Home > Blog > Industry News > What is vibration testing for PCBA/Electronics and what are the testing standards? Vibration testing is a reliability verification method that uses laboratory equipment (vibration platform) to simulate the vibration environment that the electronic product/PCBA may experience throughout it's lifecycle, and also to evaluate it's structural integrity, functional integrity, and durability.
It's core purpose is not to destroy, but rather expose potential defects and verification:
1. Expose design defects: Discover potential failures such as structural fatigue which caused by resonance, loose screws, component desoldering, and connector breakage.
2. Verify structural strength: Confirm that the product structure, assembly, and packaging could withstand expected vibration stresses without damage.
3. Evaluate operational performance: Monitoring whether the product could maintain it's specified functions after going through vibration.
4. Compliance certification: Meeting the mandatory standard requirements of the target market, customers, or industry.
Basic system workflow: Vibration controller (issues commands) 鈫 Power amplifier (amplifies signals) 鈫 Vibration platform (generates vibration) 鈫 Product fixture (fixes the sample) 鈫 Sensor (measurement feedback).
Based on the different vibration methods, vibration tests are mainly categories as below:
Simulates periodic, regular vibrations, such as those caused by rotating machinery like engines, rotors, and propellers.
- Fixed-frequency vibration: Tests are performed at a single fixed frequency, often used to find the withstand capability at specific frequency points (such as resonance points).
- Sweep-frequency vibration: The frequency changes continuously within a certain range. Mainly used for:
1) Resonance search and dwell: Identifying the product's resonance frequency point and continuously vibrating at that point to assess its fatigue life.
2) Frequency response investigation: Understanding the vibration characteristics of a product at different frequencies.
Simulates irregular, broadband vibration excitation in real-world environments, such as road transport, aircraft transport, and rocket launches. It's energy is randomly distributed across all frequencies, more realistic, and is currently the most widely used type.
Features: Excite the product's response at all frequencies simultaneously, more efficiently to expose defects.
Combine sinusoidal and random vibrations, to simulate more complex real-world environments (e.g., helicopters, which experience both periodic rotor vibration and random airflow-induced vibrations).
Apply three-kind of environmental stresses simultaneously, this is one of the most stringent reliability tests, used to simulate extremely complex environments (e.g., automotive engine compartments, aerospace equipment).
Standards specify test conditions (frequency range, amplitude, acceleration, duration, etc.). The choice of standard depends on the product type, transportation method, operating environment, and customer requirements.
The following are core standards categorized by industry:
| Industry/Field | Core Standard | Standard Name and Brief Description |
| Basic and General | IEC 60068-2-6 | <Environmental Testing 鈥 Part 2-6: Sinusoidal Vibration Testing> |
| IEC 60068-2-64 | <Environmental Testing 鈥 Part 2-64: Random Vibration Testing> | |
| ASTM D999 | <Standard Method for Testing Vibration of Containers> | |
| Military and Aerospace | MIL-STD-810 | US Military Standard, covering comprehensive environmental testing; Method 514 (Vibration) is the authoritative guideline. |
| GJB 150/150A | Chinese National Military Standard, similar to MIL-STD-810, used for domestic military products. | |
| RTCA DO-160 | Global core standard for environmental testing of airborne equipment; Section 8 is vibration testing. | |
| Automotive Electronics | ISO 16750-3 | <Road Vehicles 鈥 Environmental Conditions for Electrical and Electronic Equipment 鈥 Part 3: Mechanical Loading (Globally applicable). > |
| AEC-Q100 | <a mandatory standard for stress testing certification of automotive chips, which includes vibration testing requirements.> | |
| GB/T 28046.3 | the corresponding Chinese national standard for automotive electronic vibration testing. | |
| Standards of major automakers | such as Volkswagen VW80000 and Ford BNS, are generally more stringent than international standards. | |
| Consumer electronics | often refer to IEC 60068-2-6/64, or brands (such as Apple and Huawei) develop their own internal testing specifications. | |
| Packaging and Transportation | ISTA (International Association for Safe Transport) series | ISTA 1-3 series simulate vibrations and shocks in different transportation stages and are globally recognized standards for logistics packaging verification. |
| ASTM D4169 | <Standard Practice for Performance Testing of Transport Containers and Systems> |
No matter which standard will be followed, a vibration test condition typically needs to define the parameters as following:
1. Vibration type: sinusoidal / random / mixed.
2. Frequency range: e.g., 5-500 Hz.
3. Amplitude: Sinusoidal vibration is usually represented by displacement or acceleration; random vibration is represented by a power spectral density curve.
4. Test Axis: Testing is typically performed sequentially along three mutually perpendicular axes: X, Y, and Z.
5. Test Time: The duration of each axis, or the total number of cycles.
6. Product Status: Power off, powered on, or performing a specific functional cycle.
Vibration testing is a crucial method to verify the reliability of electronic products/PCBA. By scientifically simulating vibration environments, electronic products could be test as future environmental stresses before they go to customers. Choose the correct test type and standard is like setting a stress interview for the electronic products, only by passing this test, then the potential quality risks which caused by external vibrations could be prevented.
Benlida has been manufacturing PCBs and PCBAs for 14 years and now possesses a fully equipped quality laboratory and also provide vibration tests for PCBA and electronic products. If your electronic products need vibration testing, please feel free to contact Benlida!
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