I attended a EMC Technical Seminar last month in Seattle. Dave Walen, FAA gave a great presentation on DO-160. Since so many of our customers use DO-160 as a test guideline for aircraft equipment, I thought I’d share my notes (at least the ones I can make out):
RTCA DO-160 will go to Rev G around December 2010. No major changes, but Rev G will have a User Guide that shares tribal knowledge for each of the 26 sections in RTCA DO-160. Check out the FAA Advisory Circular AC-21-16F at www.faa.gov for information on the different revision levels of RTCA-DO-160.
Did you know?
The DO-160 test specification is a STANDARD for demonstrating procedures/conditions for aircraft equipment. It is not an APPROVAL to install equipment on aircraft. Approvals fall under FAA. FAA encourages use of DO-160. Boeing, Airbus, etc… tend to have their own standards/requirements.
Section 23 Lightning Direct Effects: Lightning strikes an aircraft once every 3000 hours in today’s world.
DO-160 is actually a consensus agreement on procedures and test conditions. Everyone on the RTCA committee must agree. No wonder revisions take 3-4 years!
Cascade TEK has placed an order for an Atlas Ci4000 Weather-Ometer Test System. This new machine meets international test standards for Xenon Weathering, Solar Radiation and Accelerated Aging of Automotive Parts, Plastics, Inks, Paints/Coatings, Packaging, Photovoltaic, Textiles and Pigments/Dyes. By Fall 2010 Cascade TEK will be testing to the following popular UV – light test specifications: MIL-STD 810F (Solar Radiation), SAE J1885 (Accelerated exposure of automotive interior trim), SAE J1960 (Accelerated exposure of automotive exterior materials), A series of Volkswagen specs: PV1303, 3929, 3930 (Light fastness, dry-hot weathering, wet-warm weathering) as well as Ford, GM and Hyundai requirements. We expect to have the machine up and running by the end of summer 2010.
Cascade TEK currently performs Photo-stability UV testing as well as UV exposure to meet ASTM standards. Additional accelerated aging tests such as salt-fog, temperature/humidity and physical fatigue/life cycle testing are also available from Cascade TEK. Contact Joe Fratiello, joe@cascadetek.com or Terry Candlish, terry@cascadetek.com if you have any questions about UV, weathering or accelerated aging tests.
An interesting article caught my attention last week. A military wife was sharing her soldier’s dismay over how the Velcro that is supposed to hold up his cammo pants, seal pockets and keep him in uniform does not work in a dusty, sand ridden environment like Iraq or Afghanistan. Funny, Cascade TEK performs the military standard (MIL-STD 810) sand and dust testing on all types of military and civilian gear. These tests insure components in the field can withstand sand and dust bombardment. We’ve seen all types of hardware, electronics, but never velcro…
Mayor Jerry Willey stopped by Cascade TEK for a tour of our environmental testing laboratory. His entourage included Deanna Palm, President of the Hillsboro Chamber. We had some interesting tests going during the tour, including vibration testing on man-lifts, altitude testing on night-vision equipment and damp heat storage testing on marine control systems.
Mayor Willey & Chamber President Deanna Palm Can't Believe What Goes On In Hillsboro!
Anthony Vo, Mechanical Engineer at Rockwell Collins is our guest today. He brought in the coolest remote controlled helicopter we’ve ever seen. It’s a T-REX 700 with a size 90 motor. It can fly inverted, backwards and inverted AND backwards. It took Anthony about 6 months to learn that skill. Many crashes, too. Total flight time is about 10 minutes, before burning through the two nitro (alcohol based) fuel tanks. The helicopter has a range of about 1/2 mile and he’s taken it to about 500 ft altitude. Costs about $2K.
Cascade TEK does quite a bit of testing on aircraft components. RTCA- DO160 is the test standard most common for avionics. Let us know if we can help with your flying machine.
Tony "Dusty" Arbogast & Phan Tu Execute A Sand/Dust Test
Cascade TEK’s blowing sand and dust chamber has been operational now for a few weeks. So far we have tested products such as cell phones, door latches, filters and avionics equipment to the MIL-STD 810F Blowing Sand and Blowing Dust test specifications. Here is a picture of a test in action. It gives you a good idea of what this machine looks like.
Cascade TEK also performs SETTLING Sand and Dust testing, popular with automotive, avionic and entertainment component manufacturers. The SETTLING Sand and Dust tests we run most often are RTCA-DO-160, SAE J1455 and IEC 60529 IP5X and and IP6X. Exposure to fine dust causes problems with moving parts, forms conductive bridges and acts as an absorbent material for the collection of water vapor. Not good.
With state of the art modular fixtures, the testing lab at Cascade TEK can physically test product functionality thousands of times, replicating the repetition it would face throughout its normal lifetime.
Examples of such tests include hinge testing, clasp and release, button pushing, opening and closing, or pressing and releasing keyboard functions. Our facility also has the ability to customize our testing processes to meet most product needs. Have a product you need to test?
Detailed test data, cycle reports and photographs are provided upon test completion. You can check out our tests in action by watching the video below.
Living in Oregon, we see a lot of bikes and bike racks around, and, thankfully, we’ve never seen any bikes fall off their racks or bike racks fall off their cars. What gives us this confidence? Testing of course. And custom bike rack testing is yet another type of testing CascadeTek offers. We shot this video in the vibration test lab to share with you all. Click below to see how we replicate actual vibration bike racks experience while on moving cars.
From aerospace to consumer products, we can run Vibration to Thermal Shock testing on just about anything. Our capabilities have grown over the last 17 years, please visit our Testing Services page for a list of them all.
Cascade TEK’s new Blowing Sand and Dust Chamber is the first of its kind in the country. It is designed to perform the blowing sand/dust tests called for in MIL-STD 810F. What makes our Blowing Sand and Dust Chamber unique is that it’s able record test temperature, humidity, wind speed and particle concentration values in REAL TIME. This is unlike any other sand and dust test data available. Our next step is to have our Blowing Sand And Dust testing audited by A2LA and added to our list of accredited tests Cascade TEK performs.
Why conduct sand and dusting testing?
Sand and dust create a harsh environment for chassis, under-hood, and exterior mounted devices, and can be a long- term problem in interior locations, such as under the dash and seats in automobiles. Exposure to fine dust causes problems with moving parts, forms conductive bridges and acts as an absorbent material for the collection of water vapor. Some electromechanical components may be able to tolerate fine dust, but larger particles affect or totally inhibit mechanical action. Cascade TEK performs a wide variety of Sand and Dust Testing. For more information, visit our sand and dust test page.
We are always looking for better equipment and ways to improve our testing services. Check back soon for the latest from Cascade TEK or subscribe to our RSS feed.
In a video of about 2 minutes in length, our testing facility was featured on Channel 8 news in Portland with a segment called, “Product testing is the name of the game at Cascade Tek.” President Doug Barrett and Lab Manager Terry Candlish were interviewed, and quick demonstrations of testing procedures for popular products like cell phones and XBox 360 can be seen. You can also catch a glimpse of our capabilities and highlights here at the lab. Hulu here we come!
