Ensuring Product Reliability
Clients who need to determine the long-term reliability of their products send a sample to Applied Technical Services for an accelerated durability test. Our environmental testing division uses this method to forecast how long a component or assembly will continue to operate satisfactorily under conditions of intended use. ATS’ technicians then help clients implement any necessary changes to ensure the final product meets their quality and reliability requirements. Clients may otherwise use this data to establish sale prices and warranty coverage, among other considerations.
Also referred to as life cycle testing or product reliability testing, ATS employs this method early in the design process to help guide any reformulation efforts deemed necessary as a result of the sample’s performance. By exposing components and assemblies to cycles of forces and environmental agents that most closely simulate the finished product’s service conditions, we can characterize various performance qualities such as prevalent failure modes and overall life expectancy. Continuously applying these stimuli allows our lab to replicate a lifetime’s worth of wear and tear over the course of weeks, days, or even hours in some cases.
How ATS Performs the Accelerated Durability Test
ATS’ environmental testing division performs each accelerated durability test. This group of experts drafts a testing outline customized to the sample according to the client’s specifications for analysis. Our technicians respect their directions because they best understand their final product’s intended usage and can thus best inform us of what factors will affect it during service. This means that they decide the character of forces and environmental factors that we apply, as well as how many of these cycles we administer. Our lab fabricates custom fixtures to apply these stimuli in identical cycles continuously until either a predetermined threshold has been reached or the sample fails, depending on which is relevant to the client’s needs. ATS can then help clients determine the best steps to take in maximizing the long-term reliability of their product based on its performance data.
ATS: A Trusted Product Analysis Partner
Since our founding in 1967, Applied Technical Services has been delivering testing, inspection, and consulting engineering services of unparalleled quality. Over the last 50+ years, we have grown from a fledgling engineering business aiding local clients out of our founder’s basement to a respected, multidisciplinary firm serving clients across the globe with our team of several hundred technicians, inspectors, professional engineers, chemists, and scientists. While we regularly serve a diverse range of industries, those that most benefit from ATS’ capabilities as an accelerated durability testing provider include the following:
- Consumer Products
- Communications
- Automotive
- Aerospace
- Nuclear
- Manufacturing
- Healthcare/Medical
- Defense/Military
- Renewable Energy
- Pulp and Paper
- Power Generation
- Nuclear
How We Value Quality
ATS holds quality as one of our core values. To ensure that we provide only quality services we can take pride in, our environmental testing division performs every service in accordance with our quality assurance procedures. We registered our system to ISO 9001:2015 to hold ourselves accountable for the work we do and to signify to clients that we take quality management seriously. Our Marietta Super Lab earned this accolade by inviting approved auditors to examine the entirety of our testing processes and satisfying their criteria for approval. Their inspection determined that not only does our system comply with the internationally recognized standard outlining effective quality management practices, but that we consistently apply these principles when performing our services. Doing so allows us to continually improve the quality of services we provide.
We take a variety of measures to ensure that clients enjoy the most positive customer experience possible. Our technicians produce clear, accurate, and detailed reporting within a short turnaround window; we guarantee quick returns to help clients make informed, timely decisions regarding their sample’s performance data. Always-available customer service representatives receive clients with questions about the status or results of their testing and facilitate contact with the most relevant testing personnel. These professionals are accessible to clients, responsive to their needs, and engaged when helping secure solutions to their problems.
If your company needs to determine the long-term reliability of a product or component, contact ATS today for an accelerated durability test — We take a closer look.
