×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Shock limits for electronic components

Shock limits for electronic components

Shock limits for electronic components

(OP)
hi,

Just had a small question, I am hoping that someone here has come across this. Is there some kind of a shock / vibration frequency limit for electronics? Can we find a value like that in a spec for a device/component? And also if its a generic kind of value for all electronics (e.g. above 20g's and 1000Hz vibration frequency component x will fail) or a place where we can find such numbers?

I am actually looking at putting togather a spec for RFID tags on drill pipes which would withstand high freq. shocks. If anyone has any ideas on how to test this scenario it would be great.

Thanks,
 

RE: Shock limits for electronic components

You need to talk to your mechanical engineers.  Electronics can and are being fired in cannons, so inherently the limits are quite high.  However, I was told that someone's first attempt at a cannon-fired guidance system wound up with a small pile of rubble from the first shot, so your mechanical designers do need to do serious design work if the shock levels are truly high.

But first, you need to determine the level of shock you need to survive, then design around that.  Most military electronics can easily survive 20 g and operate afterwards (MIL-STD-810F).  Critical electronics on military ships are designed to survive, and possible operate through, shocks above 300 g's (MIL-S-901D)

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Shock limits for electronic components

(OP)
Thanks for the info. So from what I gather it seems 300g's is a big number (possibly like a high end limit) but for something designed to survive 300g's, do you know what kinda of a duration of shock do they expect.

After a little more discussion with our engineers I found that definition of a shock can also be taken different ways for calculating a damage curve of a component. number cylces, g's, duration all matter. Do you know if the MIL-S-901D accounts for the other variables also?

Thanks,

RE: Shock limits for electronic components

Again, the shock environment is something that you need to get from your customer(s), as with the shock durations.  These are all extremely application specific.  What is correct and applicable for a military system may have zero bearing on your application.

MIL-S-901D is intended for a single shock, or a few shocks, environment.  It's not expected that a ship will be under continual attack for very long, without either winning or getting sunk.

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Shock limits for electronic components

As an example the radar proximity sensor in an AA shell was designed for several thousand g, from memory, and given that this was in WW2 that would have been with thermionic valves.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Shock limits for electronic components

Refer to:  

Dave S. Steinberg, Vibration Analysis for Electronic Equipment

Tom Irvine
www.vibrationdata.com

RE: Shock limits for electronic components

Generally speaking, commercial off the shelf (COTS) electronics components are able to survive shocks of 20Gs or less.  But you really need to refer to manufacturers data if it exists.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources