Properly developed test program documentation is critical for effective environmental and EMI/EMC developmental test and evaluation. In many cases however, this essential element is deficient or lacking all together. This can lead to an incomplete or inaccurate analysis of a product and lead to costly product recalls, redesigns, and retesting.
Life Cycle Environmental Profile
There can be numerous requirements for documentation before engaging in testing. For defense products, an analysis of climatic and dynamic stressors likely to be encountered in a products life cycle should be conducted to determine product specification criteria and possible test requirements. This document is known as the Life Cycle Environmental Profile (LCEP). This analysis can also be conducted for products designed for severe environmental conditions.
Environmental Issues/Criteria List
Once relevant stresses have been identified they should be documented in an Environmental Issues/Criteria List (EICL) along with relevant values of severity such as temperature or shock amplitudes. Where measured data is required these values should be acquired and recorded. A rationale should be included with these values to reflect why and how these criteria were derived.
Test Plans
Test plans are essential to detail what testing is to be performed, how it is to be performed, and what data is to be collected before, during, and after testing. Test plans should also define operational modes for the Unit Under Test (UUT) as well as functional and operational tests to be conducted during testing.
There are a variety of test plan types to meet requirements for specific types of testing. For environmental testing, MIL-STD-801 details requirements in Task 405 and DI-EMCS-80201. These requirements provide testing that provides valid data, findings, and analysis, while ensuring that any necessary retesting can be performed accurately. EMI/EMC testing per MIL-STD-461 has a separate set of requirements for test plan content as defined in DI-EMCS-80201. These requirements also provide repeatability and define operational modes at which testing should be conducted.
CVG Strategy EZ-Test Plan Templates
CVG Strategy provides a wide array of test plan templates that meet industry standards. This documentation ensures that testing is performed accurately and that necessary data is collected. These documents help communicate test requirements to test facility operators and test engineers. Test plans are available for the following standards:
- MIL-STD-810
- MIL-STD-461
- MIL-STD-704
- MIL-STD-1275
- MIL-STD-1399-300B
- IEC 60529
Several categories of test plans are available for developmental test and evaluation of defense products. These include:
Ingress Protection test plans are available for testing per IEC 60529 for enclosure testing against dust, penetration, water splash, water jet spray, and immersion.
CVG Strategy Test and Evaluation Expertise
CVG Strategy can assist your product development team with test and evaluation expertise. We provide can provide compliance by analysis reports, create custom test program documentation, provide troubleshooting and analysis for difficult EMI/EMC issues and perform finite element analysis.