Astute is the first British and first European company to gain certification and the fourth company in the world to achieve this. Astute is also the first company worldwide to have more than one location certified (UK and USA).
AS 6081 standardises practices and methods to mitigate the risks of purchasing and supplying fraudulent/counterfeit electronic parts. It covers the identification of reliable sources to procure parts; assessing and mitigation risk of distributing fraudulent/counterfeit parts; control of suspect or confirmed fraudulent/counterfeit parts and; reporting suspect and confirmed fraudulent/counterfeit parts to other potential users.
Geoff Hill, MD of Astute Electronics, said: “Astute has been at the leading edge of preventing counterfeit components entering the supply chain for many years now. Back in 2006 we identified that industry needed to take this issue more seriously.
“Since then we have invested over £1m in test facilities in the UK which are used to determine the authenticity of any components that we source which do not come with full manufacturers’ tracing documentation – a situation that mostly occurs in the course of sourcing obsolescent components. We also have set up a similar facility in our premises in the USA.”
Astute uses scanning electron microscopy equipment to check to see if the part has the right marking and materials, and also to compare parts against a library of known good parts it has built up. Therefore, if a component shows up with a different material construction it can be identified immediately as a counterfeit.
Hill added: “Our test facility allows us to check the ‘DNA’ of a device against a proven ‘gold standard’ in order to determine whether or not the part is genuine or counterfeit. We are proud and delighted to be able to offer our customers the highest levels of protection.”
