Expertemc 
Reliability MTBF MTTF Consultant

Consulting services

During the early stages of a project, reliability consulting can be an effective strategy for a reliable and safe product.

Expertemc offers reliability MTBF MTTF analysis, availability, and maintainability estimation, RBD modeling, environmental impact on MTBF MTTF predictions, number of samples for reliability testing, reliability exponential and normal distribution, L10 life parameter, and accelerated life testing to meet product reliability objectives.

 

Reliability defines the probability that a device will perform its required function under stated conditions for a specific period. This is a criterion of the equipment’s failures as a function of time. It has an impact on maintenance, repair, and service costs. 

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Expertemc can help you in the reliability prediction:​

• Identify potential weakness components;

• Provide product reliability MTBF MTTF and availability prediction;

• Help assess the effect of product reliability on maintenance activity;

• Establish goals for reliability testing;

• Set up reliability test plans and procedures;

• Provide the system reliability model with the necessary input to predict the frequency of outages during both the early life and the steady state;

• Gather the information necessary to determine the cost of a product over its lifetime, including the frequency of failures in early life and beyond;

• Comparison of different designs and life cycle costs.

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​Once the prototype of a product is available, lab tests can be employed to obtain more precise reliability MTBF MTTF predictions. Accurate prediction of electronic products requires knowledge of components, design, manufacturing process, and expected operating conditions. 

Several different approaches developed to achieve the reliability prediction of electronic systems and components. Among these techniques, three main categories are often used within government and industry: empirical (standards-based), physics of failure, and life testing. 

 

Empirical predictions 

The empirical prediction on models, developed from a statistical curve, fits historical failure data, which have been collected in the field, internally or from manufacturers.

Several standards, such as MIL-HDBK-217F, HDBK-217Plus, Bellcore/Telcordia SR-332, and China GJB-299C, are widely used for reliability MTBF MTTF prediction of electronic products. 

These methods present reasonable reliability estimates for similar or slightly modified parts. It assumes that the causes of equipment failures are intrinsically related to faulty components independently of one another.

 

Physics of Failure Methods

The physics of failure approach is based on understanding the failure mechanism and applying the physics of failure model to the data.

Arrhenius Law

One of the earliest and most successful acceleration models predicts how the time-to-failure of a system varies with temperature. This empirically based model is known as the Arrhenius equation. Generally, chemical reactions can be accelerated by increasing the system temperature. Since it is a chemical process, the aging of a capacitor (such as an electrolytic capacitor) is accelerated by increasing the operating temperature.

Eyring Model

The Eyring model is commonly used to demonstrate the reactions on stress factors other than temperature, such as mechanical pressure, humidity, or voltage.

Corrosion Model

Electronic devices with aluminum or aluminum alloy with small percentages of copper and silicon metallization are subject to corrosion failures.

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RMA - Reliability, Maintainability, and Availability

Reliability (R) is the probability that a component or system will perform its intended function without failure during a given period under a specific operating environment.

 

Maintainability (M) is the possibility that a defective item is replaced or repaired within a given time. Maintainability is an integrated parameter when designing the equipment.

 

Availability (A) is the likelihood that a repairable system will perform its intended function for a specified time when used in an assigned manner. Therefore, availability is a function of reliability and maintainability.

If "R" is satisfactory, then no need for "M" and "A"; if "R" is not enough, then "R" and "M" are needed. 

Availability is simply the total uptime/total time (uptime+downtime). It is the hours of operation of a device.