There’s no question that engineering analysis, simulation, and similar technologies have had an impact on testing. Product development cycles and associated costs have been reduced as the number of physical prototypes needed to validate next generation products has been reduced significantly.
However, as today’s digital infrastructure and collaboration tools evolve, testing will continue to adapt to fully leverage these (and similar) technologies. Expanded Internet bandwidth and greater cloud data storage, along with advancing sensor, Bluetooth and imaging technology, will ensure more economical uses of the test engineer’s time to provide the data that drives simulation and validate product designs.
“In a growing number of cases we’re able to leverage a customer’s in-house resources without the time and expense to send test engineers on-site,” said Six DoF Testing & Analysis, Sr. Engineer, Garth Wiley. “Through today’s hi-def imaging and collaboration applications we’re able to guide test set-up, collect data, and monitor tests remotely. Test data can be uploaded to the cloud and reviewed in real-time. Similarly, we’re now able to monitor mobile structures for large channel count, for longer durations, and at higher frequency requirements. Capturing displacement, vibration, and stress without the need to be physically on-site.”
While no one can predict what the next few decades will bring, it’s safe to say that in our physical, mechanical, physics-based world, there will remain a need to identify flaws, ensure structural integrity, troubleshoot problems, and provide the real-world data needed to confidently design tomorrow’s products.