Vibration Test System with Slip Table
I have been in the Reliability Test and Simulation Equipment business for almost 3 decades. Experience is the best school in life. The equipment which my company distributes and which we also provide test services for deals with 2 aspects of reliability test for quality control of electronic parts, semiconductor, modules, and finished products such as handphones, sports accessories like Garmin watches and just about anything which has electronic components. We have also branched into the sports and medical industries providing sleep and research chambers for rehabilitation, performance enhancement and various climate tests for elite and national athletes.
Vibration simulation equipment are used critically for prime movers such as cars, trains, Mass Rapid Transit carriages, aircraft and aerospace parts as well as full assembly items.
The reason for testing is focussed on 2 key areas. 1. For the simulation of the environment in which the product about to be launched is to be operating in. For a small example, the car dashboard electronics system needs to be tested in the extremities of the cold and hot temperature ranges, the humidity conditions ranging from 10% to as high as 98%. The rates of change in temperature can be as high as 30 deg C per minute.
For the car electronic ignition system, say for a car being built in humid Malaysia and sold to the cold climate of Korea (hee hee). If the car is left in the street overnight and the owner needs to start the engine, in winter. The engine and hence the electronic ingnition chain will experiece a before starting temprature of (say) -20 deg C. After the engine is started, the ignition will fire up the cylinder heads of the engine and reach temperatures of (inside the 6 cylinder engine) easily 150 deg C all within a few seconds.
Hence, the electronic ignition needs to start the enginer within 1 or max 2 tries. This is the Nissan (or Bosch or etc) requirement standards and hence there will be a temperature shock of 20 +150 or 170 deg C in a minute.
My company sells the 2 zone equipment to simulate that rapid temperature change rate- called a thermal shock chamber.
2. Stress Screening - this type of test is VERY CRUCIAL for all manufacturers to test their new products before they ship out to the field of use. A classic case is the top brand handphone maker's smartphone release in 2016 debacle which was caused by exploding battery system once used after a certain number of hours. In our field of supply, if the manufacturer had taken the precaution of stress screening the final products (the smartphone) using the chambers or vibration system IN THE FACTORY and found out latent defects (hidden defects) it would have SAVED THE COMPANY hundreds of millions of dollars in recall fees, phone swaps and worldwide reputation.
Of course, I am speculating that there was insufficient emphasis spent on the final stress screening tests done in the factory, over the urgency to be the 'first in the market' to shipout and capture maximum number of sales over their arch rivals, worldwide.
The best case scenario could be that the product have been tested and screened (accelerated aging using the reliability equipment) and the exploding lithium battery system found early, vendor asked to replace to a much safer alternative (there always is one or more) and the whole sorry episode would have saved the company untold millions of dollars in recalls and lost reputation.
Another example is much closer to home, a local transport operator is having alot of breakdowns and the inconvenience is affecting people's productivtiy and moods at work (imagine delays and hence you arrive to work late, flustered and sweaty)
This COULD have been avoided by insisting that the supplier / vendor do the required complete testing / screening and quality checks on the rail system IN the factory (yes, the testing is normally 4 - 6 months long) ; any infant mortalities would be replaced IN THE FACTORY and the shipped out parts would have been VERY ROBUST as a result.
Was there the insistence on quality control checks and reliability screening checks on every item supplied by the vendor ? The onus should have been on mid to long term reliability and not cheapest and fastest wins the order.
The current tender system has 2 - 4 parts ; firstly the adherence to specifications ; all suppliers must comply with the first requirement. Secondly the criterion is the lowest price or next to the lowest price as the most competitive bid. Thirdly is the supplier's experience in similar projects and past safety records. Fourthly is the delivery schedule which can be quite challenging as the operator has deadlines and KPIs to meet (more people giving up their cars and using public transport).
All suppliers must meet the requirements, but what is missing is the quality and reliability component of the supplied product ; this will show up not in the first few years of use. It will invariably show up after 3, 4, 5 or longer years after operation.
In their desire to be the best in price and delivery (meeting specs is 100% must), perhaps some have done only minimal reliability testing at the factory ; some may have forgone the testing totally in a bid for shortest lead times and lowered prices.
Again, this is speculation ; but experience on my part tells me some of it is true.
The tendering system whilst good to eliminate obvious illegal practices, is not by any means perfect.
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