Most of you are familiar with our problem solving services; generally, this is because you have engaged us to help you solve a technically complex problem of one sort or another  requiring the specialized expertise of our engineers and scientists.  Its always a little surprising to us then, when visitors to our laboratories express surprise at seeing the wide range of testing that we do on more ordinary products.

With that in mind, we are devoting this issue of our newsletter to some of the specification testing that we do which you may not be aware of. As you will see, it ranges from the mundane, to the arcane.

With this theme in mind, we are pleased to announce in this issue the formation of a new services division within our company.  The new division, American Product Safety Co., will provide electrical compliance testing and Field Evaluations.  So, what does this mean?

What is a Field Evaluation?

     Those of you who are plant or facility managers probably already know the answer, but for the others, let's try an example.  Suppose you have just built a new facility, or perhaps you have just expanded or remodeled your existing plant, or perhaps all you have done is to relocate a large piece of electrical equipment to another area.  Well, if this has involved rewiring, there is probably an electrical permit involved, and if there is an electrical permit involved, there is also an electrical inspector, usually from either the city or the county.

     So far so good; except, if you have based your equipment purchases on finding the best equipment for the best price (or, if you have built your own), then you may not have considered whether it is listed with a certifying agency.  (Underwriters Laboratory, or UL, is probably the most well known certifying agency, although they are by no means the only one.)

     Being “listed” simply means that the equipment has gone through a certification process to assure that it complies with certain minimum electrical safety requirements.  Herein lies the problem.  If the equipment is not listed, the jurisdictional inspector cannot sign off the electrical permit, and without the signoff, you cannot put the equipment into service.  Here's where the field evaluation comes into play.

     Simply put, a field evaluation consists of an examination of the equipment to see that it complies with the requirements of the applicable standard (oftentimes, ANSI or NFPA).  The evaluation includes an inspection of the constituent electrical components to see that they meet specified labeling requirements.  If not, they are replaced with listed components.  The equipment is also inspected to ensure that the fusing, ground circuitry, wire size, and other electrical parameters that affect personnel safety are in accordance with the standard.  If any of these items are found amiss, they are flagged so they can be corrected.

     Once all the details of the construction and components have been satisfied, the entire unit is tested electrically.  This includes current and voltage measurements during normal operation, as well as a dielectric withstand test.  This test consists of applying an overvoltage to the service inputs with the mains disconnected; basically, it is an electrical “proof test” to check for weaknesses in the insulation.

     Finally, after it has been shown that the equipment meets the requirements of the applicable standard, we apply a label attesting to this, after which, the electrical inspector can sign off the paperwork and the client can get on with his business.

     To get the new division started off on the right foot, we have hired Alfred (Sandy) Mikalow as Division Manager.  Sandy has 30+ years of experience in the electronics industry and 13 years in product safety.  He has been involved in many fields of testing, including EMI/EMC, atmospherics, dynamics, electronics, optics, and mechanics.  He was with Tektronix in Beaverton for 17 years, and has also worked for other companies providing field evaluation services.

     Like the rest of our employees, Sandy brings a wide range of skills to the company that complement the skills of our other engineers, technicians, and scientists.  Sandy has worked on projects ranging from the first working CCD device, to testing of avionic CRT's for military fighter jets like the F14, F15, F16, and Harrier.  Sandy was project leader for the continuity testing of the conduit at the Alyeska pipeline terminal in Valdez, Alaska.

     Sandy's experience with field evaluations encompasses a wide range of equipment, including medical equipment, industrial machinery, control panels, semi-conductor, telecommunications, processing, printing and packaging, and automotive equipment to name just a few.  Several of these evaluations have been in Japan, where Sandy's interest in and knowledge of the Japanese culture has been a definite plus.      The addition of an electrical compliance testing division to the company will complement our existing problem-solving services in materials, chemical, environmental, and mechanical systems.

We never cease to be amazed at the range of products we're asked to evaluate.  You might even say that we test everything but the kitchen sink.  Well, on second thought, you probably wouldn't want to say that, because it wouldn't be true--we've tested those too.  Oh yes, and the faucets, and the drains, and the piping, and the cabinets they're installed in, and the.....well, you get the idea.  Anyhow, most of these tests are done in response to a failure of one sort or another, but we are also regularly asked to test products to a manufacturer's or organization's standard before they're put into service, as the following examples illustrate.

