HALT technique uses a combination of accelerated stresses to expose product flaws early in the design and manufacturing stages, which improves product reliability and customer confidence inherent to the design and fabrication process of a new product as well as during the production phase to find manufacturing defects that could cause product failures in the field.
A typical progression of HALT would be: Cold Thermal Step Stress, Hot Thermal Step Stress, Rapid Thermal Shock Stress, Vibration Step Stress, then Combined Thermal and Vibration Stress.
HALT testing is primarily used during the product design phase to reveal any defects and make the product more rugged and reliable. By stressing the product beyond its design specification, operational and destruct limits can be determined, and decisions can be made on how to increase these margins. Each weak link provides an opportunity to improve the design or the processes, which will lead to reduced design time, increased reliability, and decreased costs.
Eurofins E&E North America’s product reliability experts can customize HALT programs from the ground up. In addition to HALT, MET also provides full turnkey in-house solutions, including CAD test fixture designs, material procurement and machining services.
