CVG Strategy Offers Product Test Management Services
Product Test Management Services can assist in keeping product development schedules on track during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many product developers are already behind schedule due to lock downs. Sending engineering staff on travels to laboratory may not be a desirable option at this time. CVG Strategy can help by providing a number of services to ensure that your product test and evaluation are performed properly.
Solutions for Product Testing
The CVG Strategy test and evaluation team have decades of experience in product test management. We can provide everything from defining test requirements to creating final test report summaries. We have expertise in climatic, dynamic, ingress, product safety, EMI/EMC, and electrical test methods. Services we provide include:
Test Standard Research
Life Cycle Environmental Profile for Reliability Analysis
Susceptibility Analysis
Test Requirement Analysis
Design of Required Simulation and Monitoring Equipment
Vibration Test Fixture Design
Test Plan Development
Test Scheduling
On Site Test Witnessing
Subject Matter Expertise for Pre and Post Test Evaluation
Third Party Advocate for Your Product
Product Test Laboratories, by definition, are limited in their ability to act as an advocate for your product. Additionally, because of their customer load, they are unable to provide in depth attention to details such as product modes of operation. Testing is complicated, expensive, and important for product verification and validation. Attention to details can catch intermittent susceptibilities and vulnerabilities that can lead to product recalls and liabilities. They can also prevent under or over test conditions that would invalidate test results.
The collection of pertinent data is very important in testing. It is essential for post test analysis of failures. It is also necessary for test replication where sensor placements and device under test set up are critical. CVG Strategy can provide through all of its services an attention to detail that is borne out of experience in hundreds of test programs.
Sectors of Product Test Management Service Experience
CVG Strategy has experience in the test and evaluation of many product sectors. These include:
Defense
Commercial
Automotive
Aerospace
Ingress Protection
HALT and HASS
We can provide Subject Matter Expertise to assist in design analysis and troubleshooting for these sectors that can prevent recurrent test failures.
See How We Can Help
Contact Us today to see how we can help keep your product development on schedule. We also offer EZ-Test Plan Templates for a number of test standards.
What Test Witnesses Need to Know About Accelerometers and Laboratory Testing
Shock and Vibration analysis utilizing accelerometers and laboratory testing is a requirement for many commercial and defense standards. Because accelerometers provide the feedback to the excitation system, proper selection and placement is essential. To achieve optimal testing validity the test witness and test manager should have some knowledge about accelerometers and how they are used so as to provide valuable information to the laboratory personnel setting up the test.
Pre-test Preparation for Dynamic Testing
Having a fixture that is designed for your test item is optimal. Having the same fixture to mount your test item on ensures that a test is repeatable. This fixture should be characterized prior to testing so that no resonances or nulls to the shock or vibration profile are being introduced to the Unit Under Test (UUT). Fasteners used should be characteristic of those to be used in the product’s intended installation and should be tightened to the specified torque. Furthermore the UUT should be mounted on the fixture identically for all tests.
Know the Parameters of the Tests
Because of the wide range of possibilities, it is important that the test witness be aware of the characteristics of the profiles to be used in a dynamic tests. These characteristics include the frequency range and the amplitudes. It is a good idea to review this information from the test plan with the laboratory test engineer to ensure proper accelerometer selection. Selection of an appropriate accelerometer is essential because of the wide variety of usable frequency range and amplitude scale.
Mounting of the Accelerometers
The method of mounting an accelerometer can greatly effect its frequency response. Methods for mounting include stud mounting, adhesive, and adhesive mounting pad.
When practical stud mounting provides the maximal frequency response. Often a coupling fluid such as grease or beeswax is used to enhance frequency response to compensate for surface flatness or roughness. If these are used the specific medium used should be documented so that the test parameters can be replicated.
There are small differences between adhesives in their frequency responses. Often Loctite 454 is used. Generally these work well. For testing where large forces are at play however, such as hammer shock tests used in shipboard shock and ballistic shock, adhesives are not advised. These adhesives can fail during the test resulting in necessary retest and possible over test of the UUT.
Once the location of the accelerometer(s) have been established and validated the locations and means of mounting should be documented. Documentation, preferably by photo, should also show the means of securing the accelerometer wiring because base strains caused by wiring can effect the response of the sensor.
Other Considerations
The vast majority of test laboratory engineers are well informed about the dynamic testing they perform on a regular basis. They however, need to know about any specific information particular to the UUT. If dynamic testing is to be conducted with the UUT in an operational state, areas that reach high temperatures should be noted. If these areas are used for mounting the test engineer may have to utilize thermal compensation. Additionally if the UUT generates extreme magnetic fields shielding might be required.
