How do you build quality when developing a new product?

by Eric Cohen

It’s likely you’ve seen the automobile commercials where the car or truck is driving through torrents of water, up a rocky hillside, or through whiteout conditions in the dead of winter. Exciting to watch as you imagine yourself in those adventures. But showing those punishing conditions implies that the vehicle can reliably survive them. How do automakers work to ensure successful performance in the field?

Durability Testing. These are the tests engineers use to ensure a program can withstand and perform well during unfavorable conditions. They also help minimize risk from warranty, insurance, and damage claims by detecting design flaws early.

WiTricity is following these same models for durability testing as we develop our wireless charging solutions. We are putting our ground equipment, wallboxes, and vehicle receivers through hardcore durability testing to help assure consumers that wireless EV charging from WiTricity performs as it was designed. On all electric vehicles – passenger cars, light trucks and vans, and neighborhood electric vehicles (golf carts and low-speed vehicles).

While durability testing can’t cover everything a device or system may face in its lifetime, the tests help engineers design products to resist common stresses or forces and to perform required functions in a variety of settings appropriate to intended use by a customer. This is particularly important for wireless charging given that EV charging can occur outside – in a wide variety of environments. From desert heat to frigid cold and from heavy downpours to feet of snow and ice.

It's important to understand that the goal of testing is to show any possible signs of weakness that the product may have before those weaknesses show up in a finished product.

What is durability testing?

Durability-related testing is typically considered a time-compressed simulation of a lifetime of real-world usage to ensure a product will perform to the best of its ability. In most cases, actual data, either in the form of strain or acceleration, is recorded. Following the data collection, a number of steps are typically used to go from the field to the lab.

What kind of tests does wireless EV charging endure?

• Performance – Looks at the system’s ability to meet claims, as well as check for electrical overstress conditions
• Environmental – Reviews stresses from the environment (temperature, humidity, solar loading (UV), chemical resistance, corrosion, etc.) to ensure the system performs at the highest levels
• Reliability – Demonstrates the system is able to meet the target mission at a target reliability level, over a number of duty cycles typically far in excess of what the system would see in “real life”
• Mechanical – Verifies the system design is robust against stressors it may see in the field under static or dynamic conditions

This myriad of tests – carried out over a long period of time in a variety of conditions – is completed throughout the development process. As part of the process, we test the structure and strength of the product – from its components all the way through to the finished product. These tests – which may include lifecycle durability, functional, handling, and safety – can take a long time and are designed to be rough enough to push the product to its limits.

At any point in time during the testing process, whenever standards are not met, the product is reviewed, updated, and retested. This process continues repeatedly until the development team can ensure that the product meets the highest standards. As people say, “Wash, rinse, repeat.”