Life Expectancy of a New Miniature Power Relay

摘要

The report describes a Laboratory-conducted program wherein a new miniature power relay design was subjected to a series of life tests to develop its life expectancy profile under a broad range of electrical operating conditions. The principle of factorial experimentation was applied to develop a test program which, over the relay's design range of resistive load conditions, operating temperatures, and operating rates, would provide useful data at minimum cost. From the resulting statistical analysis, a series of functional relationships between the relay life expectancy and the operating stress levels were developed. Mathematical and graphical representations of these relationships are given for use by design engineers in estimating the life expectancy, or reliability, of the relay under specific operating conditions. In addition, the curves can be used to estimate the effect which 'trading off' specific operating parameters can have on the expected reliable life of the relay. (Author)