CVG Stategy Test and Evaluation Experts
CVG Strategy has performed test and evaluation for a wide range of commercial and military applications. We have extensive experience in dynamic, climatic, and EMI/EMC. We can provide test program management, test witnessing, test program documentation, and product evaluation. Contact us to see how we can help you get the most from your test and evaluation program.
Effective Test Program Management Requires Planning
Effective Test Program Management can add value to product development when its true value has been identified. Too often product testing is left to the last moment, calls are made to test laboratories to ask what testing is required. Equipment and somebody from the engineering team is transported off to a test lab and money and time is spent. Hopefully testing is “passed” and requirements have been met to sell the product, but what has really been accomplished?
The Role of the Test Lab
Test Laboratories offer valuable services. As such, finding a lab that can fill your requirements, provide flexible scheduling, and help keep the project in budget is important. Maintaining good working relationships with those facilities is important.
The role of the lab, however, is by definition limited. As an accredited third party evaluator they cannot act as an advocate for your product. They can recommend a test matrix or provide a minimum criteria for product certification but ultimate responsibility for what testing is done lays with the test program manager. Recommendations for testing should be reviewed in detail however as in many instances unnecessary testing may be performed.
The Role of the Test Program Manager
Assessing Test Requirements
Developing a thorough understanding of relevant standards and compliance requirements is the responsibility of the test program manager. Understanding the procedures to be performed will allow for proper scheduling. It will also help in the development of appropriate fixtures, simulation equipment, and monitoring equipment.
Looking Beyond Compliance
Because product liability is becoming an increasing issue, product testing must consider testing beyond compliance requirements. Performing a Life Cycle Environmental Profile and/or Susceptibility Analysis can be valuable in identifying product vulnerabilities. A test matrix can then be created that includes appropriate evaluation methodologies to verify a design’s safety and ability to maintain customer satisfaction.
Test Program Documentation
Test Labs are beset with requests to perform testing without sufficient documentation. While many types of testing are not tailorable, most standards still require documentation that provides descriptions of operational modes, power requirements, emergency shutdown procedures, and definitions of normal operation. This documentation allows test lab personnel to make evaluations based on pass/fail criteria specific to the equipment being tested. For those test methodologies that do require tailoring such as MIL-STD-810 or EN 61326-1:2013 test plans must be developed that specify procedures, severities, and appropriate data collection.
Hardware for Testing
Time must be taken to design and construct the equipment needed for test. This equipment may include:
Vibration Fixtures
Extension Cables
Simulation Equipment
Stimulation Equipment
Monitoring Equipment
Dummy Loads
Care should be taken to consider test lab chamber and facility limitations when designing this equipment. Simulation, stimulation, and monitoring equipment are extremely important in capturing intermittent failures. This equipment is also required for pretest, during test, and post test functional and operational checks.
Many people will have the test lab provide a vibration fixture. Test lab fixtures are often in a constant state of modification as customers drill holes for their tests. This means that even if the same piece of hardware is available at subsequent tests it will not be the same as when used before. This may degrade the ability to accurately recreate previous testing. Therefore it is considered a best practice to have a custom fixture.
Test Witnessing
Effective test program management requires active test witnessing. Care must be taken to ensure that testing is performed as prescribed in the test plan. Proper set up and pre-test operational testing should confirm that the equipment under test is working and functional. Test witnesses can often assist lab personnel by monitoring equipment and confirming the status of the equipment. Test witnesses should also collect data over and beyond that required by the lab so that test can accurately be reproduced. Should any failure of test be encountered, the test witness should gather all data relevant for later analysis. The witness should also, when appropriate, troubleshoot and determine root causes for failures.
Documentation
Documentation of testing should be created from test witness gathered data and test lab reports into a summary document that provides an overview that can be used to show due diligence and act as a guide for future product development in term of “lessons learned. Any certifications or right to mark with regard to compliance testing should be noted as well.
CVG Strategy
CVG Strategy’s Test and Evaluation experts offer Test Program Management and Witnessing to assist you in getting real value from your testing program. Contact Us to see how we can put decades of experience in commercial and defense testing to work for you. Our experience includes climatic, dynamic, and EMI/EMC.
MIL STD 810H Humidity Method 507.6 is a test method for evaluating products that are likely to be stored and/or operated in a warm, humid environment. MIL-STD-810Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests is a Department of Defense (DoD) standard for military and commercial applications. It is a series of laboratory test method that replicate the effects of environments on products. These methods are meant to be tailored to the specific environmental effects expected during the life cycle of the product. This is an important consideration because there are few definable goal posts in this standard. Tailoring is required because the environmental effects likely to be encountered on equipment designed for aircraft, for example, will be quite different from those found on a vehicle.
