Product testing and reliability assessment are integral to the entire product lifecycle, from pre-research, development, pilot production, trial production, mass production, manufacturing, sales, after-sales service, and maintenance—every stage relies on them. Product reliability assessment also encompasses multiple aspects; this article primarily focuses on Sifang's reliability assessment during the pilot production stage.
Product reliability assessment in the pilot-scale finalization stage can be divided into three aspects: white-box testing; overall performance testing; and software performance testing.
White-box testing
White-box testing is a crucial testing phase in product development. It involves dividing the product into multiple functional blocks and simulating the operation of each functional block under protection or even failure conditions by adding external signals. This ensures that the machine's functionality remains undamaged under long-term operation, instantaneous external pulse interference, or failure.
White-box testing consists of two phases: 1. In the product development and design phase, the design is refined based on white-box test data, repeatedly going through the cycle of "design → test → refine design → test → refine design." This process verifies and improves the design. 2. In the pilot production and finalization phase, white-box testing primarily focuses on the reliability analysis of components and the assessment of potential risks, verifying whether the product's principle design meets the design input requirements. A 0.1uF and a 0.01uF capacitor differ by only an order of magnitude numerically, but their actual performance in practice is vastly different. Even the most experienced electrical engineers wouldn't dare claim they could utilize these capacitors to their full potential without white-box testing. This is the purpose of white-box testing—to prevent component failures or even damage due to design flaws, thereby improving product reliability.
Overall performance testing
The overall performance testing includes: derating testing of components, routine testing of the whole machine, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing of the whole machine, environmental reliability testing of the whole machine, safety testing of the whole machine, and life assessment testing of the whole machine (accelerated testing).
The white-box testing and some overall system performance testing mentioned above can be collectively referred to as hardware finalization testing, and there is also corresponding software finalization testing.
Software performance testing
Software performance testing includes both software functionality and software performance. Software functionality testing verifies each function according to the product specifications; these functions can be directly seen in the product specifications. Software performance testing requires building a high-precision test platform and using a software oscilloscope or other auxiliary software to verify whether the product software's performance meets the design input requirements. The quality of performance directly affects the product's control accuracy, reliability, and stability.
Product reliability assessment covers a very wide range of aspects, almost spanning the entire product lifecycle. The above content is just the tip of the iceberg of the four-party reliability assessment system, aiming to help you understand how each assessment and test can improve a product. A comprehensive product reliability assessment system is the guarantee of product reliability. High-quality products are designed, and the reliability of that design needs to be verified through testing. This is also the responsibility and mission of the testing department.
