Making electronic controllers for mobile equipment is no simple task.  The typical mobile machine operates in an excruciatingly demanding environment.  The vehicle often vibrates, shudders and moves with large G forces in abrupt and dramatic maneuvers.  It is exposed to extreme temperatures, temperature swings and humidity.  It experiences the indignities of mud, rain, snow, ice, salt spray, pressure washing and a host of other environmental challenges.

It takes years of experience to understand and incorporate the design subtleties and manufacturing and assembly techniques necessary to ensure that mobile electronics can operate reliably over years of service in even the harshest environments.  And then it takes years of testing and fine-tuning to perfect processes to achieve the reliability and robustness that characterizes STW controllers.

STW engineers have been thoroughly enmeshed in this design process for over 20 years.  As one of the pioneering companies in this industry, STW has a host of design engineers who are experts in this field with combined experience of hundreds of years.  They continue to refine their techniques with each new product.  They also gain new understanding from repairs of components returned from the field.  This is one of the reasons why STW repairs its controllers and only replaces them if the damage is too severe to repair.

A big part of creating robust and reliable controllers is the QA process.  STW has been an innovator in this field as well.  Our three phases of quality assurance constitute a rigorous and complete testing of every single controller that we build.  First comes our automated optical inspection (AOI) system, which checks each component and its placement on the PCB and looks for any anomalies.  Then an in-circuit test is performed on every electrical connection in the controller.  The third and final step is a 3-stage burn-in of the controller in a temperature (climate) chamber.  The controller is loaded with test software and all functions are fully tested after equilibrium is reached at the low extreme (-40C), the high extreme (+85C) and at room temperature.