"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 19:15:51 +0100, Farmer Giles wrote:

... giving the set 'a good whack with the flat of the hand on the
casing' is not the recommended method!

So why are three good blows (top and both sides) from a mallet part of
the final testing on Panasonic production lines? This is after they
have been pushed, tube first, off the conveyor onto the a padded mount
at about 45 degrees. This is with the set powered up and a mirror
positioned so that the mallet wanger can see the screen...

Domestic TVs are tough old things. Dropped a 15" colour onto the top
of some shallow concrete steps which it the proceeded to slither down
for 20'. Picked it up, carried it back up, powered up and part from a
few scratches on the case you wouldn't know.


Actually I know what you say to be true. In the seventies I worked at two TV
factories for a spell - Saba in West Germany and ITT in Hastings - and the
mallet test was certainly carried out in Germany (I can't remember if it was
done at ITT). I remember being quite shocked by this because it was a
practice that me and my colleagues in the trade in those days (I had worked
at Radio Rentals for some years) would certainly not have carried out. It is
still my view (obviously not shared by everyone here) that this is not good
practice. Anyway, what you do on the production line - where you're dealing
with a recently asembled chassis, which have entirely different problems to
'in-service' equipment - has little relevance to what you do with customer's
equipment, particularly on their premises.