The Effective Engineer 
Helping you solve your engineering challenges
For Engineers, Managers, and Technical ProfessionalsFebruary 2012 | No. 3
Greetings! 

In this issue we illustrate the difference between reliability and confidence intervals in composite allowables, provide an introduction on environmental stress screening (ESS) for electronic components, and give away a Kindle Fire for joining our social media outlets. Enjoy!
Confidence Intervals

Composite Allowables Reliability vs. Confidence   
The strength of composite materials is very dependent on the manufacturing processes used to make the final parts. This leads to a requirement to test composite materials that is often not required for much better understood and controlled metallic components. Statistical strength allowables are then computed using the methods described in MIL-HDBK-17. These A and B basis allowables represent 99% and 90% reliability values with a 95% confidence interval. Due to population sampling when computing allowables, the confidence interval relates how often our computed values envelope the true population strength values.

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Intro to Environmental Stress ScreeningESS
The development of electronic equipment requires taking into account the "shake and bake" testing that is conducted to prove out the design. Environmental stress screening can be defined in many different ways, one simple definition relates to its purpose, which is to provide a cost-effective method for improving the reliability of the electronic equipment.

 

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Enter to win a Kindle Fire by subscribing to our social media channels

We are giving away a brand new Kindle Fire! To enter, just subscribe to our You Tube Channel, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or follow us on LinkedIn. For every one of the subscriptions you get one entry, so quadruple your chances by subscribing to all four. The lucky winner will be announced on Monday April 2, 2012. 

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Fully functioning Femap and NX-Nastran is available via download from Structural Mechanics Corporation by clicking here.

 

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In This Issue
  Composite Allowables
Introduction to ESS
Kindle Fire Give-Away
Free 45 day Femap Trial
NASA Project Manager Quotes

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Effective Engineering
The focus of this publication is on individual contributors and their first line managers in engineering and technical organizations. SMC provides insight and tools on challenging engineering problems seen in the competitive marketplace. Our focus is on effective methods and behaviors that will make you and your organization competitive and create a rewarding professional experience.
 
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NASANASA Project Managers Guideline #3
 
The source of most problems is people but damned if they will admit it. Know the people working on your project, so you know what the real weak spots are.
 

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