Vibration test specification on an aerial work platform

The Issue

A manufacturer of aerial work platforms wished to equip his products with electronic boxes sensitive to vibrations. He asked Metravib to specify vibration tests allowing to validate that the box would resist the different vibrations of the environment during the whole lifetime of the aerial lift.

The Solution

Based on the NF X50-144-1 to 3 standard, Metravib specified the adequate tests to qualify the equipment against the operational vibration environment.

This standard defines the different steps to follow to specify the test:

• Step 1: Establishment of the mission profile composed of the different life situations.
• Step 2: Characterization of the vibration environment: Metravib thus measured the vibration environments of the nacelle in real use conditions at our customer’s site at the foot of each equipment and for each life situation.
• Step 3: Specification of the test based on two damage mechanisms and regarding the effective mission profile:
  • Exceeding a stress threshold value, which leads to the specification of a shock test (shock response spectrum)
  • Accumulated fatigue damage, which leads to a vibration test specified by its duration and power spectral density (PSD)

At the end of this work, the test specification composed of the shock response spectrum and the PSD is transmitted to the customer so that they can carry out these tests on a vibrating table for each electronic box.