On designs we engineer: we plan HALT, a partner lab runs it, we fix what fails
Find the weak points before launch. Free assessment and roadmap.
Your product passes its qualification tests, then fails in the field. Qualification tests check that a design meets a spec. They don't show how far it is from failure, or which part gives out first. Our reliability engineering services answer that with HALT testing (highly accelerated life testing). A partner lab pushes prototypes past their limits with stepped heat, cold, and vibration. If nothing changes, the field finds the weak points for you, after the design is frozen and tooling is paid for. We find them early, fix the root cause in the design, and retest.
If nothing changes, the field finds the weak points for you. Warranty claims, returns, and recalls cost far more than a test program, and they cost trust you can't buy back. Each failure arrives late, when the design is frozen and tooling is paid for.
PPS HALT testing finds the weakest links early. Engineers analyze each failure, fix the root cause in the design, and retest, so the product gains margin before launch. Reliability testing becomes a design tool, not a pass/fail gate.
✓
Field returns keep coming back
Units that passed qualification fail in customers' hands.
✓
Warranty costs are climbing
Each claim costs parts, labor, and goodwill.
✓
Nobody knows the real margin
The design passes spec, but no one knows how close it is to failing.
✓
Failures we can't reproduce
Nobody owns product failure root cause engineering. Faults come and go and show up only in the field.
✓
A launch with no room for surprises
Late failures push the schedule and the budget.
✓
Qualification tests are all we run
Pass/fail tests don't show where the design will break.
Pass or fail against the spec
No idea how much margin is left
Customers find the weak points
Recalls and warranty eat the margin
Heat, cold, and vibration past spec
See which part gives out first
Change the design, not the test
Margin shown before launch
The 34% less rework, 51% fewer prototypes, and 37% shorter test phase figures are from the PPS Innovation Edge white paper.
Public benchmark
50 °C
Margin added by one fix
Precedent
A satellite maker's HALT fix added 50 °C of margin; the flaw never recurred in 95 units (SS/L, 2012).
What it means
HALT finds the weak point on the bench, not in the field. We plan HALT on designs we engineer, a partner lab runs it, and we make the fix.
HALT Program at Space Systems/Loral, Aerospace Testing Seminar, 2012
Lever
Decision it lets you make
Result
Thermal
Parts that fail hot or cold
Decision
Step-stress finds the temperature where each part stops working.
→
Result
Margin on both ends of the range. FEA thermal analysis →
Vibration
Cracks and loose joints
Decision
Rising vibration finds the joints, welds, and fasteners that fail first.
→
Result
Joints that hold in service. Vibration analysis services →
Root cause
Failures fixed twice
Decision
Each failure is traced to its cause before anything changes.
→
Result
Fixes that stay fixed. Research and development →
Design
Late, costly changes
Decision
Weak points fixed while the design can still change cheaply.
→
Result
Fewer prototype loops. Prototype development →
01
A design with more margin: the weak points found, fixed, and retested, with every change shown in CAD.
02
Test results and failure analysis you review and approve at each gate, before anything moves to production.
03
You own the IP by default. When an OEM or partner manufacturer is involved, the contract spells out who owns what.
04
If we missed it in our QC, we fix it. If your supplier can't make the part within three years, or supply dries up, we fix that too.
You send
What we need to start
Prototypes or early production units
Specifications: operating range, life, and standards
CAD and drawings for the design under test
Field data: returns, warranty, or known failures
Targets: margin, life, or launch date
→
You get
What you hold at the end
A test report with every failure and its root cause
Design changes that fix each weak point
Retest data showing the margin gained
Updated CAD and drawings ready to build
A roadmap for the next round, and a team that stays
We price to the value we deliver, not the hours we log. If the value isn't there for you, we'll say so in the assessment.
Bring your own test lab, or work with the partner labs in our network. A partner lab runs the chambers. Our engineers plan the test, read every failure, and make the fix.
You approve every test plan, design change, and its cost at every gate, so nothing that affects function surprises you. If we missed something in our QC, we fix it. If a supplier can’t make the part within three years, we fix that for you too.
Every field failure costs more than the test. Free roadmap.
Get Your Free RoadmapHousings, brackets, and harnesses stepped past flight limits so weak links show on the bench, not in use.
Margin you can measure.
Applications
Fittings
Housings
Modules, mounts, and assemblies pushed past road and climate limits before the vehicle program locks.
Fewer warranty claims.
Applications
Housings
Assemblies
Machines and enclosures that run in heat, dust, and impact, tested to failure before they go underground.
Stop costly downtime.
Applications
Frames
Wear Parts
Plant hardware and enclosures stressed past their ratings, so failures surface before an outage does.
Fewer forced outages.
Applications
Fittings
Fabrication
We design the prototype, manage the build through partner shops, and test it before you commit to tooling.
Design, build and test.
Applications
Design
Partner Builds
Testing
Turn problems and test failures into better designs: root cause, new concepts, and proof that they work.
Fix it at the source.
Applications
Fixtures
Uptime
Prototyping, HALT, R&D, reverse engineering, and more. See every problem our engineering team solves.
Find your problem here.
Solutions
Prototyping
HALT
R&D
FEA, CFD, CAD, DFMA, and testing under one roof. Engineering is a team sport, and you get the whole team.
One team, every skill.
Under One Roof
FEA
CFD
CAD
DFMA
Testing
Veteran-owned SDVOSB status gives defense and federal buyers a set-aside path to proven engineering.
Verify our SDVOSB status.
Credentials
SDVOSB
VOSB
CAGE 8ZK73
NAICS 541330
Missed something in our QC? We fix it. Supplier can't make the part within three years? We fix that too.
