marquee products.

What perhaps some of you may not know, is the history of two of our other divisions in this business: Autotech Controls and Uticor Technologies.

Uticor, formerly Struthers Dunn Systems division, has been in the forefront of PLC, welding controls, message displays and operator interface technology since 1968. Uticor, in fact, was one of the early inventors of PLCs back in 1968. It held numerous patents on PLCs, then called Process Control Computers.

In the 1970’s, Uticor applied it’s PLC technology to welding controls and became one of the top suppliers of this technology to the Automotive industry. In fact, Uticor provided university research grants in collaboration with Ford in this area.

In the 1980’s, Uticor became known as the premier supplier of Message Displays and Marquees in North America. It’s large LED marquees became an Automotive standard. Uticor always had a very conservative design philosophy and it showed in its products and thus earned worldwide recognition as “Built Like a Tank” or “Uticor Tough”.

AVG’s Autotech division was the inventor of the first microprocessor based Programmable Limit Switch. In fact Autotech was the first company to coin the phrase “PLS” for replacing electro-mechanical cam-banks. Autotech has always lived by its tradition of being the most innovative company in the field of Automation controls.

Innovation by Design

  • First PLC plug in Resolver module that plugs into AB, Modicon, GE and Siemens PLCs
  • First PLS with a built-in PLC
  • First micro-processor based modular PLS with an incredible scan-time of 57 microseconds for 20,000 setpoints
  • First integrated digital resolver, DigiSolver, Standard of the tire industry

Due to the patented DMA techniques utilized in its PLSs to achieve 1° accuracy at even 3000 RPM, Autotech’s M1250, 1450 series PLSs remain the exclusive standard for two piece can lines throughout the world.

HALT Based Design Process (Highly Accelerated Life Test)

The Ultimate Test for Reliability

The HALT test was initially conceived for testing electronic products for shuttle launch. The purpose of this test is to subject the product to a combination of high shock, vibration and a steep temperature gradient. MTBF of all electronic products depends upon the strength of connections of various components inside and therefore HALT is the ultimate test for reliability testing. Here is how it works:

1. Initial Design Specifications

Before a product is taken to drawing board, all the desired specifications are laid out around which a product is to be designed. These specifications are based on the actual working parameters that are applied to our products in the industry. Let’s pick an example of our Toughpanel and see all the steps it goes through. The published specifications for Toughpanel are shown in the column to the right.

2. HALT Test of Finished Product

Once a product is designed and built as per initial specifications, it is subjected to HALT testing. Again the point of this phase is to eliminate any pre-mature failure that might be present in its initial design. Based on the above published specifications, Toughpanel is subjected to following tests:

Without Power (Non-Operating)

A-Temperature Cycling: 20°C beyond published spec @ 100°C/min.

For Non-Operating (storage) conditions, Toughpanel goes through a total of 50 cycles of thermal shock in the range of -40˚C to +80˚C at the rate of 100˚C/min. If Toughpanel passes Temperature Cycling test, it advances to next step. If for any reason Toughpanel does not complete temperature cycling test for at least 50 cycles it goes back to drawing board for re-design and the process continues until it passes.

B-Shock and Vibration Cycling: 2 Times published spec

After Toughpanel passes Temperature Cycling test, it is subjected to Vibration and Shock test as set by internal HALT specifications of 5-55 HZ 4 G’s for 2 hours maximum and 20 G’s for 12 ms respectively Non-Operating (storage) conditions. If Toughpanel passes the Shock and Vibration cycling test, it advances to next step. If for any reason Toughpanel does not complete the Shock and Vibration cycling test for at least 50 cycles, it goes back to drawing board for re-design and the process continues until it passes.

C-Combined Temperature and Shock/Vibration: 20°C beyond & 2 Times Gs @ 100°C/min.

After Toughpanel passes Shock and Vibration cycling test, it is subjected to a combined Temperature, Shock, and Vibration test as set by internal HALT specifications of -40˚C to +80˚C at the rate of 100˚C/min, 5-55 HZ 4 G’s for 2 hours maximum, and 20 G’s for 12 ms respectively for Non-Operating (storage) conditions.

Unit Under Power, Fully Functional (Operating)

A-Temperature Cycling: 10°C beyond published spec @ 100°C/min.
For Operating conditions, Toughpanel goes through a total of 50 cycles of thermal shock in the range of -30˚C to +70˚C at the rate of 100˚C/min. If Toughpanel passes Temperature Cycling test, it advances to next step. If for any reason Toughpanel does not complete temperature cycling test for at least 50 cycles it goes back to drawing board for re-design and the process continues until it passes.