Effects of Humidity
The effects of humidity are often overlooked when faced with more obvious environmental stressors such as temperature, shock, and vibration, but there are numerous physical and chemical effects that humidity can take place both within and on the exterior of equipment. For surface effects; oxidation, electrochemical breakdown of coatings, interaction with deposits of materials that produce corrosive films, and changes in friction coefficients. Other effects include; loss of physical strength of materials, degradation of insulative properties, changes in elasticity or plasticity, and degradation of lubricants.
Humidity Testing
Humidity is an extremely complex environmental phenomena that is intricately linked with temperature. There a limitations in what a laboratory method can reproduce and simulate. Method 507.6 is comprised of two procedures.
Induced (Storage and Transit) and Natural Cycles
Aggravated
For procedure I, induced cycles of temperature and humidity are used to simulate various storage and transit scenarios where equipment is packaged or stored in environmentally uncontrolled warehouses. The standard points out that multiple tests may be applicable for storage or transit based on the nature of those sequences and nature of packaging. Natural cycles are intended for the testing of equipment in its intended environmental conditions.
Procedure II exposes the test item to more extreme temperature and humidity levels than those found in nature, but for shorter durations. While this can be an advantage for early detection of design vulnerabilities, results may not accurately represent those found in nature.
Climatic Considerations
Conditions of humidity vary considerably across the globe. MIL-HDBK-310 defines three geographical categories that are used for generation of cyclic profiles.
B1 – Constant High Humidity
This profile is representative of conditions found in heavily forested areas with little solar radiation exposure. Geographical locations typical of this profile are Congo and Amazon Basins, the jungles of Central America, Southeast Asia (including the East Indies), the north and east coasts of Australia, the east coast of Madagascar, and the Caribbean Islands.
B2 – Cyclic High Humidity
B2 profile occurs in the same areas as B1 but is more representative of urban areas where solar radiation exposure is expected. Solar radiation when present in the diurnal cycle creates a wider variance in temperature and humidity.
B3 – Hot-Humid
This profile is found in areas near bodies of water with high surface temperatures, specifically the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Testing for this extreme condition does not verify the unit under test’s ability to endure the rigors of B1 or B2.
Additional Categories
Additional categories are provided for induced environments where temperatures as high as 160 °F (66 °C) can be reached for enclosed environmental conditions where little or no cooling air is available. These induced categories are meant to replicate various transport and storage scenarios.
Test Duration
The effects of humidity require lengthy test durations to evaluate potential degradation. Often testing is not performed at adequate lengths to provide meaningful data. MIL STD 810H Humidity Method 507.6 durations are shown in the table below.
Hazardous Items
MIL-STD-810 states that hazardous test items will generally require longer tests than other items to achieve a desired confidence. The standard defines Hazardous test items as “those in which any unknown physical deterioration sustained during testing could ultimately result in damage to materiel or injury or death to personnel when the test item is used”. It calls for double the number of cycles for hazardous items.
Non-Hazardous Items
For Natural Cycles, generally intended for operational testing, Method 507.6 calls for 15 to 45 tewnty-four hour cycles of testing dependent on which geographical area the equipment may be used in.
Aggravated Cycles
For Aggravated testing per Procedure II, ten cycles are recommended in addition to a 24 hour conditioning period. Again the proviso for lengthening for hazardous items is called out but no exact measure is indicated.
MIL-STD-810 H Table 507.6 II Test Cycles (days)
The Conundrum
For humidity testing there is often more questions than answers. Today’s defense and commercial equipment is liable to be used anywhere in the world. Given that time and money are major concerns for most product developers, it is unlikely that resources are available for testing all climatic categories for transit, storage, and operational profiles. While Aggravated testing is tempting due to its shortened test length it may not provide realistic findings. Unless product specifications specify exact testing requirements difficult decisions must be made.
Electronic products have Electromagnetic Pulse Vulnerabilities that could cripple infrastructure systems across the planet. It is a serious concern that a number of agencies have reported on at length. The Critical National Infrastructure Commission report of 2008 is one such example that outlines some dire possibilities.
Electromagnetic Pulses (EMP) can be both natural and man made. Naturally occurring, these transient electromagnetic disturbances can be caused by lightning strikes, meteor explosion in earth’s atmosphere, or Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) caused by solar flares. Man made disturbances include High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulses (HEMP) created by a nuclear explosions as high as thirty km above sea level and a variety of smaller weapons designed to disable pinpoint targets.
EMP events have a wide frequency range from DC to 1 GHz that have a duration of several nanoseconds. This results in electric fields in thousands of Volts that can induce extremely high currents into electrical and electronic systems resulting in damage or complete destruction. For those events caused by nuclear explosion, a second low frequency current caused by the disruption of the Earths magnetic field can cause major damage to power distribution systems.
