Qualmark recently hosted an Accelerated Reliability Test Center (ARTC) open house at their headquarters in Denver Colorado to great success. While the opportunity to tour the plant and pick up insights on the practical application of HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Testing) and HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress Screening) was a great draw, without a doubt, the day's highlight was the presentation by Qualmark customer Larry Choate, Vice President of Ensign Power Systems. Larry related how he got started with HALT/HASS testing (a customer requirement), the implementation process - logistics and costs - and why he now encourages all customers to HALT/HASS their products. Most compellingly, he related his 0% failure rate for power supplies deployed by the military in mission-critical applications in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Qualmark also held an open house at their Hopkinton, Massachusetts ARTC Lab on May 21 where the featured speaker was Robert (Bob) Denaro, Lead Reliability Engineer,iRobot Corporation. Bob is a 20+ year veteran of design and manufacturing engineering, reliability, quality and management and a long time HALT/HASS practitioner.

Carol Drake, Qualmark Vice President of Engineering, and Mechanical Designer, James Provost, have just returned from visiting Qualmark customers in China. "We gained significant insights into the HALT/HASS needs of our Asian customers and how we might want to evolve the technology as we continue to grow the market in that area," Drake stated. “It was enlightening to see how the technology is implemented in both large and small operations and to see the wide variety of applications to which both HALT and HASS/HASA (Highly Accelerated Stress Audit) are employed,” she added.
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The increased pressure to produce more reliable products more quickly and profitably has driven the rise in test parameters now requiring HALT and HASS. Although the term HALT was coined in the 1990s, entities new to HALT and HASS implementations occasionally are not clear on established HALT and HASS technology, specifications and definitions.  HALT/HASS standards created by GM in 2002 and other entities since provide a solid foundation for HALT/HASS programs, clearly defining the critical elements of HALT and HASS, namely:

1) Rapid thermal changes (at least 60°C/min)
2) Random shock, typically delivered by pneumatic actuators
2) Six degrees of freedom (x, y, and z and rotational energy around these axis)
3) Combined environment (rapid thermal changes + random shock)

To better promote these standards, Qualmark has formed a committee whose purpose is to help guide and better define the specifications of HALT and HASS testing and establish a uniform HALT/HASS standard. Qualmark will utilize its partnerships with many Fortune 500 firms and memberships in many global professional organizations concerned with accelerated reliability to better establish correct global specifications. Organizations seeking a copy of the GM specifications or assistance in this endeavor can contact  professionalservices@qualmark.com.