Gesellschaft für Informatik, Automatisierung und Datenverarbeitung mbH Unterschlauersbacher Hauptstr. 10 90613 Großhabersdorf ':+49-9105-9960-0 Fax:+49-9105-9960-19 Internet: www.iad-de.com Email: info@iad-de.com MTBF 4f Description A criterion how a product is to make to stand out of the quantity of competitive products, is its quality. A standard for quality of hardware products is, among other things, the statistical time before a failure occurs. Two common procedures to determine the failure-time are the Siemens-norm SN 29500 and the MIL-HDBK217F. In each case the statistical time between two failures (MTBF-Mean Time Between Failure) respectively the theoretical number of failures in 109 hours (FIT- Failure In Time) are available. Often the word durability is used. That is wrong, a failure is a malfunction of the modules, but it does not have to be a durable damage. The values are separately calculated for each module and then summed up to the total failure time of the product. A great advantage of using programs to calculate the failure time, is that it is possible, till to a certain point, to renounce on test-rows with a synthetic aging to make reliability-forecasts. It is even possible to make an estimation during a product specification. The MTBF-program version 4.f enables the calculation of the failure times by the norms SN 29500 and MIL-HDBK217F. At this the user is supported by a comfortable guided user tour, a module-library, aids on the structuring of projects and extensive print-functions. Calculation of the MTBF-time for assemblies Zertifiziert nach DIN EN ISO 9001 contain the modules and to this necessary informations. Both data bases of norms have different amounts of modules to dispose of. But a lot of modules are present in both norms. A conversion of assembly groups from one to the other norm is not possible. The assembly can only contain module-types that are present in the data bases of norms. The data bases of norms cannot be extended by the user, because the proper formulas are implemented in the program. The user has the possiblity to save frequently needed modules, in order to the typedesignation, in a self-made data-base. Hybrids Something special assembly groups are hybrids. They are only supported by the MILnorm. Hybrids integrate modules of different technologies. In MTBF 4.f hybrids are made available like an assembly group. The modules have to be chosen from a MIL-data base, but general information concerning the hybrid assembly have once to be put in. Projects Making a project available, assembly groups are comprehended. The required assembly groups/hybrids are taken from the Meta-data base. For each assembly, which is to be build in, a factor is to give to specify the frequency (or redundancy) of a assembly group. If all assembly groups are specified, the FIT-value can be calculated. The main usage of MTBF 4.f is the calculation of the MTBF for assemblies. Assemblies are a collection of several modules, like e.g. resistors or memory chips. The MTBF-time that is to calculate is the theoretic failure-rate, which, according to how much information about an assemmbly group is available, is corresponding exact to determine. With MTBF 4.f the MTBFtime (failure-rate) can be calculated by two different methods of calculation. The easier method is based on the norm SN 29500. Far more inputs are necessary when calculating the FIT-value by the MIL217F-norm, the result is corresponding more accurate. The data base of norms (SN 29500.mdb and MIL217F.mdb) have been made for Windows in Access. They Copyright © Version 1 2005.All Rights Reserved. 1/1 24.11.05