With advances in technology and such trends as the shifting of production overseas, diversification of customer needs and increased concern for the global environment, the business environment is changing dramatically.
To “provide high quality products that satisfy customer needs,” Fuji Electric has adopted a basic policy of “quality first,” and is incorporating standardization of its quality assurance system and its production technology, and building in of quality and reliability into the, development and production processes. Fuji Electric is working to improve reliability through the use of simulation technology to attain reliable designs and by promoting training about quality that supports its production activities. Fuji Electric is also implementing measures to prevent the recurrence of problems that resulted from product failure.

The geothermal fluid used at a geothermal power plant contains impurities and gases that lead to corrosion and gas stagnation which may decrease the availability and performance of equipment. To prevent this, Fuji Electric selects materials and applies processing technology to enhance the corrosion-resistance of steam turbines, extracts gas efficiently to improve condenser performance, and implements other various measures to protect generators from corrosive gas. Additionally, Fuji incorporates HAZOP (hazard and operability study) principles into its plant designs and has developed a steam purity monitor to improve operation stability and safety. In these manners, Fuji Electric is enhancing the reliability of individual equipment as well as that of entire plants.

Beverage vending machines must be able to supply products safely and securely, and to satisfy customers at all times. Furthermore, high quality and high reliability are also required to maintain the vending function in all sorts of environments. Quality and reliability are built into Fuji Electric’s beverage vending machines from the planning stage through the DR (design review) stage so that these vending machines attain the desired FQCDS (function, quality, cost, delivery and service). The DR stage includes a primary DR for assuring the quality from development through market launch, an advanced function DR for adopting new functions in vending machine, and a software DR for vending machine control.

In order to improve safety, convenience and comfort in the automobiles, mechanical parts are rapidly incorporating electronic features. Automotive semiconductors, should they fail, may cause a vehicle to stop. Accordingly, the required levels for quality and reliability are very high since ensuring safety is the top priority. Fuji Electric is closely involved in all phases, from development and design to production of its automotive semiconductors, in order to achieve the desired quality. During the design stage, Fuji Electric performs power cycle life evaluations and simulation verifications of automotive IGBTs（Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor. In the production stage, Fuji Electric is working to build-in quality into the mass production and, in particular, to improve error detection sensitivity and to strengthen accidental oversight prevention technology.

Molded case circuit breakers and earth leakage circuit breakers are critical safety devices that must satisfy strict conditions in order to receive product standard certification, and high quality and reliability are required in all such products. Fuji Electric incorporates the latest analytical techniques and component technologies into these products and builds in quality and reliability at every stage, from development and design through product assembly. Fuji Electric has adopted a“ craftsmanship philosophy” regarding product construction, and is moving ahead with plans for producing molded parts in-house, improving the reliability of bonding technology, increased usage of IT technology, constructing a production management system, and constructing a maintenance management system in order to incorporate quality and reliability into its products.

Most component products have parts formed by press-molding, and the quality of the mold used has a large impact on the final product quality. By previously investigating and predicting variable factors that significantly affect quality, Fuji Electric is applying its mold technology and processing knowhow, which minimizes the fluctuation in processed parts arising from such variable factors, to manufacture molds and supply them to production sites throughout the world. Through efforts to improve mold technology, which include applying analytical techniques and quality engineering to improve the dimensional stability of processed parts, extending the mold service life to improve utilization rates, and preventing mold contamination in order to improve the quality of molded products, Fuji Electric is contributing to the realization of higher product quality and reliability.

To enhance product reliability through reducing stress, vibration and temperature, Fuji Electric is advancing the development and application of mechanical system simulations with a focus on strength, vibration and thermal cooling. For vibration analysis, Fuji Electric has established vibration simulation technology for the purpose of avoiding resonance with the electromagnetic forces at the turbine generator stator coil end windings, applying it to products development. In the field of cooling design, Fuji Electric is working to ensure the thermal reliability of products and for general-purpose inverters has developed simulation technology that analyzes the current flow to compute the distribution of heat generated in the main circuit wiring and also estimates the temperature of the product, including the heat sink and printed circuit board.

EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) technology improves the reliability of electrical and electronic equipment against malfunctions and electromagnetic interference. Power electronics devices such as inverters and the like become sources of significant amounts of electromagnetic noise caused by high-frequency semiconductor switching, and therefore a reduction in electromagnetic noise to tolerable levels is required. Fuji Electric uses several types of analysis software to estimate the amount of generated electromagnetic noise (conduction noise and radiation noise), and is promoting the application of EMC front-loading design to products prior to prototyping. This technology contributes to improving the reliability of power electronics devices themselves as well as peripherals devices.

Embedded devices are incorporating increasingly diverse product functions, and ever-higher levels of performance are required. During hardware development, Fuji Electric introduces SI analysis, electromagnetic analysis and thermal analysis techniques to improve quality of the developed printed circuit board, and also creates the common parts database of Fuji Electric to ensure reliability from early on. During software development, Fuji ensures reliability through the use of embedded platforms and product line development technology, and by continuously implementing improvements to the development process. In addition, elemental technologies for functional safety are used to enhance the reliability of embedded products.

To ensure and/or improve product quality and reliability, it is necessary to identify failure modes and degraded modes and then, based thereon, to screen parts and improve reliability so as to ensure the initial quality. Reliability must also be evaluated under actual usage conditions. In the evaluation of quality, which is important for preventing premature failure, Fuji Electric assesses electrical and strength characteristics, which are basic product characteristics, and also carries out nondestructive testing and assesses noise characteristics and the like. In the evaluation of reliability to assess durability, accelerated life tests (corrosion, fatigue, vibration evaluation, etc.) are carried out to improve product reliability and elongate the product life. Fuji Electric is also working on recurrence preventive measures based on failure analysis, and preventive maintenance based on a remaining life assessment.

To ensure product quality and reliability, during the development and manufacturing processes, a wide variety of analytical techniques are needed to collect and assess data that substantiates the reliability. For Fuji Electric’s power semiconductors, secondary ion mass spectrometry is used to analyze the deep diffused structure of dopants (trace amounts of additive elements) and backscattered electron diffraction is used to analyze the microscopic crystalline structure at junctions. For magnetic recording media, a transmission electron microscope and X-ray absorption fine structure analysis that uses radiation equipment are used to assess and validate the quality and thickness of the magnetic recording layer and protective film.