Designing for EMP
A number of steps can be taken at the design stage for equipment that is considered safety critical. These include screening, filtering of all power and I/O leads, and inclusion of voltage limiting components into a circuit. Once a design has been implemented a variety of test methodologies are available for design evaluation. While most of these involve military standard developers of products for commercial applications are often not restricted from their usage. For example MIL-STD-461 RS105 is a standard used for shipboard equipment above and below deck to verify equipment’s ability to withstand transient electromagnetic field events.
Consideration of inclusion of such testing into a test program should be taken for equipment that is critical to infrastructure requirements. These types of equipment could include:
Electric Power
Telecommunications
Financial Service Industry Information Systems
Petroleum and Natural Gas Infrastucture
Transportation Infrastructure
Water Infrastructure
Food Infrastructure
Emergency and Health Services
CVG Strategy
CVG Strategy EMI/EMC consultants can perform a Susceptibility Analysis to identify Electromagnetic Pulse Vulnerabilities and provide design modifications to create products that can endure EMPs. We can also recommend appropriate test and evaluation methodologies to verify these designs. Contact us today to see how we can help.
The Growth of RF Spectrum Usage, EMI and Device Coexistance
Increased reliance on radio frequency communication has created issues for Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Device Coexistence. Cellular devices and equipment using the Internet of Things (IoT) are major causes of this increase. This has effected product development strategies for both commercial and defense applications, particularly for safety critical devices where unexpected operation or complete failure is not an option.
Product Design Considerations
Understanding the possible RF environments a product will operate in is essential during the specification phases. Often conducting a thorough Susceptibility Analysis is required to develop an understanding of the variety of sources that could compromise a products performance and their probable signal strengths. Equipment that can be expected to operate in radio rich environments such as airports can be expected to encounter high internet usage as well as radar and radio communications.
For communication devices the crowded electromagnetic spectrum is it making more difficult to ensure reliable connections. As an example the Department of Defense (DoD) is working to design a communication system known as the Wideband Adaptive RF Protection Program to develop adaptive filters to prevent signal cancelling. For other such devices establishing minimum desired levels of reliability and developing protocols for re-transmission can be a solution.
Techniques for Evaluation
Susceptibility
For EMI/EMC susceptibility a number of standards are in place that can prove sufficient in assessing equipment’s abilities to operate as specified in a busy RF spectrum. Often these tests are not requirements for categories of equipment compliance, so a product developer must be proactive in seeking these methods out. Once an appropriate method has been found signal strengths and dwell times can be modified to achieve the desired level of product verification that replicates the anticipated environment of operation.
Wireless Coexistence
For wireless coexistence there are fewer options. One possibility is ANSI C63.27-2017 “American National Standard for Evaluation of Wireless Coexistence”. Although its primary application is medical equipment it can be used for any wireless application. This testing can be used to:
Develop user guidance necessary to achieve a desired level of reliable operation. In this case the deliverables can be guidance to the user on the maximum recommended operational distance between communicating devices and the minimum recommended separation distances to equipment that has the potential to cause loss of FWP due to interference.
Determine the potential for successful operation of the Functional Wireless Performance (FWP) with regard to coexistence. The deliverables for this purpose can be a risk assessment, written with the intention that it be a part of a larger and more extensive total risk assessment for the product.
Estimate the user experience. When the purpose is to predict the user experience, the test results are applied to the understanding of the intended operating environment to estimate the user experience in the intended operating environments. In estimating user experience, additional factors, beyond those included in testing, are involved. The resulting estimation has an evaluation uncertainty, which includes the Measurement Uncertainty (MU) of the test results, the estimation of the variability in the operating environment, and the certainty of the operating environment data used in preparing the estimate.
Diagnose complaints and failure reports, reproduce those field environments, and qualify modifications that remediate the product performance. With this objective, the deliverables will include evidence that the problematic field environment has been reproduced and that test modifications can be expected to achieve desired levels of performance.
Identify the intended environment parameters at which the EUT fails to coexist.
CVG Strategy Can Help With EMI and Device Coexistance
CVG Strategy EMI/EMC consultants can provide susceptibility analysis and recommend appropriate test methodologies for verification a product’s ability to perform as specified in today’s congested spectrum. Contact us today to see how we can help.
The Need for Adequate Product Packaging Evaluation
Product packaging evaluation is essential for a product’s success. Excellent design and proper manufacture mean little if the product delivered to the customer is damaged. Assessing packaging requirements requires an understanding of the product to be shipped fragility and a knowledge of the nature of transportation and storage scenarios likely to be encountered during transportation.
