White Horse is WESTROM’s strategic partner, providing independent electronic component quality control services and testing services for the independent component market in China:

• Established to support OEMs, brokers and distributors operating in the Excess/Surplus/Recycled component market
  
  
• A dedicated team of cross-cultural professionals
  
  
• An unbiased China supplier auditor and training service
  
  
• A comprehensive diagnostic laboratory operating in the heart of China’s electronics center
  
  
• Recognized by EMS, CEM, B2B Trading Platforms, and Escrow providers internationally
  
  
• ISO 9001:2008 Certified

White Horse Laboratories is the first Western-owned and operated independent electronic component testing lab; operating in the Pearl River Delta, the heart of China’s electronics industry.

White Horse Labs is independent and maintains the highest standards and does not purchase, source, broker or manufacture products.

White Horse has the capabilities to test and inspect these types of component parts:

• Analog/Power
• Digital
• Memory
• Logic
• Mixed-Signal
• Integrated circuits and processors
• Passives
• All brands
• All component package types

WESTROM and White Horse
WESTROM is the agent and customer interface representing White Horse Laboratories in North America. White Horse is WESTROM’s strategic partner in China for electrical testing and quality assurance.

We utilize White Horse exclusively for:

• Testing the components we source for our customers from the open Chinese markets
• To assure the quality of components we source for our own China manufacturing operations

The China Open Market for Electronic Components
As technology advances and markets in China continue to improve and grow, the demand for cheap and often sub-standard goods continues to increase. This has led to a thriving component recycling industry in the secondary market:

• Lack of China industry regulation allows unqualified brokers and trading platforms access to markets
  
  
• Emergence of unregulated component salvage operations
  
  
• Continued growth of surplus/excess inventory in China
  
  
• Proliferating "phantom" inventories, substandard and counterfeit components
  
  
• Dwindling surplus/excess inventories in Europe and North America

Consequently, North American customers receive sub-standard second-hand components in poor packaging.

The North American operational costs of these issues can exceed the cost savings of China component sourcing:

• Loss of purchase cost — its “difficult” to return components to China brokers
  
  
• Emergency source replacement parts — frequently air shipped from China
  
  
• Increased safety stock, inventory and working capital
  
  
• Repackaging
  
  
• North American compliance and inspection
  
  
• US assembly line and manufacturing shut-down; cost and revenue impact
  
  
• Warranty and product liability; cost, revenue and market share implications

Failure to adequately inspect and conduct quality assurance can create significant business risk for the company.

A US toy manufacture recently experienced this and was forced to recall large quantities of product, which subsequently led to significantly market share decline. Name withheld to protect the guilty.

White Horse Testing provides WESTROM and our customers the ability to manage China sourcing risks for electronic components AND reduce cost.



Testing & Quality Standards

What constitutes a "good" part?
The answer varies greatly, depending upon the application and the engineers/buyer's standards. Components sourced for an industrial application differ substantially from components sourced for medical applications. The testing standards must reflect the differences.

About 5-15% of the parts received are "perfect" — part orders with legitimate parts, that pass physical and electrical testing, and have pristine packaging and documentation.

Of all parts tested:



75% of the parts are not received in the "quoted" condition
Packaging, count, part type, manufacture verification, et al is incorrect. If an order of recycled parts pass electrical testing and are not counterfeit, they could be repacked and sufficient for your application.

25% of the parts are counterfeit The parts markings have been tampered with or have been remarked. The parts could have been higher quality and remarket to a lower specification. The packaging may be fine and the parts pass electrical testing. This may be acceptable for production.

20% of the parts are electrically sub-standard The parts do not functional perform to specification. How precise or critical is your electrical specification compared to the manufactures specifications. How good is good enough?

Quality Standards, Cost, & Availability Trade-Offs
Ensuring that the quality standard is good enough, but not better, maximizes the availability and cost savings.

For a pacemaker, the only parts available will likely be surplus parts, with full documentation and pristine packaging. The availability of low-cost Chinese sources will be limited and the cost higher, but less than US parts and significantly less than a product recall.

An industrial application might only need parts that pass electrical testing. A larger number of Chinese sources, including salvage components are available leading to high availability, price competition and lower costs.


White Horse Testing Processes
The testing process occurs in four key steps and ends in repackaging and shipping:





Receiving Inspection
The initial inspection validates the relevant information of the original manufacturer, prior incurring additional testing costs. Often components are not packaged according to industry-acceptable standards:

• Matching packing list and purchase order
• Verification of manufacturer, part, number, date code
• Boxes and packaging:
  • Bar Code label health
  • Electrostatic discharge (EDS) packaging compliance
  • Moisture Sensitivity Level (MSL) packaging compliance
  • Packaging style/condition

Visual Inspection
Through visual analysis, technicians can quickly sort through corroded, refaced, and low quality or recycled parts, saving you time and headaches. Inspection is conduced under 40X magnification:

Dimension verification

Marking permanency and remarking, e.g. “blacktopping”

Physical condition

Coplanarity, exposed copper, and contamination

Visual inspection can also be conducted through x-ray analysis to inspect internal damage and internal component specifications:

Examination of wire bonding & solder contacts

Identification of open leads, shorts & cracked dies

Physical Inspection
While destructive test, decapsulation is the best tool to determine the validity of components. Counterfeiters will often remove and reface component exteriors. Decapsulation reveals the die marking number which can be compared to the part number & brand the part was surface marked with removal of plastic or ceramic insulation.



In this example, the component package has been recycled and remarketed as a LT-1013. Decapsulation reveals the actual part is a LM-1580. This part is counterfeit and fails inspection.


Manufacturers and recyclers in China often poorly package the components. In South China where humidity is high, this leads to terminal point corrosion. Terminal points are inspected:

• JEDEC Solid State Technology Association’s J-STD-002 – Solderability Tests for:
  • Component lead terminations
  • Lugs
  • Terminals
  • Wires
• Minimum 95% solder coverage of terminal points
• Dip-and-look test

Regulations for the restriction of hazardous substances differ between countries, sometimes substantially in Chain. Testing is necessary to ensure that complements are in compliance with North American Restriction of Hazardous Substances and lead content. Testing is conducted for material composition and presence of:

• Lead (Pb)
• Cadmium (Cd)
• Mercury (Hg)
• Chromium oxide (Cr IV)
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs)
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)

Electrical Testing
The diagnostic lab has a full array of electrical testing necessary for any quality assurance application. Technicians code full functionality tests, tailored to the specific components tested and the application:

• Full parametric test
• Direct current characteristics
• Application functionality
• Program checking
• Continuity
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