Engineering - Royal Australian Navy

Naval Engineering Bulletin • June 2001
FIMA Sydney Circuit Card Assembly—Test
and Repair Facility
By LEUT Kirsten DAVIS, RAN
What is the CCA-TRF?
Test Equipment
The Fleet Intermediate Maintenance Activity - Sydney
(FIMA-S) is responsible to Commander Fleet Maintenance
(CFM) for providing intermediate maintenance assistance
for rectification of defects beyond the normal capacity or
capabilities of ships’ staff.
Within FIMA-S is the Circuit Card Assembly Test and Repair
Facility (CCA-TRF), commonly referred to as the ‘FIMA
PCB Lab’. It is the primary facility for Intermediate Level
test and repair of Circuit Card Assemblies (CCAs).
Capabilities of the CCA-TRF
Last year, the FIMA CCA-TRF received approximately 200
analogue and digital Circuit Card Assemblies (CCAs) for testing
and repair. Most of these CCAs came from the Logistics
Support Organisation (LSA), directly off ships (on a Maintenance
Control Record (TM200) basis) and from system trainers
on Garden Island. Recently, the lab has also undertaken
an Ordnance Alteration (ORDALTS) and Report of Defective
Material or Design (TM179) action for the LSA and Mobile
Operational Technical Unit (MOTU).
Located on Level 3 in Building 79 at Fleet Base East, the
CCA-TRF also operates as a ‘drop in’ centre offering troubleshooting
assistance for urgent repair work for ships
alongside.
There are over 1400 Test Program Sets (TPSs) that support
CCAs from numerous systems including Mk-92 Fire Control
System, Mark 15 Close-In
Weapon System (CIWS), SPS-49 Radar
and Peripheral Control Systems.
The CCA-TRF uses these test programs
to diagnose and pinpoint the
location of possible components that
may be causing the CCA to fail.
Two types of automatic test stations are currently used by
the CCA-TRF to functionally test the CCAs. These are the
M3-ATS and the Genrad 2225. Both these stations run test
programs that determine whether or not a CCA is serviceable.
If the CCA is non-serviceable a list of possible faulty
components is generated which are then tested individually
to isolate the faulty components.
The M3 Automatic Test Station is a freestanding unit that
contains a suite of VXI and GPIB instruments. All TPSs for
the M3-ATS are developed in TestBasic and are used to control
the instruments to exercise the CCA with predetermined
stimuli and then compare the measured response against
the expected response.
The RAN’s main method of in circuit testing is the GenRad
2225. The Genrad 2225 is a digital circuit tested with limited
analogue capability. It was first introduced in to the
RAN in the early 1980s and has proved to be a reliable and
effective test station. TPSs that run on this station can isolate
to individual component level.
FIMA Sydney CCA-TRF is the also only designated Australian
Defence Force repair agent for the Genrad. The USN no
longer supports the Genrad or by Genrad Inc. and as the
predominant user of the Genrad, the RAN provides user
training and maintenance, repair and calibration actions on
the Genrad for both the RAAF and the Army.
Following fault detection on an automatic test station, diagnostic
tools are used to further isolate the faulty component.
The RAN’s most commonly
used diagnostic tools are the
Huntron range of instruments including
the Huntron 5100DS. The
5100DS interfaces with a computer,
where the signature of a component
being tested is compared with
a signature stored in a computer
database. These stored signatures
are part of a signature set for the
entire CCA, which is known as a
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