U.S. Government Finds Thousands Of Counterfeit Electronics From China In Avionic - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Sionyn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 06:50:03 pm
content: The United States military and the federal government's national security agencies are facing an unprecedented infiltration of counterfeit electronic chips, chipsets and components. In a comprehensive government-mandated survey of most of the companies involved in the avionics electronics supply chain, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security found 7,383 electronics counterfeit incidents during 2008. This is up from 5,747 such incidents reported in 2007. It is the first such survey ever done and the results are startlingThe survey was comprehensive: virtually all of the companies and organizations constituting the avionics supply chain were required to participate. Among the 482 companies and organizations completing the 80-question survey were microchip manufacturers, electronic board producers and assemblers, distributors and brokers of electronics parts, prime defense contractors and subcontractors and virtually every DOD arsenal, depot and the Defense Logistics Agency's purchasing offices.http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/08/1117/counterfeitelectronics.html

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 07:00:25 pm
content: Gee, you mean when there is money and unscrupulous people you get fakery...........

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 07:00:35 pm
content: This has been known for some time, and is very scary. Then again, if the military were smaller, there would be less of a problem here.

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 07:02:13 pm
content: A bigger worry is the amount of counterfeit prescription drugs hitting (especially the) US market.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 07:16:22 pm
content: Fake drugs are only a worry at the bottom and the top. At the top the profit is insane, and at the bottom the volume is ginormous.

author: Leo Bodnar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 07:37:23 pm
content: I think massive bureaucracy and lack of common sense is part of the problem.I have supplied Lockheed Martin with some simple electronics in the past. Possibly some guy bought a joystick controller for a prototype or an office prank. Somehow they have put me in their suppliers database, assigned a login and started sending emails reminding to fill in pages and pages of irrelevant info. I got around 50 emails in total with 20+ acronyms in each.I thought I could stop this by filling in the forms but gave up after few hours and put them on a spam list.I remember reading analysis of this situation before and it all seem to have started from the point where US government relaxed supply chain rules and enforced equal opportunities. Serious, vetted companies were often outbid by cottage industry suppliers with an army veteran or minority couple selling to military contractors components literally bought on Chinese street markets. Chips desoldered on an open fire were sold as NOS for use in servicing ageing military equipment, etc. I think some people ended up in jail for this.Leo

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 07:46:26 pm
content: The rise of the eBay vendor........... Often nothing more than a post box, a rented office cube in a farm and a phone, along with a home computer used as the whole business. Only reason for the cube in a farm was to have deliveries from Fedex, all others went to the box.

author: Prizmatic
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2012, 09:01:12 pm
content: The processOld news clip

author: Harvs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2012, 12:03:15 pm
content: Whilst this is a NAVAIR instigated report, and so specifically looks at the US DoD avionics supply chain, the prevelence of what we refer to as "bogus parts" in the avation industry has been rife for many years. I guess it's just the chips are giving NAVAIR the willies, but it's throughout the civilian aviation industry as well.I use to work for a company that maintained a fleet of piston engined aircraft and we saw all sorts of things come through. Pistons that I recon were for a bigblock chev relabeled (but of course didn't look like the original), new props that were just old ones with a coat of paint, etc etc.If someone can repaint an old part (life expired prop for example) or rebadge something, then get someone with the appropriate signiture to sign against it, then they stand to make a lot of money...You just have to hope your last line of defence, the tech on the ground, can pick it up before it's fitted and your life depends on it @ 38,000ft.

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2012, 08:01:16 pm
content: and if 1 fails from such issue. and the plane crashes, they should hang up the supplier+peeps who originally sold that part as a new one which should have been disassembled and molten into something else. thats sure not only 1 person do all that buisness. every material has a breaking point and it wont be as strong as a newly crafted one from a simple layer of paint.as for the elctronics part every company deserves their fate when they buy from ebay... especially from china or associated countries who "recycle" scrapped electronics then sell it as surplus or new parts... i would gladly give a pacemaker for them what is made of these scrapped parts.

author: ptricks
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2012, 12:59:36 pm
content: They removed the oversight on a lot of things in the USA. Hell, we can't even get them to sign a budget for the last 4 years and they still are acting like children when it comes to deciding something. You know the country is going down the tubes when senators quit the job. Imagine a politician who is so disgusted with the situation that they resign because they say they can do more as a private person.Once the politicians stop doing there jobs, rules get relaxed , companies pay off the purchasers and the whole thing becomes really dangerous for the military. Years ago when I was in the military, parts we used were vetted on our side as well as the manufacturers side. In recent years though that got changed to 'the manufacturers word is good enough'