OVERVIEW
Maxima’s testing is based on customer requirements, industry standards and specialized tests derived from real-world experiences to ensure that product designs are fully verified prior to launch. When desired, Maxima uses accredited third-party facilities to reinforce our test program.
Our testing “philosophy” emphasizes either reliability growth and demonstration through combined environmental testing, or accelerated (HALT) testing for programs on a fast-track.
FACILITIES
Testing is performed at all 3 Maxima facilities. Much of this testing is conducted in Lancaster, PA, where we verify environmental requirements for operating temperature range, storage temperature range, supply voltage range, immunity to transients on DC power lines, input and output short circuit for instrument clusters, harness impedance tolerance, EMC capability including various SAE J1113 tests and other standards per customer requirements, as well as ISO 13766, humidity tolerance, fogging, salt spray, chemical splash,
vibration, moisture leakage, ESD, and destructive over-voltage.
DESIGN VERIFICATION PLAN
During Integrated Product & Quality Planning (IPQP), engineers develop the Design Verification Plan (DVP), with inputs from our customers, in order to identify required tests, acceptance criteria and samples sizes. As the DVP is implemented and test reports are generated, it becomes the Design Verification Plan & Report (DVP&R).
SPECIALIZED TESTING
Specialized tests can be created to simulate extraordinary real-world conditions and evaluate how well the subsystem will perform under those conditions. For example, Maxima introduced a heated diesel fuel tank slosh test to gauge how heated fuel used with Tier 3 engines would impact the performance of float-arm senders.
Click here to see heated fuel test video.
(Video is ~6.8MB)
EMC
Maxima performs early-level EMC testing on prototype parts up to 30 V/m, and uses outside partners for the balance of testing required.
PRODUCT VALIDATION
Maxima supports customers in the field when our product—the subsystem—is installed in the vehicle. This support includes on-site evaluations, programming, troubleshooting and continuous improvement.
METROLOGY
Maxima’s facilities maintain metrology labs with traceability per N.I.S.T. standards. These labs verify the correctness of critical components used in the subsystems we design and develop.
