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Kirk discusses the reason he wrote a book, co-authored with John Paschkewitz, on basic HALT and HASS methods along with new developments and opportunities to use HALT methods for digital software-hardware failure issues.
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Kirk and Fred discussing a listener’s question on how to get started with HALT (Highly Accelerated Limit Test).
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Kirk and Fred discussing the common response from design engineers when a weakness is found in HALT that is well outside the specifications
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Kirk and Fred discussing a little of the history of Kirk’s working with Dr. Gregg Hobbs, PE, the former IEEE/CPMT technical group Accelerated Stress Testing and Reliability and the future of promoting and teaching the use of HALT and HASS.
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Kirk and Fred discussing underwater drones and how we divide up a product to most efficiently apply HALT to subsystems before applying stress to the whole product
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Kirk and Fred discussing good, better and best ways to introduce and motivate a company to use weakness discovery test methodology.
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Chris and Adam discussing HALT and ALT. What are these? HALT stands for Highly Accelerated Life Testing. ALT stands for Accelerated Life Testing. They sound very similar. But they are not. HALT is a destructive test regime. In fact, a good HALT plan will involve that product failing many times. This is done by subjecting the product to stresses (vibration, thermal cycling et cetera) well beyond actual operating stresses. Some of the failures this creates will not be relevant. That is, they will simply never occur when the product is used ‘normally.’ But many failures are relevant. And by undertaking HALT, we now have a good idea of which failure mechanisms and modes are likely to occur when it is used normally. And this information is incredibly valuable to a design team. ALT on the other hand starts with a failure mechanism you know about. And in a short period of time, you can predict how long that failure mechanism will cause your product to fail when used normally.
Still confused? Well listen to this podcast.
Kirk and Fred discussing the benefits and limits of using HALT for finding issues with cables and connectors, and common cause for many failures or intermittent operation in electronic hardware.
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Kirk and Fred discussing the understanding of HALT and the fact that many see as HALT, the finding of operational limits and weaknesses, as “just another tool in the reliability engineering tool bag” and how for Kirk it is most efficient approach to reliability development.
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The promise of HALT is to find the weaknesses in your design early in the design process. Understanding the basic concepts underlying HALT enable you do so effectively. Let’s talk about this essential discovery tool and how it fits into your program.
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Kirk and Fred discussing how to show management and other skeptics of highly accelerated limit testing how valuable it can be in improving reliability.
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Kirk and Fred discussing the adaptability of a HALT process and what stresses should be included in a HALT evaluation.
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Kirk and Fred discussing the creation of a HALT plan and how to adapt HALT plans based on what is discovered during the HALT process.
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Kirk and Fred discussing the challenge of getting samples to test during product development. Early prototypes of new products are typically scarce, expensive, and in high demand to many engineering teams to test. HALT testing requires pushing the product to operational limits and discovering what will fail which is scary for management and engineers that do not understand the value of information that is discovered with empirical limit tests.
Kirk, guest John Paschkewitz, and Fred discussing the differences and similarities in mechanical HALT testing of motors and degradation testing for wear out modes. Kirk discusses the use of PHM (Prognostics and Health Management) to measure and provide RUL (Remaining Useful Life) estimates during its application.
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