Analyzing Field Environments to Generate a New, Better Test

Is a current test method valid? Are there other tests that better represent a product's end-use environment? How can existing test methods be compared to real world measurements? These questions are becoming more common in the testing industry. Creating a realistic replication of all potential field environments is a time-consuming task, but under-testing a product can have serious implications for cost, reliability and safety. The focus of this case study is a product with a known failure mode that occurs in the field but hasn't been replicated using current industry standard tests in the lab. The goal is to generate a test more representative of the real-world, replicating the failure mode observed in the field. Several comparisons are addressed by the study. First, the original test standard comes into question as we compare the response of the product during vibration testing to actual field vibration recordings. Second, a new test is developed based on vibration data collected in a variety of field environments. Finally, the new test is validated by comparing the product's vibration response to that of the field environments and replicating the same fatigue failure observed in the field via the new test in the laboratory.