TABLE OF CONTENTS One early application of ESS was by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Apollo Space Program for the acceptance testing of electronic equipment. Since the major sources of vibration for products used in space are random, NASA was receptive to introduce ESS for acceptance testing. The Grumman Corporation in Bethpage, New York, started the pioneering work in 1970 with tests on the design of the lunar module for the Apollo man-on-the-moon program. The company was able to precipitate and eliminate 85% to 90% of all workmanship defects from the equipment subject to random vibration and thermal cycling. Later, the ESS research was extended in the Grumman Corporation to Airborne Electronic Systems for military aircraft.
The ESS work conducted early at the Grumman Corporation was one of the main bases for the U.S. Navy's document P-9492, "Navy Manufacturing Screening Program," which was one of the first military documents to suggest effective temperature profiles and random vibration spectra for electronic equipment screening.
IBM in Charlotte, North Carolina, successfully applied ESS in 1985 to the design and production of its new Model 4234 printers. This high-output printer is used with the company's line of System/36 and System/38 minicomputers, and is designed to print up to 410 lines a minute. Kenneth Chesney, a staff test engineering coordinator with the IBM Corporation's product...
