Our highly accelerated durability testing services are what we can offer for your products in order to reduce your warranty claims, field failures, comparisons, and time to market while increasing customer confidence in your product’s Branding.

• Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT),
• Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS)
• Accelerated Aging.

These methods quickly detect potential warnings and failures of your product may encounter during its life cycle.

Highly Accelerated Life Test (HALT)

HALT Testing, also known as Highly Accelerated Life Testing, is a technique designed to disc failed weak links of a product. Utilizing the two most common testing stimuli, temperature and vibration, it can precipitate failure modes faster than traditional testing approaches. Rather than applying low stress levels over long durations, HALT testing applies high-stress levels for short durations well beyond the expected field environment. 

A typical HALT testing program includes five individual tests:

• High-temperature stress
• Low-temperature stress
• Vibration stress
• Rapid thermal cycling / Ramp cycling.
• Combined Environment

Each test has a specific goal. This may be examining material degradation (cracking, blistering, warping, melting, etc.) as a result of cold and hot environments, discovering mechanical issues (breaking, cracking, and loosening of samples), or better understanding potential electrical issues (fretting, discontinuities and variances in the change of electrical performance).

Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS)

HALT testing is typically employed during the design or development stages of a product life cycle. HASS testing is slightly different because its purpose is to speed the discovery of latent defects in manufacturing during the production stages of a product life cycle to reduce associated failures. The HASS process utilizes similar equipment to the HALT process, and the development of a usable HASS profile requires previous HALT results as well as other data and related validation information. In addition to identifying defects in existing products, HASS testing can also determine the impact that alternative components will have on your product design and durability.

What are the typical stresses used in HALT and HASS testing?

HALT/HASS test samples will endure both temperature and vibration stressors during testing. MR LAB test chamber capabilities are as follows:

• Medium switching speed up to 10°C/min
• Vibration level 5-60 grams
• Extreme temperature +200°C
• Extreme temperature lower –75°C 

What are some of the benefits associated with HALT and HASS testing?

HALT and HASS testing offer a variety of benefits to product manufacturers, including:

• Fast results— stress levels that would take months to simulate can be achieved in hours
• A more robust product that results in fewer returns due to manufacturing or packaging flaws
• Fewer problems in the field and fewer upset customers
•  By using HASS, you can ensure that there is no impact on the overall robustness of your product due to of:
  o Production Changes
  o Component Changes
  o Material Changes
  o Structural Change in Research and product development 
• HASS/HALT testing is quick and cost-effective addition to your reliability program during the early stages of the product development process

To learn more about using our HALT/HASS testing or accelerated weathering capabilities to your advantage, contact MR LAB today. Learn more about how you can significantly improve your product’s quality and reliability.