B-Shock and Vibration Cycling: 20% beyond published specifications.

After Toughpanel passes Temperature Cycling test, it is subjected to Vibration and Shock test as set by internal HALT specifications of 5-55 HZ 2.4 G’s for 2 hours maximum and 12 G’s for 12 ms respectively Operating conditions. If Toughpanel passes the Shock and Vibration cycling test, it advances to next step. If for any reason Toughpanel does not complete the Shock and Vibration cycling test for at least 50 cycles, it goes back to drawing board for re-design and the process continues until it passes.

C-Combined Temperature and Shock/Vibration: 10°C beyond & 20% beyond published Gs @ 100°C/min.

After Toughpanel passes Shock and Vibration cycling test, it is subjected to a combined Temperature, Shock, and Vibration test as set by internal HALT specifications of -30˚C to +70˚C at the rate of 100˚C/min, 5-55 HZ 2.4 G’s for 2 hours maximum, and 12 G’s for 12 ms respectively for Operating conditions.

After the successful completion of both Operating and Non-Operating HALT tests within specifications, Toughpanel is released for production.

HASS Based Manufacturing Process (Highly Accelerated Stress Screening or HASS)
HASS is an integral part of the manufacturing process at AVG/Uticor. The main purpose of HASS testing is to ensure that our manufacturing processes are in control. 1% AQL (per Mil Spec) level samples from the end of the manufacturing line are subjected to HASS testing to qualify and re-qualify the manufacturing process. If we detect a failure in HASS testing beyond acceptable Mil Spec numbers, the entire manufacturing lot is segregated for further screening. To explain this further, lets continue with the example of Toughpanel.

The operating specification for Toughpanel is 0˚C to +45˚C with 2Gs of vibration and 10Gs of shock. 1% AQL sample of a production run will be subjected to HASS testing from -5˚C to +50˚C @ 2.2 Gs of vibration and 11 Gs of shock. Failure beyond Mil Spec number based on 1% AQL, will subject the entire lot to segregation and further analysis.

Traits of AVG Products

1. Highest Processing Power per Cubic Inch

We have always packed the most processing power per cubic inch in most of our products. Uticor 4″ Toughpanel remains today as the most rugged, compact Touchpanel in the business. This is possible because of the vertical integration of AVG companies allowing us to utilize our strengths in the semiconductor technology, thick film hybrid technology and printed circuit board technology.

2. Highest Operating Speed

We hold numerous patents in the area of high speed PLC or PLS operations, particularly under electrically noisy environments. Our M1250 PLS can process 20,000 of 3 digit setpoints in 57 microseconds, the fastest in the industry. Our recently introduced TouchPLS can process 256 of 4 digit setpoints in less than 10 microseconds.

3. Simplest Human Interface

We require our design engineers to spend considerable time in technical field support. They have gone through numerous machine start-ups. They recognize the importance of simple human interface. You will find that trait throughout AVG Automation products.
We developed a five key interface for our PLSs where as all our competitors use at least 20 keys. The simplicity and Ease of use of Toughpanel is already legendary. In developing the Uticor Toughpanel products, our designers counted the number of clicks for every operation, resulting in an HMI where you can develop a fairly complex screen in less than 10 minutes.

4. High Reliability Products

Read about our entire design and manufacturing process which has earned us the reputation for providing “Built Like a Tank” and “Uticor Tough” products to the industry. Most notably, our LED marquees look the same 10 years after their installation as they looked on the first day of operation.

5. Highest Immunity to Electrical Noise

We come from a background where our Automotive customers, such as Pontiac Motors, back in 1976, required us to run encoder wiring right along side with 440 VAC motor wiring without a shield as they did not want to change the connector between the control cabinet and the machine. You see, we had just invented the PLS and were replacing the old rotary cam switch with a PLS. GM wanted the benefits of the advanced technology but not change their wiring. Our Autotech division designed a Resolver based PLS where you could run it right along with 440 VAC and withstand unimaginable inductive kicks. In fact, we ended up making the resolver wiring short circuit proof and capable of taking a direct 120 VAC hit.
All our products go through exclusive noise testing and have the following ratings:
NEMA ICS 2-230 Showering Arc
ANSI C37, 90a-1974 SWC
Level C Chattering Relay Test