claude-andrew Aug 17, 2010:

Bascially agree with Tony I've just submitted an alternative answer - more or less Tony's but with the more common "controle". There are a few googles.

Tony M Aug 17, 2010:

Yes, Suzanne... ...that's exactly what I said from the start, isn't it?

Suzanne Barbeau (asker) Aug 17, 2010:

Right : it is I beleive a "contrôleur de circuit imprimé".
"Board" might well be a "circuit board", but I
think the term scale here makes reference to something else. Just have
a look at the second sentence "It inspects boards...": this
excludes that it is a board itself. Hence, I would say "board
scale" is some kind of measuring or checking instrument for
circuit boards.

The EUT (Equipment Under Test) is a board scale. It inspects boards by
means of X-ray and detects fluctuations and tolerance deviations.

So I bekleive we could close the discussion unless you want to do otherwise.

Suzanne Barbeau (asker) Aug 17, 2010:

ok

Tony M Aug 17, 2010:

Right! Now it begins to make much more sense... let's look then at what DE word might have been (mis!)translated as 'scale'...

I wouldn't mind betting it is something like 'Maßstab', which might equally well be some kind of 'measurement jig', I believe — I think we're getting somewhere now, but I'd suggest you consult with our DE/EN colleagues.

Suzanne Barbeau (asker) Aug 17, 2010:

this English text comes from Germany...

Tony M Aug 17, 2010:

Yes, indeed... What is much less obvious is why the word 'scale' would have been sued in the first place, and given the other anomalies (e.g. 'amount of wires'), I very strongly suspect a translation... but what is the probable source language, please?

Suzanne Barbeau (asker) Aug 17, 2010:

Il est évident que le texte concerne les rayons X (X ray's)

Suzanne Barbeau (asker) Aug 17, 2010:

It seems obvious that, in this context, "carte de circuit imprimé" (circuit board) should be the right word. It is absolutely NOT a scale to weight in transportation and freight. Look at other sentences of the context :

A PC inside the control cabinet controls the whole activities, collects and evaluates the measured data. The test setup is given in Fig. 1-1. The numbers mentioned close to the cables express the amount of cables.

For the measurement of the conducted and radiated emission the shutter was closed and the X-ray’s parameter were set to 30 kV, 20 mA. During all immunity tests the shutter was open, the parameter set to 30 kV, 10mA and a sample was inspected

Tony M Aug 17, 2010:

board = circuit board From the information we do have, I'd say this is a device for inspecting circuit boards (possibly printed circuit boards or PCBs); the worrying bit is 'scale', since at first sight, one wouldn't expect this to be anything to do with weighing as such; hence why one of the other possible meanings of 'scale' is probably more likely, though i suspect in fact it is a mis-translation from another language to start with; the important thing is to know which, so we can try a little educated guesswork by back-translating!

Tony M Aug 17, 2010:

NO! Without further information I can't tell you what it is — but I can confirm with a high degree of certainty what it is not!

The other kind of '(on-)board scale' (in a totally different context of transportation and freight) would refer to 'a scale that was installed on board' — but here, I believe we are talking about 'a scale for boards'.

HOWEVER, there is another problem which will probably have to be resolved before a proper answer can be found: is this in fact reliable EN, or a translation from some other source language? The reason I ask is that there are various clues in the text which point to non-native-quality EN, and I have serious doubts that the word 'scale' is being correctly used here; but as the word is ambiguous in EN, we really need to get to the bottom of the true intended meaning, in order to clear the ambiguity and avoid making a potentially ridiculous translation error.