Analyzing Field Environments to Understand Product Failure Causes

Product failures often require expensive repairs or replacements. Over-engineering adds to recurring costs and its success is uncertain if the failure’s cause is not understood. Engineers need in-depth knowledge before attempting a re-design. This case study focuses on bus seat failures that occasionally occur in the field but are not predicted by current industry standard tests in the lab. The goal was to collect comprehensive field vibration data and analyze that data to understand the failure’s causes. The study used accelerometers placed at various points in multiple seating configurations and across multiple field environments. Analysis identified transmissibility issues between axes of motion, as well as a seat configuration with higher reliability.