Environmental Stressors During Transportation
There are numerous stresses a packaged product will face during transportation and storage. These stresses include dynamic forces such as shock, vibration, and drop. They also include climatic conditions such as heat, cold, and humidity. Additionally, for electronic products, electrostatic discharge, especially during handling can lead to complete malfunction or product degradation.
Early evaluation should identify all possible modes of transportation and locations of storage. These identifications should include realistic assessments of the duration of each step so that valid criteria of stress severities can be collected. Once collected, perspective packaging methods can be chosen.
The Changing Nature of Packaging
With a marketplace more reliant on online sales, cardboard is becoming increasingly in demand. Worldwide production of cardboard is increasing to meet this demand and prices for cardboard packaging is increasing. As consumers and OEMs strive towards more environmentally sustainable behaviors, it is predicted that the overall use of plastics in packaging will decrease, placing further demands on the cardboard industry.
Cardboard while an excellent choice for many packaging needs has vulnerabilities. These issues include crushing, piercing, water resistance, compression during stacking, and failure when overloaded.
Test and Evaluation of Packaged Products
There are numerous methods for the evaluation of packaged products including ASTM, Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), and ISO. Many proprietary methods are required of vendors by their customers as is the case in the automotive sector. These methods, once performed, can provide a reasonable assurance that a packaged product can reach its destination in good shape, ensuring customer satisfaction.
As mentioned before, storage during and after the transportation phase should be taken into consideration. Storage can often occur in uncontrolled environments that subject the package and product to induced environmental stresses. Temperatures can be reached that greatly exceed those in the outside environment such as a warehouse without HVAC in hot climates.
CVG Strategy
CVG Strategy can assist product packaging evaluation. We can provide a provide analysis of transportation and storage requirements and recommend appropriate test methodologies for verification and validation of packaging. We can also provide test witnessing and test program management for a wide array of product sectors.
Product compliance testing is a requirement for bringing products to market. These tests vary dependent on which global market sectors are being targeted. Requirements differ from product type to product type and standards are constantly being created and revised. It requires a great deal of effort to stay current on what testing will be required, and as always it is an expense and can delay a product development program.
Product compliance standards deal with a number of issues concerning product safety, meeting customer requirements, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), and product ruggedness. While these standard generally provide for qualification of a products quality and safety they can not be a guarantee that a product will meet all expectations.
Product Safety Concerns
As products become more sophisticated and capable they must be capable of consistent and reliable operation. Failures can lead to property damage, injury, and even death. It is no secret that product liability is a rapidly growing field in the legal profession. Aside from legal concerns customer satisfaction and company reputation are at stake. A brief glimpse of the news can provide ample evidence of the importance of getting product development right before product release.
EMI/EMC testing is playing a more vital role in product safety testing as dependence on electronics increases susceptibility issues. Many test standards have less than adequate susceptibility requirements. It is therefore critical that adequate consideration be given to the possible effects of a susceptibility issue on a product’s safety and the need for evaluation over and above that called out for in product compliance testing.
Product Quality and Sustainability
Consumers are showing an increased demand for products that support sustainability. We are gradually moving beyond acceptance of products that must be replaced early in their life cycle. If manufactures wish to capitalize on this trend, then developing and marketing products that can meet the rigors of a longer life span will demand thorough evaluation. This requires an assessment of climatic and dynamic stressors likely to be encountered during a products life cycle and selection of test methodologies to evaluate their effects.
CVG Strategy Test and Evaluation Experts
CVG Strategy offers a wide array of services to assist product developers in product compliance testing. We also provide consulting services that can provide product evaluation to identify potential vulnerabilities and develop recommended test methods to ensure a quality product. Our experts have decades of experience in commercial and defense product test and evaluation.
MIL-STD-810 H Places Added Requirements on Product Developers and Test Labs.
MIL-STD-810 H was released in 2019. This revision not only included major alterations and in many cases complete rewrites of test methods and procedures but also revised requirements that effect the manner in which all testing must be conducted. These requirements effect both test laboratories and product developers conducting this important developmental test and evaluation.
Revisions Reflect Growing Concern for Test Performance
While many of the revisions have been made to address technological advances in dynamic test evaluation methods (vibration, and shock), others have been the result of increased emphasis on changes made in the past. These changes include data collection of operational test monitoring, increased call out for use of upper and lower supply voltages, and limitations to scheduled test interruptions.
A great deal of emphasis has been placed on performing testing in operational modes (testing while the unit under test is powered up) in previous revisions. These additional requirements serve to more closely replicate anticipated operational environments and capture any intermittent failures or unexpected behaviors of the tested item.
