 |
’Shake ’n Bake lab’ ensures ProCurve product reliability
| |
|
|
|
Reliability has many dimensions, but it all starts at the physical level. ProCurve Networking ensures the physical reliability of products by subjecting them to vibration, shock absorption, temperature extremes, humidity changes, radio frequency interference (RFI) and many other kinds of tests in the HP Roseville Hardware Test Center, affectionately called the Shake 'n Bake lab.
The test center offers a wide range of certification, consultation, mitigation, mechanical analysis and simulation services, including thermal management and testing services for electromagnetic compatibility and mechanical design. Although HP owns the lab, it is an independent, fully accredited facility.
"ProCurve's ability to offer the industry's leading warranty – which is lifetime for the vast majority of our products – can be viable only because we validate our products using tools such as this test center," says Mike Avery, Regulatory & Mechanical Engineering Manager for ProCurve. "The test center is the place where hardware robustness and regulatory compliance are checked and confirmed."
Some tests are required to comply with regulations, such as those set in the U.S. by Underwriters Lab (UL) or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Others are required by ProCurve itself to ensure the overall robustness of a product according to the environment in which customers will use it.
The lab conducts tests for conditions such as temperature (high and low extremes), humidity, altitude, safety of operation, electromagnetic and RFI emission compliance, magnetic and immunity (i.e., a product's ability to work in an environment regardless of the effects of other products in operation nearby, such as air conditioners, magnetic fields or power surges).
A brief tour of the lab
Words like "vibration" and "temperature extremes" sound rather civilized and tame compared to what really happens to the products undergoing tests in the Shake 'n Bake lab. Peer into the test center and you'll see rooms with huge pieces of equipment lined up, all designed to pummel, shake violently, drop from a height, freeze, "sweat" and otherwise torment hardware products and the packaging used to ship them.
For example, some equipment tests to make sure products will continue to perform even when subjected to vibration and rolling like those encountered during earthquakes. Others make sure products, and their packaging, can withstand being dropped from heights – no matter what their orientation when they hit the ground.
A particularly impressive piece of equipment – a large table sitting on what is essentially "a separate earth foundation," according to Avery – is able to shake nearly any physical object to a point of failure in a matter of minutes. The table can move up and down a foot or more, or it can move so fast and slightly that the only way to detect movement is by illuminating it with a strobe light.
On a nearby "shock table," products are harnessed down with accelerometers attached to various points on the product. Driven by gravity, the massive table is vertically raised then dropped vigorously downward – "with tremendous force," says Avery – making an impact sound so loud that test engineers must wear specially designed earmuffs to avoid having their eardrums damaged. The accelerometers record the energy absorbed at each point on the product, transducing the pulses to a G-force scale.
"The shock table stresses a product's overall enclosure integrity," explains Avery. "We do the test on every face of a product, measuring the effect of the applied force on all the internal parts as well as the packaging. We see if anything deforms, cracks, breaks or falls off."
In a series of chambers enclosing vibration tables, the lab engineers can test vibration, temperature and humidity simultaneously.
"These chambers let us test our products in multiple operating conditions that far exceed those of typical customer installations," says Avery.
One cavernous, eerily quiet room – lined with carbon-impregnated Styrofoam tiles and panels attached to seamlessly welded steel plates – tests for RFI compliance. Products to be tested are placed on a platform atop a rotating circular steel panel in the floor, beneath which lies a networking gear rack that records results and allows testing of products while operating.
Two large antennas – one oriented horizontally, the other vertically – measure the RF energy the tested products emit. No cell phones or wireless devices are allowed within this white, brightly lit, multimillion-dollar RFI test room, for fear they will harm the sensitive measurement equipment inside.
Testing justifies lifetime warranties
Since 1998, ProCurve Networking by HP has offered industry-leading warranties, usually lifetime, on all its products with confidence. The Shake 'n Bake lab is responsible for a good deal of that continued confidence.
In a future issue of this newsletter, we'll take a look at the Solutions Test Center (STC), where networking functionality and software reliability are put through their paces.
|
| |
| | |
|
Tisknutelná verze
