There are two basic philosophies for creating a reliability plan for a new product or system. One is to experiment with prototypes as quickly and often as possible: This is the so-called build, test, fix approach. Alternatively, you can research and model detailed aspects of the materials and structures to characterize the strength of a product or system: This is the analytical approach. Both methods have obvious applications and not so obvious limitations. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Fred Schenkelberg
#91 – HALT AND ALT – FRED SCHENKELBERG
Accelerated life testing (ALT) provides a means to estimate the failure rate over time of a product without resorting to normal use conditions and the associated duration. In ALT, one uses a variety of methods to compress time. Continue reading
#90 – RELIABILITY TESTING CONSIDERATIONS – FRED SCHENKELBERG
Reliability testing to determine what will fail or when the failures will occur can be expensive. Organizations invest in the development of a product and attempt through the design process to create a product that is reliable. The design process has many unknowns though. This includes uncertainties about materials, design margins, use environments, loads, and aging effects. Using the best practices of design for reliability will minimize this list of risks to product reliability, yet it will not resolve all the uncertainty. Continue reading
#88 – WEAR OUT FAILURES – DEAL WITH IT! – FRED SCHENKELBERG
In a previous posting, I addressed two types of failure: early life and random. By definition, early life failures occur early during the product lifecycle whereas random fails can occur at any time. Near the end of the product lifecycle appears yet another type of failure: wear-out failure. Continue reading
#86 – EARLY LIFE AND RANDOM FAILURES – FRED SCHENKELBEG
Previously, I discussed failure mechanisms and root causes and classified failure into three types based on when failures occur: early life, random, and wear-out. Here I will focus on the first two: early life and random failures. Continue reading