Accelerated & environmental stress testing
Ensuring every product is rugged rated
Rigorous testing is conducted daily in our state-of-the-art Environmental Stress Test Lab to build rugged and reliable communications equipment for harsh industrial environments.
Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT)
HALT is used during the early product research and design phase to eliminate marginally performing components and manufacturing processes – this is how Siemens ensures that RUGGEDCOM products are designed to perform reliably over their entire intended service lives.
During the HALT process, RUGGEDCOM products are clamped onto a vibration table with thermocouples and accelerometers connected for monitoring. Real time data is collected over the entire process to create precise testing profiles and refine product designs.
These are the various test cycles conducted during the HALT process:
- Heat cycle: starting temperature of +30° C to the maximum product operating temperature of approximately +125° C
- Cold cycle: starting temperature of +30° C to the lowest product operating temperature of -90° C
- Rapid temperature cycle: consecutive hot and cold cycles
- Vibration cycle: continuous 6 degrees of freedom (DoF) repetitive shock vibration with a maximum setting of 50 Grms
- Combined cycle: thermal extremes, intense thermal ramp rates, and continuous 6 DoF repetitive shock vibration
- Profile time: typically 1 to 2 weeks
Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS)
HASS subjects RUGGEDCOM products to tougher conditions than they will encounter in the field. This is how Siemens ensures minimal early life failures and achieves mean-time-between-failures (MTBFs) that set the standard for the industry and demonstrable in the field. This screening test is used during manufacturing cycles to ensure that items released from our production lines have zero manufacturing errors.
These are the various test cycles conducted during the HASS process:
- Heat cycle: starting temperature of +30° C to the maximum product operating temperature to ensure that the RUGGEDCOM product will run consistently at +85° C
- Cold cycle: starting temperature of +30° C to the lowest product operating temperature to ensure that the RUGGEDCOM product will run consistently at -40° C
- Rapid temperature cycle: consecutive hot and cold cycles
- Vibration cycle: continuous 6 degrees of freedom (DoF) vibration with a maximum setting of 15 Grms
- Combined cycle: thermal extremes, intense thermal ramp rates, and continuous 6 DoF vibration
- Profile time: typically 2 hours
Temperature & Humidity Stress Screening (THSS)
Humidity is an essential environmental parameter that is analyzed by the Siemens team to further improve product reliability. The THSS test is performed within a humidity chamber which exposes RUGGEDCOM products to water vapor. Data is then collected and analyzed to ensure that RUGGEDCOM products perform beyond industry standards.
