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ETI’s Advanced HVAC/R Control Board Solutions

ETI’s HVAC Circuit Board Capabilities and Quality Overview

Our printed circuit board (PCB) assembly experience includes critical components of a wide range of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. These include commercial dehumidifiers and heat transfer equipment, complete building control systems, and sensors for temperature, relative humidity, pressure and air quality monitoring.

In addition to ISO 9001:2015, we adhere to IPC-A-610 class II and III manufacturing practices. We are UL and CSA Certified and provide potting, conformal coating and box build capabilities.

The HVAC/R industry is one of many industries we serve with advanced PCB assembly manufacturing capabilities, including:

BGAs, Micro-BGAs, LGAs and fine pitch devices
Through-hole and surface mounting technology
Lead-free and leaded assemblies
RoHS processes for selective and wave solder
No-clean and aqueous clean processes

Customized Circuit Board Solutions and Wire and Cable Harness Assembly

Customers with mission-critical HVAC/R needs rely on our manufacturing know-how and step-by-step new product introduction (NPI) process. We want to make sure your control board works precisely and reliably in its unique environment, no matter how challenging. Because the PCB makes operational decisions for the HVAC system, the quality of the interconnections is also important, whether it’s a simple wire assembly or a complex communication harness. We can provide an integrated solution of boards and harnesses to simplify your supply chain.

HVAC Circuit Boards for Critical Manufacturing Controls

Many of our PCB assemblies are used in HVAC/R applications in sophisticated manufacturing settings. Basic environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity, must be monitored and controlled to protect sensitive equipment and meet product quality standards, environmental safety standards or health compliance requirements. The building system itself is integral to meeting manufacturing objectives. In a welding plant, for example, control boards are used in total volatile organic compound (VOC) sensors. These sensors must be able to react to all of the 5,000–10,000 unique VOCs and provide an output representing a combined level.

HVAC Control Boards for Challenging Applications

There are everyday HVAC applications, like your office building’s heating and cooling—and then there’s NASA. For our customer BAPI, and their customer, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a division of NASA), we provide board assemblies for immersion sensors. These immersion sensors monitor the temperature of the water jacket that maintains the viscosity of a super-thin layer of lubricant. This system prevents metal-on-metal contact between the base of a 33-story-high antenna and the giant turntable on which it is mounted. Damage would shut down the system—and failure is not an option.

Climate control is important for ancient things, too. Our PCB assemblies are critical components of wireless sensors that help to ensure the preservation of a 2,500-year-old mummy in the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester (NY). Humidity, temperature and other HVAC controls must be carefully maintained within a narrow range to protect this unique artifact.

How HVAC Control Boards Have Changed

Some HVAC control boards are simple. They receive an instruction from the thermostat and transmit that instruction, in the form of voltage, to the appropriate component, like a furnace. However, HVAC systems have become “smarter,” and as a result circuit boards have become more complex, or more specialized, or both. Even a relatively straightforward residential heating and cooling system is likely to have one or more HVAC control boards with additional circuit boards paired with them.

At the other end of the spectrum, a comprehensive industrial control management solution can optimize and automate complex functions of a variety of equipment. Pumps, cooling towers, drying ovens and refrigeration units can be monitored and managed from a single platform. PCB assemblies are integral to all of these HVAC and building control systems.

Electronic Contract Manufacturing