Environmental Engineering Within the Automotive Component Development Process

This paper discusses a test engineering philosophy and the development of knowledge-based tests for automotive components. To ensure success in the product delivery process, accurate measures of total product quality comprised of quality, reliability, durability, performance (QRDP) must be provided to the product development team. Accuracy in environmental testing for automotive components involves the integration of customer-usage, geographic, and application data into the test specifications. Discussion of the inputs required for knowledge-based tests are provided for the automotive vibration, thermal, corrosion, and dust environments.