It’s important to monitor the reliability, quality, and safety of your products, so we provide comprehensive in-house laboratory testing capabilities for materials, components, products, and packaging which we continue to expand in our testing lab in Dongguan, RSQ-Labs, just 15 minutes from Shenzhen.
At Sofeast we also provide solutions to handle your reliability testing for products and packaging in partnership with our lab, and also compliance testing consulting where our experts take time to understand your needs, assess which lab tests are required to assure your products are safe and can be imported, and provide you with that information so you can proceed with more peace of mind.
Why do we perform laboratory testing on products?
When importing products that are made in China, lab tests at several stages of the production process help you to ensure the product design and production complies with your requirements and those of your market/s, too.
Here are the stages:
When prototypes are built and need to be validated
it is good to run a series of tests that confirm their performance and reliability. Pushing the product to failure is also a way to know what the design’s weaknesses are, and to inform further design iterations.
After a final prototype has been approved
and a small quantity of products have been made exactly like mass production (same processes, same tooling…), it is the last chance to catch serious issues that could not be tested during product development. Certain reliability tests can be done in our laboratory. Compliance testing and if applicable certifications (for example, FCC) also typically takes place at this stage.
When components are received
it is imperative to check whether they comply with requirements. Once they are embedded in a complete product, detecting issues and reacting is far more time-consuming and costly.
When mass production is underway
certain tests will also be conducted when mass production is underway. For certain products, it makes sense to continually pick samples and conduct ‘burn-in’ testing, as a way to detect anomalies before they result in batches of defective products.
In-house laboratory tests we provide
These are some of the common tests we can conduct for you in our internal laboratory to help assure product safety, compliance, and quality.
Environmental tests
- Thermal tests: high/low temperature and high/low humidity
- Thermal shock testing (usually 5 to 25 cycles)
- Salt spray test to check for ease of corrosion
Mechanical tests for confirming lifespan
- Cable flexing
- Button pressing
- Product vibration
- Product drop test
- Horizontal insertion force testing
- Alcohol rubbing friction test
- RCA abrasion test
Performance & safety tests on batteries
- Burn-in (charge & discharge cycles)
- Cycling temperature combined with battery charging
- Short circuit
- Deep discharge
- Overcharge
Transportation simulation tests (packaging reliability testing)
- Carton vibration testing
- Free-fall carton drop test
- Carton compression test
Some of the equipment we use for testing
Horizontal insertion force testing
Inserting a part into another for a number of cycles. E.g. USB drive into a port. The goal is to assure it still fits well & no deformations or other issues appear.
Key life test
Pressing many times on keys/buttons, to make sure they will still function as expected after many cycles of use
Alcohol rubbing friction test
Used to test if many types of coatings will remain on the product or will disappear quickly with ‘wear and tear’
Guided Drop Tester
Allows drop testing to check the integrity and durability of products and their unit packing (such as gift boxes) by testing impacts from different angles
RCA abrasion test
Mainly used to test if silk screen coating will remain on the product or will disappear quickly with ‘wear and tear’
Pocket Abrasion Tester
Allows us to replicate the expected abrasion effect that occurs when a product is used (e.g. inserted in a user’s pocket), with different settings available. Ideal for mobile phones, pens, wallets, etc.
Spectral Analysis Device
This device is used to check a product’s electronic design (on a functional prototype) to evaluate how likely it is to pass FCC certifications so that we can make adjustments to increase that likelihood.
Salt Spray Test Chamber
Our salt spray test machine confirms that corrosion is not likely to appear quickly on your product if it is exposed to humidity during its lifetime and use by consumers. This test is very common for metal products.
XRF Scanner for Chemical Analyses
This XRF scanner allows us to perform chemical analyses of products and is also used to partially confirm compliance with RoHS and REACH. (Note: EU doesn’t have requirements on which lab issues documents to establish compliance and it can be done by any actor in the supply chain as long as data is recorded).
UV testing machine
The UV testing machine is a device used to measure and assess how components and materials perform when subjected to UV radiation over time, to mimic being used in sunlight.
Earphone Audio Curve Tester
This testing device measures and analyzes the frequency response of headphones and earphones, demonstrating how they reproduce different sound frequencies. We use it to assess their performance and uncover audio output problems or imbalances.
Vibration testing machine
Our vibration machine (with vertical and horizontal vibration modes of up to 3kHz) allows us to cover ISTA the vibration requirements of ISTA 1, 2, and 3 standards for many products of up to 50kg.
Failure analyses
To drive continuous improvement, our quality engineers regularly conduct failure analyses.
They use our in-house magnifier, projector, and various electronic devices (oscilloscope, multimeter, precision power supplies…). They also commonly do X-ray and cross-section tests at the facilities of our tier-one suppliers when needed.
When we can't check everything within our four walls...
We work with laboratories and suppliers who operate an even longer list of testing & measuring devices, so if you have very specific testing requirements, contact us and we can work out a testing program for you utilizing our partners where needed.
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