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Course Outline no. 450 .
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Environmental Test Specifications

Course No. 450

(Course Outline shown below.)

For Whom Intended This course is intended for commercial and government personnel involved with developing, applying, or reviewing environmental design and test specifications, standards and requirements. The target audience for this course includes:

Environmental engineering specialists
Environmental test laboratory personnel
Reliability and product assurance engineers
Product designers
Integrated Product Development Team leaders
Contract writers and administrators

Brief Course Description This course provides understanding and guidance about the contents and proper application of environmental design and test specifications, standards and requirements documents. For newcomers, this course will make environmental design and test less mysterious and formidable. Those with some experience will gain a better understanding, to recognize mistakes and repeat successes.

Product test and evaluation have undergone major changes in recent years. This course will show how these changes impact the function and responsibilities of the environmental engineering specialist. In addition, it will help the student successfully adapt to change by providing a perspective for using future environmental specifications and standards.

Environmental design and test standards are a combination of valuable lessons learned and repetitive dogma. The ability to recognize the conflicting statements in referenced documents and obtain clarification as to which statement needs to be followed in a particular case will prove valuable to participants. This course will be presented in an interactive lecture-discussion format; lectures will be interspersed with class project work sessions to reinforce the students' understanding of the course material. Students are encouraged to introduce problems and questions from their own work for group discussions.

Prerequisites This course is intended for individuals who have completed all other formal training requirements for TTi’s Certificate Programs and have some familiarity with environmental test specifications and standards. Others who are not participating in the TTi EES program should have at least a basic understanding of environmental test procedures and facilities.

Certificate Programs This course is required for several of TTi’s Specialist Certificate Programs and is recommended as the final course in the series.

Text Each student will receive a course workbook, including most of the viewgraphs used in the course presentation.

Course Hours, Certificate and CEUs Open courses meet seven hours per day. Upcoming presentation dates can be found on our current open course schedule. Class hours/days for on-site courses can vary from 14-35 hours over 2-5 days as requested by our clients. Upon successful course completion, each participant receives a certificate of completion and one Continuing Education Unit (CEU) for every ten class hours.

Course Outline No. 450

Introduction and Course Overview
- Discussion of student expectations and goals
Class Project Intro
- Project work sessions will be interspersed with lectures
The Role of Environmental Specifications and Standards
- How Test & Evaluation are changing
- Difference between Specifications and Standards
- Applying a standard
- Where standards come from and how they are maintained
- Measurement Standard
  - Definition
  - Example
  - Classification
  - Traceability
  - Responsible Organizations for Measurement Standards
Military vs. Commercial Specifications
- Modern environmental testing
- Acquisition Reform
  - What prompted it?
  - What actions does it require?
  - Problems accompany Acquisition Reform
- Are commercial standards better?
Environmental Testing
- A Value-Added Process
- What Makes the "Same" Tests Different?
- Testing a Hypothesis
- Development Tests
- Design Verification Tests
- Qualification Tests
- Development Tests: Accelerated Life Testing
  - Types of "Life" Tests:
    - Short-Term "Life" Tests: Step-Stress Testing
    - Long-Term "Life" Tests: Fatigue & Durability Testing
- Acceptance Testing
- Contractual Compliance Testing
- Production Tests/ESS
Test Tailoring
- Problems with "sacred relics & magic numbers" in environmental testing
- Some sacred relics
  - 1-hour vibration test
  - Flat Vibration Test Profile
  - Simplistic g rms Syndrome
  - 6-grms vibration spectrum
  - 71 °C Temperature test
  - Uniform Test Temperatures
  - Single-purpose Humidity Test
  - 10-day Humidity test
  - "Standard" Salt Fog test
  - 15-g Avionics impact shock test
  - 20-g Automotive impact shock test
- Environmental Test Standards-Tailorable?
- Tailoring strategies
- Integrated Product or Process Teams
- Documentation
Accelerated Testing
- Reducing Test Time
- Assumptions
- What Does an Accelerated Test Accelerate?
- Can Accelerated Testing Do What is Expected?
- Environmental Forcing Functions
- Different Environments, Different Effects
- Different Rates of Test Acceleration
- Critical Aspects of Accelerated Test Models Risks
- Miner's "Rule" Cautions
- Principles of Test Time Compression
- Two ways to accelerate:
  - Higher Frequency of Occurrence or
  - Exaggerated Load Levels
- Cautions
- Margins
Review of Current Environmental Standards
- MIL-STD-810E/F
- MIL-HDBK-310 (formerly MIL-STD-210C)
- MIL-HDBK-2164A
- MIL-HDBK-344A
- IEC 60068 Series
- SAE J1211
- Bellcore Technical Reference TR-EOP-000063
Checklist for Applying Environmental Test Standards
- Technical Honesty
- Management Involvement
- Sound Business Practice
Developing Life Cycle Environmental Profiles (LCEPs)
- Definition
- Foundation for Test Tailoring
- Integrating Engineering Information
- LCEP in: Product Development, Accelerated Testing, Design Margins
- Building LCEPs
  - Service Use Requirements
  - Applicable Platform Types
  - Product & Platform Characteristics
  - Logistics, Deployment, & Distribution Modes
  - Characterize and Quantify Service Use Environments
ISO Quality Standards
- ISO 9000
- Accreditation, Certification, Registration
- ISO 9001
- Calibration, Measurement and Test Equipment
- QS 9000-Quality System Requirements
- ISO/IEC Guide 25 and Standard 17025
Preparing and Reviewing Environmental Requirements
- Elements of an Environmental Requirements Document
- Expectations for a Test
- Appropriate Environments
- Test Levels, Duration
- Product Operation During Tests
- Interfaces and Boundary Conditions
- Repeatable Procedures Don't Guarantee Repeatable Results!
- Latent Defects vs. Infant Mortality
- Levels of Assembly
- Computer Assisted Tools: Cautions
Class Project Wrap-up
Course Review and Summary
Award of Certificates for Successful Course Completion

Printable (.pdf) version of course outline no. 450 ( Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

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