Another significant change in MIL-STD-810 H that effects many methods concerns definitions of temperature change. Under the new revision the rate of temperature change shall not exceed 5°F (3°C) per minute to prevent thermal shock. Meanwhile for simulation of thermal shock conditions, the temperature change rate should be greater than 18°F (10°C) per minute. While these changes may seem minor, test program documentation such as Detailed Environmental Test Plans (DETPs) and Environmental Test Reports (ETRs) should be updated to reflect requirements.
Changes to Methods
Many of the 29 methods that are part of MIL-STD-810 H have been completely revised. These include Method 510.7 Sand and Dust. Other sections like Method 504.3 Contamination by Fluids have undergone major changes that resulted in the deletion of one of the procedures. Method 514.8 Vibration has vastly changed contents of the annexes that define test characteristics.
Staying Current About MIL-STD-810 H
Keeping up to date with the changes in MIL-STD-810 H is important for lab personnel and product developers. CVG Strategy can help with our Understanding MIL-STD-810 classes. This two day course is available onsite or by way of webinar. We also offer a variety of to assist you in your product test and evaluation program.
Military Susceptibility Testing is performed to determine if a product can maintain normal operation when exposed to electrical, magnetic, and radio frequency, emissions and disturbances likely to be found in its intended environment. In military applications, the density of equipment on a given platform and the levels of potential emissions and disturbances present create stringent requirements on product developers.
To properly evaluate Equipment Under Test (EUT) the product developer must identify modes of operation most vulnerable to these disturbances. Simulation and monitoring equipment must be created that can exercise EUT in these modes and provide monitoring capable of capturing any abnormalities. This equipment and its use must be documented in a test plans. These test plans must also include criteria of acceptable operation and provide safety information such as emergency shut down procedures.
MIL-STD-461 Susceptibility Testing
MIL-STD-461 is an EMI/EMC standard for developmental test and evaluation. This standard is broken out into nineteen various methods. These methods include Radiated Emissions, Conducted Emissions, Radiated Susceptibility, and Conducted Susceptibility.
Military susceptibility testing includes radiated and conducted test methods. These methods involve simulations of magnetic, radio frequency, Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), and Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) sources of potential disturbance. Susceptibility requirements are determined by type of equipment, type of platform the equipment is to be operational on, and location of the equipment on that platform.
Susceptibility requirements for these methods generally exceed those found in commercial standards. As an example, RS103, Radiated Susceptibility, Electric Field, specifies levels as high as 200 Volts/meter across a spectrum that may extend from 2 MHz to 40 GHz.
Test Plans and EMI/EMC Testing
Given the potential of equipment malfunction that could result in hazardous conditions and the very real possibility of damage to the equipment, properly executed testing is essential to verify a product meets requirements. While MIL-STD-461 describes very concise instructions as to how a test procedure is to be conducted by test lab personnel this alone does not provide the information required about the equipment to be tested.
As previously mentioned a test plan must be created to provide this critical data to the test lab and witnesses. MIL-STD-461 sets very clear requirements for these test plans and their required information.
This information allows a lab to ascertain the specific chambers, equipment, and time that must be allotted for the procedures. It establishes test parameters and severities for the test. It provides description of the EUT, cabling, simulation, and monitoring equipment. It also provides description of modes of operation and susceptibility criteria as it applies to the acceptable operation of the equipment.
CVG Strategy EZ-Test Plan Templates for MIL-STD-461
CVG Strategy offers EZ-Test Plan Templates for EMI/EMC testing for your military susceptibility testing. These test plans compliant with MIL-STD-461 Electromagnetic Interference Test Procedures (EMITP) requirements per DI-EMCS-80201. Test plans include Addendums for documentation of equipment specific information and test lab site and equipment descriptions.
They also include instruction for test report construction that provides documentation of due diligence, information for post test analysis, and ensures repeatability of testing.
CVG Strategy Test and Evaluation Services
CVG Strategy test and evaluation experts can offer a wide array of services to assist your military susceptibility testing and other product test requirements. These services include:
Pre-Test Product Evaluation
We offer Pre-test Product Evaluation to identify and mitigate potential system design vulnerabilities before you go to test. This can streamline your test and evaluation by preventing costly redesign later in the program and lessen the requirements for retest.
Compliance by Analysis
In many cases products can be assessed to be compliant by analysis. Compliance by Analysis methods can also be used to identify potential design deficiencies early in product development, giving ample time for required modification.
Product Reliability
Product reliability testing assesses a product’s ability to perform all of its functions as designed throughout the entirety of its intended life. This is essential for equipment that must operate in conditions of high environmental and dynamic stresses. The goal of this testing is to identify potential reliability issues as early as possible so that designs can be modified prior to product release.
Product reliability testing is important in both commercial and defense product development. Each market sector has unique approaches to achieving reliability. For products designed for military applications MIL-STD-810 is a standard for developmental test and evaluation of a products reliability.
