Today I visited the factory manufacturing Argon drives and delivered the testing system as designed earlier and instructed them the usage of it.
Regardless of Asian EMS services eating European manufacturers’ jobs, this company seems to be doing very well. There were brand new SMT pick’n’place machines and nitrogen atmosphere wave soldering equipment waiting for commissioning to increase the number of manufacturing lines. I was told that the nitrogen atmosphere soldering gives better solder quality than normal air atmosphere systems.
It seems that production is little bit behind from the last estimate, but these boards should be ready during this week if they accept the testing system as is. There was some talk about how to change it for their habits better, but I hope its quick change if needed.