Support for the long run.
We Fix
Our QC Misses
Supplier Gaps
Supply Chain
We price to the value we deliver, not hours logged. You buy a design that works, not more iterations.
Pay for the result only.
Collections
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
How is HALT testing different from qualification testing?
HALT testing and qualification testing answer different questions. Qualification checks that a design meets its written spec, and the result is pass or fail. In our reliability engineering services, HALT pushes prototypes well past the spec until something fails, so you learn exactly where the design breaks. A pass tells you the design met the spec on test day. It doesn't tell you how much margin is left, or which part will fail first in service. The NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook explains how testing at higher stress brings out failures sooner. Without that, the field finds your weak points after launch, when every fix costs more.
A partner lab runs stepped heat, cold, rapid thermal change, and rising vibration. Our engineers find the weakest link, trace its root cause, and fix it in the design. Then the test pushes again to find the next one. Qualification then runs on a design that already has margin. HALT doesn't replace the tests your customer or regulator requires. The free assessment shows where it fits your program.
What do we get from a HALT program?
Our reliability engineering services give you more than a list of failures. For each failure, you get the stress level where it happened, the root cause, and a design change that fixes it. We retest after each fix, so you can see the margin gained at every step. A summary that says a unit failed is not enough. Your team needs to know why, at what stress, and what changed. The DoD's Electronic Reliability Design Handbook covers reliability as part of design, not just test. Without the root cause, the same failure comes back in the next build. Weak units then reach customers.
You also get the operating and destruct limits of your design. Those limits set the screens for production, so weak units are caught before they ship. If a failure points to a supplier part, we tell you which part and why. A partner lab runs the chambers. Your design changes come back as updated CAD and drawings. You own the IP by default, set in your contract.
Can PPS work with our manufacturer or test lab?
Yes. Our reliability engineering services work with the test labs you already trust, or with the partner labs in our network. Many projects use both. What matters is that one engineering team coordinates them, so the builder and the lab always work from the latest released design and data.
When every vendor reports to you separately, you become the integrator. Design changes travel by email, parts get cut to old drawings, and test results arrive without anyone tasked to act on them. The Department of Defense's IPPD Handbook organizes programs around integrated product teams for this reason, with design, manufacturing and test under one shared plan.
PPS manages your builders and test labs inside one engineering loop. We release the design, track every build and test, read the results and make the fix ourselves. Data and NDAs are set up between all parties at the start. You decide how far we take the design, up to the start of production. The IP is yours by default, as set in your contract.
What do you need from us to start?
To start a project with our HALT testing, send what you have, in any format. That usually means prototypes or early production units, and the specifications for operating range, life, and standards. Add CAD and drawings, field return or warranty data, and your targets for margin or launch date. Photos of failed parts help us too. Missing data is the most common reason engineering projects stall, because a model built on guessed inputs gives a guessed answer. That is why we don't start the work until every data set is in.
Once it is, the first step is a free assessment of your project scope. We confirm what the work can and can't answer, and tell you what is still missing. Then we send a roadmap proposal with scope, targets, and approval gates. Every project is scoped on its own, so the roadmap sets the schedule, not a stock promise. NDAs are available before you share any files. For gaps in material data, NIST material measurement data is a good first stop.
Who owns the design and the models?
You own the design, the drawings, and the models from your HALT testing project by default, as set in the contract. When an OEM or partner manufacturer is involved, the contract spells out who owns what. Some firms keep the models, or license them back to you, so every later change sends you back to them. That locks your product to one vendor and makes design reviews harder, because your team can't open the evidence behind the decisions. You receive the native CAD, the drawings, the simulation model files, and the documented results. Your engineers can then check the work, rerun a load case, or hand the package to a supplier or customer.
We sign mutual NDAs before any of your data is shared, and your files stay in our controlled project folders while we work. If your program has export-control or customer data rules, tell us at the start and we will set up the data handling to match them. For defense programs, the State Department ITAR guidance sets the rules we follow.
What happens if the design still fails after a fix?
If the design still fails after a fix, we find out why and fix it again. Hard engineering carries unknowns on any project: real loads, material lots, and assembly effects never match a model perfectly. With HALT testing from PPS, you approve the data at each gate. A test result is then checked against predictions you have already seen, not a black box. A failure in test is data. It shows which assumption was wrong: a load, a material property, or a boundary condition. That data improves the model and the design.
When testing is in scope, we plan the test to confirm the margins that matter most. Then we correlate the model to the results, following ASME verification and validation practice. If the miss was ours, because something slipped through our QC review, we fix it. If the test uncovers a condition nobody knew about, we scope the change with you and update the roadmap. Either way, you get a clear answer and a path to a design that holds.
How is HALT testing priced?
We price every HALT testing program to the value it delivers, not the hours we log. Hourly billing rewards extra iterations, so the cheapest quote often becomes the most expensive project once tooling, rework, and field failures show up. Our incentive is to get the design right the first time. We engage by fit, not as a ladder. Gold (from $35K): you have one project and need help with it. Platinum (from $15K/mo): you have recurring work at a steady rhythm. Diamond (from $800K/yr): you have a long development program, often multi-year.
Gold is never required, and some clients start at Platinum or Diamond. These are starting points, not quotes; your roadmap sets the price. We price to the value we deliver, not the hours we log. If the value isn't there for you, we'll say so in the assessment. Our engineering consultant pricing page explains how each collection works in more detail.
Worried about field failures? Send the design. Free roadmap.
Send your design, specs, and field data. We review your project scope in a free assessment and reply within one business day with next steps.
On-site assessments that require travel are quoted separately.