EMI/EMC Test Consulting
Military susceptibility testing presents challenging hurdles for product developers. We can help by providing state of the art analysis of product at any time in the product test and evaluation cycle and provide design modifications that will provide solutions for emissions and susceptibility issues.
We can also provide susceptibility analysis that will help safeguard your product from faulty operation caused by radio frequency interference, electrical compatibility, and radio frequency communication coexistence issues.
Product Liability and Testing are areas that are of increased concern for product developers and manufacturers. As products become more complex, properly designed test and evaluation programs must verify designs to prevent product liability issues that can greatly damage a company’s reputation.
Product Liability arises from incidents where a product’s performance departs from its intended design. These incidents often involve serious injury or wrongful deaths. These incidents can be caused by design defects, manufacturing defects, and failure to warn or marketing defects.
Penalties imposed for cases of product liability vary from nation to nation and vary between states in the United States. As a trend however, manufacturers are being held to more stringent standards around the world.
The Role of Test and Evaluation
Increased dependency on electronic products in every sector of our lives has created a greater potential for vulnerabilities that may cause serious injury or even death. Product safety standards can and do address a good many of these vulnerabilities. However, because a standard cannot address the wide range of environmental, electrical, and EMI/EMC effects that may be present in a product’s real world applications, it is often beneficial to conduct evaluations over and above those required for compliance to a given marketplace.
Environmental Causes of Product Failures
To assess testing requirements it can be helpful to conduct climatic and dynamic evaluations to examine the environmental stresses likely to occur in the lifetime of a product. A useful tool for this analysis is a Life Cycle Environmental Profile (LCEP). The LCEP is the method employed by MIL-STD-810 to identify stressors in all phases of a product lifetime, from leaving the shipping dock to final disposal.
Although MIL-STD-810 is a DOD standard it is often used in commercial products where safety critical performance is a necessity. Once an LCEP has been performed, realistic environmental issues and criteria can be established that will provide guidance for a test matrix that will be able to identify design deficiencies before production.
EMI/EMC and Electrical Product Failures
Because of the high volume of electronic devices in today’s world, the radio frequency environment is much denser across the spectrum than it ever has been. This also causes abnormalities and disturbances on power distribution systems that these devices share. Susceptibilities to electromagnetic interference are a major cause of operational anomalies.
The causes of these anomalies can be very difficult to predict and reproduce in the lab. Additionally, extreme care must be given to the design of monitoring equipment to catch intermittent failures in an EMI/EMC chamber while the equipment is under test. Furthermore, selection of appropriate methodologies for evaluation can be challenging. A susceptibility analysis can often assist in selection of relevant methods of evaluation.
CVG Strategy Can Help
CVG Strategy has decades of experience in product test and evaluation for equipment with safety critical requirements in a wide array of industries. We have the expertise in both Environmental and EMI/EMC to provide thorough analysis of your product’s potential vulnerabilities. We can then offer a wide array of services to verify a design before release to manufacture so that product liability concerns can be minimized.
Photo By: Air Force Airman 1st Class Devlin Bishop
COTS for Military Applications
The Defense Department is integrating more Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) products for military applications including mission critical systems. While this is a fantastic opportunity for businesses to gain access to a lucrative market, it also poses some serious challenges.
Once approved for a military application the manufacturer of the COTS must ensure that the products are designed to meet requirements for harsh environmental applications and stringent EMI/EMC limits. This will often require extensive Developmental Test and Evaluation and probably a certain amount of design modification.
MIL-STD-810 Testing for COTS
MIL-STD-810 is the primary tool for Developmental Test and Evaluation for the environmental effects on military equipment. This standard, currently in revision H, is comprised of twenty-nine methods for climatic and dynamic testing. Climatic methods include High Temperature, Immersion, Fungus, Humidity, and Rain. Dynamic methods include dozens of types of shock and vibration.
MIL-STD-810 does not rely on procedures with set parameters and severities. Instead it requires an assessment of the critical environmental profiles likely to be encountered by the materiel in its life cycle.
This assessment involves a management and engineering process known as tailoring. This is a critical decision-making process as the conditions a COTS in a military application would face on an aircraft would be entirely different than those in a shipboard application. Added to this are consideration of all modes of transit likely to be encountered, both logistical and tactical.
MIL-STD-461 and Electrical Compatibility for Military Applications
MIL-STD-461 is the EMI/EMC standard for military components. As such it often poses the greatest challenges to COTS transitioning into the military market. Though requirements vary as determined by the intended platform (e.g. Army Ground, Aircraft Navy) they are generally more stringent for emissions and susceptibility than commercial items.
There are a number of standards that apply to electrical and electronic equipment for electrical compatibility. The applicable standard is determined by the intended platform the equipment is to be installed in.
