You Asked, We Answered: Product Testing

What testing capabilities do you have?

That is a great question, for this one we went to Jerry King, our Lab Supervisor, who oversees all product testing.

Life cycle:

• Type of test: Fatigue (cam) – Performs life cycle testing on switch locations. A motor is used to actually move the part up and down, in the up position the part contacts the test tip, in the down position the part is not contacting the test tip.

Life tester:

• Type of test: Fatigue (air) – Performs life cycle testing on switch locations. Compressed bursts of air (in quick pulses) are supplied to the test tip and it travels down to the part. When the burst of air stops the tip retracts up away from the part. This machine has a built in monitoring device which checks for key resistance when the tip is in contact with the part and checks for any shorts when the tip is not in contact with the part. It also has an auto stop feature if it finds an electrical “miss”.

Flex tester:

• Type of test: Fatigue – Bend test (moves circuitry under a radius)

Universal test system:

• Type of test: Tension/compression – Measures switches under tension and/or compression

Accelerated weather tester:

• Type of test: Environmental exposure – Simulates outdoor exposure to sun and rain

Temperature/humidity chamber:

• Type of test: Environmental exposure – Reliability testing with heat & humidity (these chambers will test from 105ºC to -20ºC)

Freezer:

• Type of test: Steady state cold – Testing under cold (Freezer will max out around -45ºC. Our typical testing will be down to -40ºC)

Ovens:

• Type of test: Steady state heat – Testing under heat (Ovens will attain at least 180ºC. Our heat testing may hit 105ºC, however, most of what we test to is 85ºC)

Vacuum chamber:

• Type of test: Air pressure – Test switches under air pressure changes

ESD test system:

• Type of test: ESD – ESD testing of circuitry

Membrane electrical testing:

• Type of test: Functional validation – Electrical testing of membrane switches, switch functionality, switch short test, LED functionality, & LED shorting

Every product that leaves the facility is 100% electrical tested – every button is pushed, and every LED illuminated to ensure quality before they are shipped to our customer.

Who defines the test parameters/protocol? Typically customer supplies procedures. However, Xymox does have a list of standard test protocols that we use to qualify new materials.

What if my company requires testing that you do not have on-site? We would outsource to a third party lab; Xymox has developed great relationships with labs that have testing capabilities that past customers have required.

 

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