Kitchen Cabinets

     Kitchen cabinets are a common commodity found in every household; they come in an amazing array of shapes, sizes, styles, designs, and finishes.  Most folks reasonably expect to get many years of service from their cabinets, but what goes on behind the scenes to assure that this is the case?
     Well, it turns out that kitchen cabinets are governed by a series of specifications; (like almost everything else these days!) The Kitchen Cabinet Manufactures Association (KCMA) develops the specifications and certifies the manufactures' cabinets.  The organization was founded in 1955 and presently consists of about 100 member companies, including most of the large cabinet manufacturers in the country.
     So what is involved in producing a “KCMA Certified” cabinet?  Quite a bit, actually.  First, a cabinet manufacturer applies to KCMA for certification of his products.  KCMA inspects the manufacture's facility to establish whether there is a quality program capable of producing a consistent product line.  Once this is established (or put in place as the case may be), samples
from the cabinet line are selected by KCMA representatives and sent to independent testing laboratories for certification testing.
     MEI-C is one of only four labs in the country that perform the certification testing.  First, we examine the cabinet to see that it complies with a set of construction criteria governing the finished quality; this includes the overall appearance and fit, with attention to specific items such as the presence of visible nail holes or gaps between panels.
Next, we run a series of physical tests on the cabinet.  This includes static load-deflection tests on the shelves; we use sand bags, but the purpose is to simulate a huge stack of heavy dishes.
     We then hang heavy steel weights on the doors and swing the doors back and forth through their full arc to see that the hinges don't rip off.  What's this test for?  It  simulates a child using the cabinet as a playground ride.  We also run dynamic impact tests to simulate the effects of a child kicking the doors.
     To assure that the door hinges and drawer slides will last a “lifetime”, they are tested for 25,000 load cycles.  And no, we don't do that manually--we use an automatic cycling machine with a counter!
     To test the performance of the finish, we run a series of “chemical resistance” tests, exposing the door panels to various chemicals, including acids (well, vinegar, lemon juice, orange juice, and grape juice), solvents (ok, water and Vodka), stains (care to guess?--catsup, mustard, and coffee), and surfactants (a fancy term for detergent and water).
     In total, there are about 25 different tests that we run to determine if a cabinet meets the KCMA standard.  And although some of the tests may sound a little amusing, the requirements are actually quite rigorous.  We find that about 20 percent of the cabinets we test fail the requirements.

Slides, Hinges, and Casters

     In addition to testing completed cabinets, we also test  a variety of component hardware destined for office and home furniture/cabinets, including chair casters, drawer slides, and door hinges. These are manufactured all over the world, but many of them are made by competitive labor in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea.  The hardware is used in a wide variety of
products manufactured in the United States, but first, it must be certified to US standards.
     We test these components to the standards of the Builders Hardware Manufactures Association (BHMA) and the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacture's Association (BIFMA).
     Some of the tests are very extensive.  For instance, a Grade 1 BIFMA test for an institutional hinge requires a minimum of 2,500,000 cycles!  At the specified cycling rate of 20 per minute, this test takes 125,000 minutes, or about 3 months when left running 24 hours a day.
     Often, we find that we're not only testing the component, but  our test machine too.  (Generally, no ready-to-use test machines are available, so we build our own.)  Bolts and pins fail by fatigue, air cylinders wear out, counters quit working, and air compressors need to be rebuilt.  In one test of a chair caster, we had to stop part way through the test just to replace the
test room floor tiles, which had been worn through by the repeated motion of the casters!
     The cycling test for drawer slides specifies that no lubricant be added once the test is started.  So our only response to a slide which is loudly screeching for oil is to close the door to the testing room and hope that the noise in the rest of the lab is reduced to a tolerable level.

Specifications for Everything!

     A common thread through all of this testing is the presence of a standard or specification, either for the product itself, or the test method, or both.  In fact, the only thing which amazes us more than the variety of products that we test, is the variety of specifications that someone has actually put together to govern the products.
     For example, years ago, we were retained to test some “seedless pork bellies.”  Some what you ask?  Well, as you probably know, bacon is made from pork bellies.  “Seedless” pork bellies are ones without any...well, I guess you could refer to them as “lactation protuberances”.  And yes, there really is a specification for the number allowed per unit area.  So, off we went to the cold storage room for a day of you-know-what counting.
     In another project, we had a client who was designing a pumping system for a turkey processing plant.  So what did he want tested?  Well, part of the system required that the entrails be pumped from one area to another.  And in order to correctly specify the pumps, motors, and piping, the client needed to know the viscosity of the entrails.  So that's exactly what we did--we measured the viscosity of turkey entrails.  And although we didn't find a viscosity testing specification that specifically addressed turkey entrails, we did use a standard viscosity testing method, thereby assuring accurate, repeatable results.

High-Tech Photo Gallery No, this is not a mutated geranium, but a flowery collection of dendritic crystals of copper sulfide that had grown on an electrical grade copper strip over a period of several years.  The copper had been in close proximity to elemental sulfur, which had slowly, through vapor transport, combined with the copper to form these delicate crystals.

MEI-C PEOPLE