MIL-STD-1275 is used for 28 Volt DC powered items that are installed in military vehicles. It includes methods to simulate the expected surges, ripples, limits, and starting disturbances found on these vehicles.
For equipment intended for use on aircraft, MIL-STD-704 is specified. These methods include simulations of disturbances on various two phase, three phase, and DC power distribution networks found on military aircraft.
MIL-STD-1399 covers a wide range of power configurations found on shipboard power distribution systems. These tests can be very involved and require significant time to complete.
CVG Strategy
CVG Strategy has expertise and experience in assisting companies adapt their products from the commercial marketplace to military applications. Our experts can determine requirements and tailor environmental criteria to create effective Developmental Test and Evaluation programs. Furthermore, our test and evaluation team can manage evaluation programs, write test plans, witness testing, and create test report summaries. We have decades of experience in environmental and EMI/EMC testing in both commercial and military applications.
The Capital One cyberattack is a concern for small businesses. Capital One said that the personal information of approximately 106 million card customers and applicants had been compromised. This is one of the largest cyberattacks on a big bank.
The information of customers and applicants compromised included small businesses. It was reported that the information accessed from the Capital One cyberattack involved persons or businesses that had applied for credit cards from 2005 to early 2019. It included addresses, names, dates of birth and self-reported income.
The Cost of Cyberattacks
The alleged source of the cyberattack was a former employee of Amazon Web Services Inc., who had worked at a cloud-computing company. Capital One said it is unlikely the stolen information had yet to be disseminated or used for fraud. The investigation is continuing however. The incident is expected to cost approximately $100 million to $150 million. Estimates for losses to the U.S. economy in 2018 to cyberattacks were between $57 and $109 billion but the real cost to a company’s reputation and intellectual properties is beyond dollar estimates.
Beyond the Capital One Cyberattack
Often businesses focus their cybersecurity efforts on IT solutions. The Capital One cyberattack much like the Equifax breach in 2017 illustrate how short sighted this approach can be. Every business shares valuable information with entities it does business with. Therefore, businesses today need a management-oriented structure to access threats, create processes to deal with them, and conduct regular reviews and audits of those processes to be effective.
ISO-27001
ISO-27001 is such a solution. It includes all stakeholders and is flexible to demands of any size of business. ISO 27001 can not only protect your business from cyberattacks it can help your credibility with potential customers. This is because certification in an Information Security Management System (ISMS) shows your intent to protect their information as well.
In conclusion, in today’s world nobody is exempt from having their information compromised. Even Capital One, the world’s fifth largest credit card company can be a victim of cyberattack. Maintaining a viable ISMS like ISO 27001 ensures your business is maintaining a viable mitigation of this threat.
CVG Strategy
CVG Strategy ISO 27001 consulting services help organizations plan, create, upgrade, and certify a robust and effective Information Security Management System (ISMS). Our team of experts bring extensive experience and deep information security process control expertise (including certifications as Exemplar Global Lead Auditor ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Lead Auditor) to ensure that you achieve ISO/IEC 27001 certification on time and on budget.
The FCC approval process has been streamlined for unintentional radiators. Most electronic devices create radio frequency (RF) energy. This energy can interfere with devices. Intentional radiators are devices which communicate by way of radio frequencies (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, radio). Unintentional radiators create RF energy from their power supplies and digital components. These devices are therefore less likely to interfere with the communications of other devices.
Because the previous requirements were confusing and time consuming the FCC’s streamlining of the approval process is a welcome relief to manufacturers of electronic products.
Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC)
Previously the FCC required Verification and a Declaration of Conformity (DoC). The new FCC approval process no longer requires Verification for unintentional radiators. It now relies solely on the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC). The SDoC is comprised of the following steps:
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) testing must be performed that conforms to FCC compliance standards.
Preparation of a compliance information statement that includes product information, a list of a standards to which the product is compliant and the identification of a responsible party in the United States or its territories.
The end user of the product must receive FCC approval compliance information in a paper or electronic user manual.
The device should be labeled. The label should uniquely identify a product name, identification number and/or description.
A FCC label can be affixed, though not required. An electronic label can be used for products with display capabilities.
CVG Strategy
Our experts at CVG Strategy have extensive experience in the FCC approval process. We have the experience in EMI/EMC to guide you in requirements for both commercial and military products. CVG Strategy can provide pretest analysis, thereby reducing EMI emission test failures and their resultant delays. We also have expertise in Environmental testing and evaluation in a number of industries and products. CVG Strategy specializes in Independent Developmental Testing and Evaluation including: Development of Life Cycle Environmental Profiles, Test Plans, Test Witnessing and Troubleshooting.
