Case Studies
Case Study 1: Medical Product Reliability Testing
A leading medical equipment manufacturer needed help to set reliability goals and perform product reliability testing on their new product. First, DES met with this client to understand their needs. Then, DES helped them identify reliability goals. After the goals were set, DES developed a custom product reliability test plan that defined how the tests would be performed and how the test results would be quantified into a field life. DES designed & built automated test setups and performed life cycle testing on different components of their product. The test results were reported and analyzed with reliability computer software to determine the product's field life or Mean Time To Failure (MTTF). This customer chose DES because we were able to help them through every phase of their reliability program!
Case Study 2: Temperature & Environmental Product Test
A manufacturer of consumer products was looking for a way to quantify their product's field life. Specifically, they were looking for a way to quantify the degradation of their product vs. time in the field. After discussing their project with DES, they ended by saying that they have called many labs, but none of them knew how to help them! DES designed a test plan to expose their products to cyclic temperature and humidity. Severe use field conditions were defined and the conditions were accelerated during testing. Samples were periodically removed during the test and measurements were made. A statistical analysis was performed to demonstrate that the product would not degrade significantly over the customer's 15 year lifetime requirement.
Case Study 3: Fire Safety Product Vibration Testing
Vibration testing was performed on a fire safety product in order to help the customer determine if their product would meet UL specifications. Various iterations of product designs were tested and the results were quantitatively documented to help the customer better understand the effectiveness of the design changes. DES also provided suggestions for design improvements based upon their extensive engineering experience related to vibration testing.
Case Study 4: Environmental Stress Screening (ESS)
DES has partnered with a number of manufacturers that provide components used in the aerospace industry. DES receives finished products from these customers and provides Environmental Stress Screening (ESS) services to ensure that the components are capable of surviving defined stress levels before they are placed into service on aircraft or rockets. As part of the ESS, DES must ensure that the components are handled properly and exposed to the proper stress levels without being overstressed. All testing must be completed in a timely manner in order to meet the customer's shipping schedules.
Case Study 5: Military Product HALT Testing
Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) was performed on military products using DES's accepted procedure. Two products were tested in order to compare the results from an existing proven product vs. a new product. Various stresses were applied to determine the product's temperature and vibration operation and destruct limits. Recoverable operational problems and hard failures were found during testing of both products. Comparison of test conditions at which the failures occurred allowed for a relative comparison of the expected field reliability of the new product. Each of the problems or failures found provided a potential opportunity to improve the reliability of the product.