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TEST ENGINEERING
SERVICES, SUPPLIERS AND INFORMATION
(This list is inevitably incomplete, and no promises are made for its accuracy. Readers are invited to submit comments and suggestions for alterations and additions)
Note: for many international companies, UK homepage addresses end in .co.uk in place of .com.
The lists provided are:
1. Associations and professional societies.
2. National test facilities and services.
3. Commercial test facilities.
4. Information sources.
5. Literature.
6. Major test equipment manufacturers.
7. Consultants.
(Click on separate list for software suppliers)
1. ASSOCIATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
(All publish journals related to aspects of test, and organise conferences, exhibitions and training, provide information on test equipment and services, etc., as appropriate to their fields of interest. Those indicated * also issue standards).
*American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). ASME standards exist for a wide range of mechanical properties and test methods. Among the best known are the ASME pressure vessel standards, covering design and test methods.
American Society of Test Engineers (ASTE)
*American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).
American Society for Quality (ASQ).
British Measurement and Testing Association (BMTA).
Engineering Integrity Society (EIS). EIS interests cover analysis, simulation and testing for durability, fatigue, NVH, etc.
German Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineers (VDE) (Germany).
Industry Test Forum (ITF). ITF is an information group in the field of electronics test.
Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) (UK).
*Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (USA). IEEE standards include those on electronics testing, as described in chapter 8.
Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) (USA). IEST is the professional society for workers in all aspects of environmental science, including standards, measurement, test, etc. IEST produces guidelines on environmental testing.
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)(UK)
International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA)
Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE)
National Association of Finite Element Modelling (NAFEMS). NAFEMS promotes effective use of finite-element and related methods, publishes benchmarks for program testing, textbooks, guidelines, etc., and organises seminars.
Safety and Reliability Society (SARS)
*Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) (USA). In addition to a range of standards on automotive engineering, the SAE has issued a standard on reliability and maintainability.
Society of Environmental Engineers (SEE) (UK). The SEE Test House Directory provides a comprehensive list of test facilities and equipment suppliers in the UK, and it is available online.
Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE)
SRDA Interactive association providing reliability and safety data.
Test Industry Supplier’s Association (TISA)
British Standards Institution (BSI). BSI operates test and measurement laboratories, and co-ordinates the production of UK standards.
QinetiQ (was Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA): who dreams up names like this?) (QinetiQ) (UK). Range of test facilities.
National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) (UK). Structural testing.
National Physical Laboratory (NPL) (UK). NPL maintains the primary UK reference standards for calibration and measurement. It undertakes measurement research and development, calibration and EMI/EMC testing.
UK Accreditation Service (UKAS). The UK national accreditation body for accreditation of quality systems (ISO9000) certification bodies and test and measurement laboratories. Maintains primary reference standards.
Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL) (USA). Maintains the primary US national reference standards for calibration and measurement and accredits lower-tier facilities, in addition to operating test and measurement laboratories.
3. COMMERCIAL TEST FACILITIES
(This list presents only a very limited selection. For more information contact the organisations listed in Section 1).
AEA Technology (UK). Test facilities, including NDT (UK National NDT Centre).
Cape Engineering. (UK). Wide range of test facilities.
Delphi . Delphi's Technical Centre Luxembourg (TCL) offers a range of test facilities, specialising in automotive system and vehicle test.
East-West Technology Labs. (USA) Environmental test facilities.
EG&G Inc. Test facilities in USA and Europe, primarily to support automotive applications.
Entela Corp. (USA). Test laboratories with emphasis on automotive product testing.
Electrical Research Association. (UK) Wide range of materials and component test and research, EMI/EMC test.
Millbrook Proving Ground Ltd. (UK). Automotive system and component test.
MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) (UK). Test facilities, primarily to support automotive applications.
PDE Automotive Test facilities, primarily to support automotive applications.
QC Inspection Services Inc. Dimensional measurement, CMM, reverse engineering, etc.
Qualmark Corp. Qualmark operates a number of test laboratories in the USA and in Europe, providing services for HALT/HASS testing (Chapter 6).
Retlif Testing Laboratories. Environmental test facilities in the USA.
Rood Technology Ltd. Electronic component test.
SIRA Test and Certification Ltd. Instrument test and calibration.
Trace Laboratories. Environmental test facilities in the USA.
TUV-PS (TuV Product Service). TuV operates a number of test laboratories in the USA, UK and Europe, covering a wide range of environmental conditions, including HALT/HASS.
Wyle Laboratories. Wide range of environmental test facilities, at centres in the USA.
4. INFORMATION SOURCES
(In addition to those listed in Section 1).
