With the advent of the Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) part being used in Mil / Aero, Space, Industrial, Transportation, and Automotive applications; manufacturers find themselves still looking for information on how those products will perform in severe environments.
Here at Samtec, we have recognized the need for more information about our COTS products, and that is why we have introduced Severe Environment Testing (SET).
What is Severe Environment Testing?
Severe Environment Testing takes Samtec’s design qualification testing that is performed on all product series before release to production, and takes it up a notch.
More specifically, these tests go beyond typical industry standards and specifications that are common requirements for rugged industries.
SET takes several tests and increases the requirements of them or implements them to simulate a test that is closer to MIL SPEC testing than our standard qualification testing. These tests were chosen to show that Samtec’s connectors can be used in extreme environments with confidence.
Below are the tests that are part of SET, and the conditions to which they are tested. In a later blog we will go deeper into these tests, but for now the description below will have to do.
- Mating / Unmating / Durability (100% Relative Humidity, 250 Cycles)
- Mechanical Shock / Random Vibration / LLCR (40 G Peak, 11ms, Half Sine & 12g RMS, 5 – 2000Hz, 1 Hour / Axis)
- Mechanical Shock / Random Vibration / Event Detection (40 G Peak, 11 ms, Half Sine & 12gRMS, 5 – 2000 Hz, 1 Hour / Axis)
- Non-Operating Class Temperature (-55°C to 125°C at 100 cycles and -65°C to 125°C at 100 cycles; 200 cycles)
- Temperature Cycling (500 cycles)
- DWV at Altitude (70,000 ft)
- Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)
What has been tested?
Samtec is at the beginning of rolling out these test results; however, there are plenty of product series in the works. These series were selected due to the overall interest in them from our Mil / Aero customers.
- SFM / TFM View Report
- SEAF / SEAM View Report
- LSHM View Report
- SSM / TSM View Report
- FTSH / CLP View Report
Make sure to check out the test reports on the SET page at www.samtec.com/set or by clicking the links above. For more information about SET, please contact set@samtec.com.
Want to Know More?
Check out these blogs on SET where we go more into depth on the actual tests performed.
- A Deep Dive into Severe Environment Testing
- Electrostatic Discharge
- Dielectric Withstanding Voltage at Altitude
- A Deep Dive into Severe Environment Testing (Part II)
- Mating / Unmating / Durability
- Mechanical Shock / Random Vibration / LLCR and Event Detection
- Temperature Cycling
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