Succeeding in today’s marketplace demands that companies deliver reliable products for a fair price, and that the products reach the potential consumer in a timely manner. Unfortunately, traditional testing methods require time consuming product trials, and often these methods do not provide the information that is essential to convert a bug-ridden prototype to a consumer-ready reliable item. Fortunately, there is a new class of testing methods, Accelerated Stress Testing (AST), that can provide the answers needed to increase product reliability and to do so in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional testing. 

      This talk will present a background on why product developers test, the shortcomings of traditional methods, and why the new alternatives are a better route. The basis premises are that: 1) Design engineers are intelligent, and if a flaw were obvious, they would have eliminated it during the prototype stage; 2) Almost all products have hidden flaws that require exaggerated stress conditions to expose; 3) Real consumers will always apply exaggerated stress conditions; and 4) We only learn through failure and then by correcting the failures. One particular AST method, Failure Mode Verification Testing - FMVT®, provides a fast durability test (1-5 days) that stimulates the emergence of latent failure modes that exist in the product and allows for the analysis of the unique failure modes, their progression in time and stress, their repeatability and ultimately their potential impact on the reliability of the product. Failure Mode Verification Testing (FMVT®) is a patented Intertek ETL SEMKO process which employs highly accelerated test methods in a manner intended to reveal inherent design weaknesses. The process utilizes known sources of “stress” which are amplified to magnitudes that are limited by “reasonable” failure modes. 

      AST techniques include complex vibration tests, HALT, MEOST, FSLT and FMVT. AST techniques have been used to eliminate “infant mortality” issues, isolate warranty situations, minimize warranty claims, compare alternative component choices, determine RoHS effects, and to improve ROI. Real life examples will be provided to illustrate the many uses of Accelerated Stress Testing.