DES, Author at Delserro Engineering Solutions

MIL-STD-810 Vibration Testing Overview

This is part one of a series of blog posts discussing MIL-STD 810 Vibration Testing. This blog was written with reference to MIL-STD-810G w/Change 1 dated 15 April 2014. DES has the experience and expertise to help you determine what profiles are appropriate for your product and to run your MIL-STD-810 vibration test. Check out our vibration testing capabilities here.

MIL-STD-810 is a public military test standard that is designed to assist in the environmental engineering considerations for product design and testing. For the purposes of this blog series we will focus on Method 514.7, titled Vibration. This section defines the environmental vibration conditions a material or product may experience during the product life cycle and translates these conditions into replicable test procedures. Unfortunately, unless you’re familiar with this document, this section or any section for that matter may seem a little daunting. This blog will hopefully provide some guidance into navigating your way through it.

vibration testing standard MIL-STD-810 — **Figure 1. Table 514.7-I from MIL-STD-810G w/ Change 1**

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Door Open/Close Accelerated Life Test Case Study

Customer Goal

A customer contacted DES, seeking to create a reliability test plan for their product based on customer usage, new features and design limits. One of the concerns identified by the customer was the need for an accelerated life test which tested whether their “door assembly” product met the design specification for usage. In other words, the goal was to create an automated test solution which opened and closed cabinet doors to the estimated amount they would see during a lifetime in the field.

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Circuit Board HALT Testing Case Study

Customer Goal

A customer approached DES looking to perform Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) on a new circuit board design. DES and the customer agreed to test the circuit boards using DES’s traditional HALT test procedure which calls for hot/cold temperature steps followed by rapid temperature ramping, vibration steps and combined temperature and vibration stresses. HALT testing on electrical componentry is quite common across industry to expose design weaknesses; both mechanical and electrical (What is HALT and Why Perform HALT?). Typical failures include poor solder connections, overheating, component failure, etc. (What Kind Of Failures Occur During HALT?)

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Rapid HALT – A Cost Effective Alternative to HALT

Rapid Highly Accelerated Life Testing or Rapid HALT is a reliability test method that is used to expose product weaknesses. A Rapid HALT procedure is a modification of a Classical HALT procedure. For more information about Classical HALT procedures, refer to the following blog articles:

A Rapid HALT is an abbreviated HALT, typically one day of tests, making it a great cost-effective solution for those seeking faster qualitative results. Exposing a product to a Rapid HALT early in the design process can help reduce product development time and cost by enabling manufacturers to identify flaws or areas of improvement before it’s too late.

Rapid HALT’s are a good tool for assessing the reliability of different suppliers of components but can also be used to assess the reliability of less complicated products. For example, DES has performed Rapid HALT’s to evaluate the reliability of different suppliers of power supplies, cooling fans, and LED’s. DES has also performed a Rapid HALT to study different fastening methods in order to determine which was more robust.

Figure 1. DES Rapid HALT Profile

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Qualification Testing on Aerospace Connectors

DES recently performed qualification testing on aerospace connectors which involved combined temperature and sinusoidal vibration testing, random vibration testing and shock testing. Combined temperature and sinusoidal vibration tests were performed per EIA 364-28F. EIA 364-28F required test conditions of 10-2000 Hz, 20G maximum acceleration sweeps at temperatures of -54°C and 200°C over the course of 4 hours per axis. Random vibration tests were also performed per EIA 364-28F. Random vibrations at 50-2000 Hz, 46.3 Grms were applied to the connectors for 8 hours per axis. The random vibrations were applied at room temperature. Finally, the connectors were subjected half sine shocks per EIA 364-27C. The shock requirements were three shocks per polarity, per axis at 300G over the duration of 3msec. A sample shock plot can be seen in Figure 1.

Sample Shock Testing Chart — **Figure 1 – Sample Shock Test Plot**

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Package Testing Using Combined Temperature & Vibration

Nowadays global markets and expedited shipping methods expose packages to less than ideal conditions during the transport process. International Safe Transit Association (ISTA), International Air Transport Association (IATA), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) all contain protocols and requirements used to evaluate product package design. Some of these test profiles require combined environments such as combined temperature and vibration testing. This type of testing requires specialized equipment, set up and experience from the lab conducting the test.

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Fastener Vibration Testing

DES recently performed fastener vibration testing per MIL standard, MIL-F-25173A. MIL-F-25173A is a military specification aimed at determining qualification criteria for aircraft fasteners and equipment. In this case, DES focused on the vibration testing of a particular fastener to be used in aircraft applications. Tests were conducted on DES’s Unholtz-Dickie Electrodynamic Shaker. The MIL-F-25173A standard requires specimens to be subject to sinusoidal vibration testing, cycled between 10 and 55 Hz uniformly and with a constant 0.06 inDA displacement. Tests shall span the course of 90 minutes over three perpendicular axes.

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Cooling Fan Reliability Testing Case Study

Customer Challenge

A customer approached DES looking to find an accelerated test solution for an AC powered cooling fan used in one of their products. The product had been established in the marketplace and the company was now looking for ways to reduce cost by looking at different cooling fan suppliers. Most fans, however, have a mean life rated for over 20,000 hours, so a typical accelerated life test would require a significant amount of time and money.

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ASTM D7386-12 Package Testing

DES recently performed package testing per ASTM standard, ASTM D7386-12.

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Choosing A Vibration Test Lab Part 2

Part 2 – Selecting a Lab and Performing Your Test

If you have not done so yet, please check out Part 1 – Defining your project and Obtaining a Quote.

You obtained quotes from a couple of vibration test labs. Your next task is to select a vibration test lab to perform your vibration test. Your selection should not be based upon price alone. Factors that should affect which lab you choose are capability, cost, timing, location, quality, and other special requirements.

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