Recipe for reliability: Shake and bake: Environmental stress screening (ESS), a military convention, is moving into other markets as an inexpensive way to improve product reliability and identify design flaws

The migration of environmental stress screening (ESS), a military convention, into other markets is discussed. ESS provides an inexpensive way to improve product reliability and identify flaws. A well-designed ESS program, applied to both prototype designs and actual production units, adds little time to the production process, although time will be needed to rework items with defects. The use of ESS in the development of IBM´s 4234 printer is examined. The differences between qualification testing and ESS for screening during production are discussed, as well as alternatives to ESS. The controversy in the ESS field over tight tolerances is described. To illustrate the value of ESS, its use at Lockheed-California Company in 1981, to screen switching logic units used in US Navy S-3A antisubmarine aircraft, is examined.