Forgive me if I am slow on the uptake, but...
If you are contracting an EM testing firm to do the tests, they already have a procedure.
If you are developing your own testing equipment, then the procedure should be based on operating your own equipment, to demonstrate compliance with the DO test criteria.
If you have a LRU or device that needs testing, then you can take it to an agency that does such tests and they will worry about the procedural details.
Given those conditions, why would you expect a testing agency like Dayton-Brown would give you their test procedure documents for free, if they have spent time and money to develop them?
yes. we will contract someone to do the lightning test.
we got a quote, for test procedure ONLY, $5,290.
the total test cost is about $25,000.
i just can not imagine a test procedure for flow through a device at 400 and 40 A (our requirement, not a typo, not 25,000A) and have a camera to catch any spark, should cost over 5k.
DTB declined the quote.
thanks.
what can you do with your own test procedure ? I'm sure it involves specialised equipment ... so it follows you can't write a procedure without knowing the equipment to be used. if mean you can't take a procedure to a lab and say "do this test" ... i'd expect labs would take $6k time to review your procedure, to require changes to their equipment, ...
and I suspect that your test may require specialised equipment (to create a sub-spec current ?)
yes, the testing sounds expensive ... if you think it is a good market opportunity, open up your own labs !
another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
Your vendor is writing a qual test procedure for your specific product. Frankly, I don't think $5K for producing this written test procedure is out of line. That only works out to about 40 hours of engineering effort.
The way these things work in the aircraft industry is that you provide a test request to the vendor describing the testing they will perform and the test documentation they will deliver. Then the vendor will submit a test procedure for your approval. Then you will deliver a conforming test article to the vendor for testing. The vendor will conduct the testing described in the test procedure. And then the vendor will deliver a standardized written report to you documenting the results of the testing.
$30K for this test effort does not seem like a bad deal, if you are confident that the vendor is competent. Consider what the cost to your company would be if you used a testing vendor that charged less money, but did a substandard level of testing, and your product experienced problems in service that required replacement of the defective products?
