Mechanical Shock Testing

Some shock tests are very simple, informal, unstandardized. Computer hard drives may be tested by pulling out the wood block which had been supporting one side, so the drive drops onto the workbench. Nothing except drop height is measured. When accelerations are measured and recorded during such a “test,” large day to day and bench to bench variations in peak g and in duration are shown. By a “standard” we mean something more formal, usually a document that is published by a national or international organization, outside a single comp-any, possibly outside an industry. Examples of such organizations include: • American National Standards Institute (ANSI) • American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) • Deutsche Institut fur Normung (DIN) • International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) • International Standards Organization (ISO) • Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)