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Home > Support > Rugged Printer Friendly Version

Rugged

Environmental extremes in temperature, humidity, air pressure, mechanical shock and vibration are common in many military, space and industrial systems. In the past, boards designed to meet full military requirements incurred high costs and delayed deployment of new technology.

*Now government agencies mandate the use of COTS (commercial off the shelf) boards whenever possible with additional mission-specific environmental requirements specified whenever necessary. This emergence of rugged COTS offers the benefits of shorter time to market, reduced costs, mature software development tools and improved life cycle support.

Over the years, Pentek has worked closely with customers to develop a number of strategies for deploying Pentek technology in a wide range of environmentally stressed systems.

Rugged Pentek Products

The following is a partial list of Pentek's rugged offerings. See Table 1 below for Pentek ruggedization level descriptions.

Ruggedization Level L2

Ruggedization Level L3


Table 1: Pentek Ruggedization Levels
Level Comm - L0 L1 L2 L3 L4
Cooling Forced Air Forced Air Forced Air Conduction Conduction
Operating Temp 0° to 50°C 0° to 50°C -20° to 65°C -40° to 70°C -40° to 85°C
Storage Temp -20° to 90°C -40° to 100°C -40° to 100°C -50° to 100°C -50° to 100°C
Sine Vibration - 2g
20-500 Hz
2g
20-500 Hz
10g
20-2000 Hz
10g
20-2000 Hz
Random Vibration - 0.01 g2/Hz
20-2000 Hz
0.04 g2/Hz
20-2000 Hz
0.1 g2/Hz
20-2000 Hz
0.1 g2/Hz
20-2000 Hz
Shock - 10g, 11 ms 20g, 11 ms 30g, 11 ms 40g, 11 ms
Humidity,
non-condensing

No Conf Coat
With Conf Coat
0% to 95%
0% to 100%
0% to 95%
0% to 100%
0% to 95%
0% to 100%
0% to 95%
0% to 100%
0% to 95%
0% to 100%

Ruggedization Strategies

Some of the successful methods Pentek has developed for achieving ruggedization include:

  • Mechanical structures: to reduce susceptibility to shock and vibration, mechanical structures can be attached to strategic locations on a board. These include ribs, stiffeners, hold-down clamps or brackets, spring retaining clips, adhesives, rubber pads and encapsulation materials.
  • Conduction cooling: many airborne applications require the use of conductioncooled hardware to ensure appropriate thermal management of a circuit board in the absence of air cooling. These products feature an aluminum frame for thermal management and mechanical strength with wedge locks and ejectors, where appropriate, for installation in a conduction-cooled chassis.
  • Rugged enclosures: often the simplest and most effective method involves protecting commercial COTS boards in a protective chassis. For shock and vibration, an inner card cage can be attached to an outer frame or chassis with springs and/or rubber isolators that absorb energy. To handle low air pressure, extreme temperatures, and/or contaminated environments, a sealed, airtight chassis can transfer heat through forced-air cooling within the card cage to a heat exchanger. Often the cost of such protective chassis is far less than developing the necessary modifications to the boards and has the cost, life cycle and logistical advantage of using standard, readily available COTS boards.
  • Component substitution: in some cases, just a few critical components limit the temperature range of the board. By substituting industrial or military grade components, the board may tolerate required temperature extremes.
  • Conformal coating: for protection against humidity and airborne contaminants, a protective sealant can be applied to the board and components.
  • Board modifications: in some cases, the printed circuit board of a standard product can be modified to meet special environmental requirements. This may include substituting different extended-range components or adding clearance and mounting holes for thermal management heat sinks.

Rugged Systems

Environmental extremes in temperature, humidity, air pressure, mechanical shock and vibration are common in many military, space and industrial applications. Over the years, Pentek has worked closely with customers to develop a number of strategies for deploying our technology in a wide range of environmentally stressed conditions.

Pentek's rugged high-speed systems are available with solid-state drives and are fully tested to the most rigorous quality control measures and high standards.

Please contact Pentek for rugged options at sales@pentek.com.

Contact Us

Contact your Pentek representative to discuss your Rugged requirements in detail. Our environmental engineering team will present the best strategy for a system solution that meets your needs.





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