we supply an electronic assembly to the automotive industry and we're currently asking a couple of fundamental questions

1. Do we/OEMs really know what validation is required to mimic 10yr vehicle life? Either in a cascade or a series of in parallel dedicated tests
2. Do we know our product's "weak point"? Either in a cascade or a series of in parallel dedicated tests
3. Should we be doing "Test to Fail" (as opposed to just "passing" a validation plan) ? Either in a cascade or a series of in parallel dedicated tests

the more a read/ponder over this subject the more I'm confused!
any help out there??

Thanks,
Paul

Paul,

This is not something that I think we will be able to stumble through in a post. I suggest we take it off-line.

Some key questions :
1) Type and number of components on vehicle.
2) Component location on vehicle.
3) Anticipated environmental variables and extremes (Temperature,Humidity,contaminants,...).
4) Anticipated parametric variables and extremes (Voltage,current,...).
5) Anticipated customer life (10 yrs/150,000 Miles / ....) At (90th/95th/...) percentile user.
6) Customer Duty Cycle (# on-hours/vehicle life).
7) Customer requirements : R/C Goals , Test to failure /Degradation testing allowed,...
8) Applicable regulatory requirements (FMVSS/CMVSS/....) and sections.
Mike
michael.walmsley.b@bayer.com