The need for manufacturers to be able to determine whether a new product will be of sufficient quality to send to the market place has brought the need for more advanced testing processes. The general public is more concerned than ever with the quality of the products they spend their hard earned cash on, especially in today's tight economy. HALT & HASS testing are now being used in place of the old standard vibration and thermal testing that was used to test products before they were marketed. Before HALT & HASS the traditional vibration and temperature testing used played a vital role in the advent of many of the electronic and mechanical products we use today. In this testing method a set of minimum and maximum temperatures were established as well as levels of vibrations that the product would be exposed to during the testing process. These tests usually involved changing only one parameter at a time and vibration was applied to only one axis at a time. If the product was still functional after the tests it was deemed to have passed and be ready to market.

The biggest problem faced by using the traditional testing methods instead of HALT & HASS testing was that even though a product may have passed these basic tests the weakest link may not have been exposed. The single element changes did not expose the product to the same effects that it might see in the "real world" and as such provided the engineers with no information that might help them to improve the overall durability of a product. However in their time traditional testing methods were responsible for many of the quality products we use today. Today more manufacturers prefer to use HALT & HASS testing as they are far more capable of simulating real life stresses on a product in a very short period of time. This type of testing can lead to a much higher quality product and better profit margins for the manufacturer. HALT testing is used in the preproduction phase and is designed to actually break the product. In this way a product can be pushed to its limits and any flaws in the design can be found and the engineers can make any necessary adjustment to the design before it hits the production line.

Of HALT & HASS, HASS is only used on production items to test them on a regular basis. HASS is not intended to actually break the product, but instead is meant to ensure that the product will continue to perform properly over its entire predicted lifetime. To better understand the importance of continual HASS testing consider how many products are manufactured today. Take a computer for example, each individual part is manufactured by a different company and then it is assembled at a final assembly plant. If you want to make sure that it will stand the test of time for the customer HASS testing can be the best way to ensure that it will do so. If you need an expert in HALT & HASS testing you need the services of Reliability Help. They can help train your staff in all phases of both HALT & HASS testing to help them ensure that your products are ready to be sold to the public.