IEEE-TTTC IEEE Computer Society - Test Technology Technical Council. Electronics test, information, conferences.SRC (System Reliability Center). (The SRC was previously the Reliability Analysis Center (RAC)).
Testmart Web-based information and trading service for buyers and sellers of test equipment.
5. LITERATURE
(In addition to the journals of the associations listed in 1)
Evaluation Engineering Monthly magazine published in the USA, dealing primarily with electronics test.
Test Engineering and Management Magazine published in the USA, 6 issues per year, covering most aspects of testing.
Testing Technology International Published semi-annually in the UK. Deals mainly with automotive system testing.
Test Monthly magazine published in the UK, covering all aspects of electronics testing.
6. MAJOR TEST EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS
Mechanical, materials
Instron-Schenk Testing Systems Measurement equipment for dimensional, materials testing, etc.
Mitutoyo Measurement equipment for dimensional, materials testing, CMM, etc.
Renishaw Dimensional measurement, CMM.
Servotest Servohydraulics, actuators, gearboxes, etc: performance and fatigue.
TesT GmbH Material and component test equipment.
Electrical, electronic
Acterna Communications equipment test.
Agilent Technologies Wide range of instruments and ATE.
DiagnoSYS Inspection systems and ATE.
DIT-MCO ATE for testing wiring harnesses, cable looms, etc.
ERSA (or www.ersasoldertools.com). Soldering systems and solder inspection systems.
Fluke Wide range of portable instruments.
Genrad ATE.
IFR Wide range of instruments and ATE.
Keithley Wide range of instruments.
National Instruments Wide range of instruments. Also PC-based test equipment and test software (Labview).
Rohde and Schwartz Wide range of instruments.
Spirent Telecommunications test equipment.
Tektronix Wide range of instruments and ATE.
Teradyne ATE.
Tescon ATE.
Wayne Kerr Wide range of instruments and ATE.
Yelo Range of ATE ("TestPoint").
Environmental chambers
Darwin Chambers environmental chambers, laboratory incubators, and temperature and humidity controlled rooms.
HALT&HASS Systems HALT/HASS chambers.
Heraeus
Qualmark HALT/HASS chambers.
Sanyo Gallenkamp
Screening Systems
Thermotron Range of environmental chambers, including HALT/HASS.
Weiss Gallenkamp Weiss Gallenkamp supply and service a wide range of test chambers including altitude, automotive, corrosion, weather, shock, vacuum and vibration test chambers.
Vibration systems
Bruel and Kjaer Vibration control, measurement and analysis instruments and software.
Dactron Vibration control.
Data Physics Vibration controllers, signal analysers
Instron-Schenk Testing Systems Vibration and shock test systems.
LMS Vibration/acoustic test, control and analysis equipment.
MTS Vibration/shake systems (Multi-axial simulation table: MAST). Also vibration analysis/simulation software.
Spectral Dynamics Vibration systems, test management software.
Team Vibration systems, including "the Cube"
Thermotron Environmental chambers, vibration systems, HALT/HASS systems.
Data Acquisition and Analysis
Sensors Reference Center (Data on a huge range of sensors and transducers, and suppliers, provided by Machine Design magazine)
Thales-Heim (Photo-sonics in UK)
7. CONSULTANTS, TRAINING PROVIDERS
(This is a limited list of people I know and can recommend. Many of the organisations and suppliers (equipment and software) listed also provide specialist guidance)
Reliability methods and management
Dev Raheja
Michael Neale Tribology, wear, lubrication, bearing design and application, failure investigation.
Ops al la Carte Reliability and test training and consulting.
Wayne Tustin Reliability, vibration and shock test.
Quality management and improvement (with emphasis on engineering)
ASI Quality Systems (American Supplier Institute). Offices also in UK: ASI-QS(UK) Consulting and training in methods including QFD, Six Sigma, Taguchi, SPC, etc. Also provide software.
David Hester
Mechanical and systems test
Gregg Hobbs Originator of the HALT/HASS principles and author of the book "Accelerated Reliability Engineering: HALT & HASS". Also organises seminars covering a variety of related techniques.
Electronics test (See also IEEE Test Group)
Ben Bennetts Design for test.
Brendan Davis Methods, management and economics.
Jon Turino Design for test.
Software test
Data analysis, experiment design (DoE)
Bob Abernethy Probability plotting methods, Weibull software.
Paul Barringer Probability plotting methods.
Tony Greenfield (UK) Experiment design and analysis, software.
Wayne Nelson Probability plotting, author of classic books on the topic.
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