Sirti May Soon Be Able To Shake Stuff Prototype Testing System Would Be Made Available To Local Manufacturers

Have something that deserves a good shaking?

Well, the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute might soon be just the place to go.

Representatives of about a dozen Spokane manufacturing companies were on hand at SIRTI Friday to learn about the Highly Accelerated Life Testing system. SIRTI is exploring the possibility of acquiring the system, and renting it out to local manufacturers.

The system is designed to abuse a product prototype by shaking it, boiling it, freezing it and electrocuting it either in rapid sequence of simultaneously.

“The system will test the life of a device in a dramatically short period of time,” said Terry Chambers, manager of SIRTI’s Digital Technologies Center.

“A manufacturer does this testing of a prototype, and discovers any inherent weaknesses as a whole, or of individual parts,” Chambers explained. “Then they can go back and redesign as necessary so they don’t get all the way to production and realize some components aren’t going to last.”

The system, and a similar system designed to test products once they are in the production phase, are produced by Hobs Engineering, a Colorado firm.

Itronix Corp., a Spokane-based manufacturer of rugged notebook computers, is considering acquiring the system itself. But the company would only use the $200,000 system about 30 days a year. The rest of the time it would sit idle. Itronix wouldn’t be willing to invite other companies into its factory to share the use of the system, because of the proprietary nature of its manufacturing process.

But, Itronix officials thought, if the system was located at a place like SIRTI, it would be available to all local manufacturers on a fee-for-use basis.

Friday’s presentation about the system, Chambers said, was an initial step to determine if interest within the local manufacturing community is sufficient to warrant SIRTI’s involvement.

“We need to be convinced that the public dollars invested would be returned,” Chambers said.

A couple of local manufacturers, he said, already have their own versions of the system.

Among the companies attending Friday’s session were Telect, Consolidated Electronics, Key Tronic and Output Technology.

, DataTimes