Consumers today expect a lot from their digital devices and the other products they buy, and that goes beyond demanding the latest in features and functionality. Particularly when it comes to devices like smartphones that the average owner will hope to carry and use on a daily base, the utmost in reliability and durability is a must. Designers and manufacturers do a good job of living up to these requirements by making use of especially resilient materials and well-founded engineering approaches, but these precautions can only go so far. In order to make sure that a new device will be able to stand up to the rigors of daily use in the real world, effective means of testing must be employed.
There are a range of tools for simulating the kinds of stresses and shocks that a device might encounter in the course of regular usage, but a few stand out above the others. Vibratory Testing Table equipment is among the most common of all, because it can simulate many years of regular use in a relatively short period of time. Because of this, the relatively simple and humble vibration table often stands at the very center of testing programs of all kinds, even when it is supplemented by other approaches, as well.
Making use of a vibratory table for this purpose can be as simple as strapping a sample device in, setting the desired parameters, and waiting for some time to elapse. Typically, the status and condition of the device will be observed at regular intervals, with any major lapse of functionality being taken as a sign that further design work will be needed. Even a week or so spent on an appropriately configured vib table can be enough to give an idea as to how a device will be likely to fare through years of normal usage, making this kind of testing extremely valuable indeed.
Relatively simple, straightforward approaches of this kind therefore often reveal a lot about how a device will fare with consumers, as well. Many companies, however, will seek to calibrate the testing results they obtain in this way against things like observed return and warranty claim rates once a product has been released. Even in cases where it will be too late to make further adjustments to a product itself, aligning these actual results with those obtained from testing can help to make the next round of design, adjustment, and retesting even more productive and fruitful.
Vibration Table 