COTS or Commercial Off-the-Shelf Equipment
For 15 years, ERI instructors have been helping engineers measure, analyze and understand their over-the-road, over-and-under the sea, liftoff and in-flight environments in terms of potential damage to on-board electronic and other equipment. Since the military and naval services are not allowed to develop more rugged products, but must use existing hardware, ERI has focused on protecting existing products against in-service and in-the-test-lab forces.
Climatic environmental tests? Mostly climatic chambers stressing equipments with hot and cold temperature extremes, humidity, sunlight, salt spray.
Dynamic environmental tests? Here we focus on mechanical shocks ranging from rocket ignition and stage separation to land vehicles driving on and off roads.
Don’t engineers study these subjects in college? Most such university instruction deals with mathematics and theory. Little if any instruction deals with the practical matters that many engineers need, and for which ERI is justly famous.
Here is an outline whose variations have been given on site at NASA facilities and to spacecraft manufacturers:
- CLI 512 - Thermal and Random Vibration Stressing for HALT, ESS, HASS and COTS Testing
- COOL 520 - Cooling of Electronic Assemblies
- COTS 510 - Shock and Vibration Isolation of COTS Equipment
- V&S 520 - Fundamentals of Vibration and Shock Testing of Military COTS/NDE (Commercial Off The Shelf, Non-Developmental Equipment) hardware
Let us know if your organization would like a proposal for onsite training. Or if an individual would like to join one of our open courses.