FSIP has been remanufacturing electronics used in electric vehicles for over 45 years. It all started when a customer walked in with a controller we hadn’t seen before, and asked if we could repair it. Our expertise was with electronics in the aviation industry, but we were sure willing to try.
Today, we’re still growing our business and servicing our customers with that same ‘can-do’ attitude through our RPEngineering Service. Although we fully remanufacture over 8,500 different part numbers, we often get requests for electronic parts not in our program. Over the years, we have seen unique request like circuit boards from treadmills to vending machines and printers.
If you’ve ever called us with a part number that we weren’t able to cross reference in our system, you’ve likely heard of this service. We have an engineer on staff whose largest responsibility is to repair the unique stuff that you encounter in the field.
When you send us in something that is not part of our remanufacturing program, we’ll ask some questions regarding what the part is coming out of. This will include the make, model and serial number of the unit. In addition, we’ll ask what the part is used for. Any parts or service manuals you have for the unit are always helpful to our engineer.
Even though we tend to see a lot of random electronics, we’ve found that the integrated circuits tend to be the same type from unit to unit. So, once we determine the function of a component and what the unit might do as part of the system, we are able to identify when the circuits aren’t functioning properly.
The first step in determining the failure is a visual inspection, followed by static electrical tests of components most likely to fail. From there, we determine how to power up the unit. For example in the case of a motor controller, we check that the micro is running by looking at its clock and then check to see if it is communicating with any flash memory and serial EEPROM and if CAN signals are present.
Once the failure is determined, our engineer faces the next hurdle in repairing your unit: finding parts. Electronic components become obsolete very quickly due to ever evolving technology. Often we’ll need to review a data sheet to be able to determine and source an appropriate substitute part to repair the unit.
Because these units aren’t part of our remanufacturing program, we often don’t have equipment to fully test the unit as a functional whole. We check the component and ensure functions work that didn’t work previously. Our strict adherence to our quality policy doesn’t allow us to offer a warranty on units that are repaired through our RPEngineering service because we are unable to fully test the unit. But we’ve found that there aren’t a lot of options in the field for repair of some of these items. And if we were able to repair it once, we are likely able to repair it again. This gives you and your customers the opportunity to extend the life of the vehicle, printer, treadmill, vending machine, or whatever it is in which the faulty unit is used.
If you’ve got a weird electrical unit in need of repair– call us today to learn more about our RPEngineering Service! 1-800-333-1194
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