Forum > General discussions > General > Sony Ericsson testing lab (Part III)

Part two of our tour of Sony Ericsson USA's testing labs deals with the rougher side of mobile phone testing. While the audio testing of the phones and their components can certainly cause a bit of racket, the stuff that goes on in physical durability labs is even noiser.

These labs put the handsets through all of the normal situations that any phone in the real world would go through. That is to say, they get dropped, kicked, smashed, rolled, tumbled, pressed, and sat upon. Or at least some simulation of those actions.

But let's start off with something tame for now. Keypad testing, for example. All of the keypad designs that are used on Sony Ericsson's mobile phones have to go through many, many hours of durability testing that simulates a couple of years worth of regular use. The two photos below show a S710a going through the tests. The machines are hooked up to compressed air tanks and can be adjusted for a light or extra heavy touch.

One of the tougher tests that the handsets all go through is what the folks in the labs were calling the "cement mixers." These abuse machines are basically rotating drums, much like those of portable cement mixers you would find at a construction site. Throw in a couple of phones, some rocks, shards of broken glass, and a pack of razor blades, then let it spin for a few days. Ok, so I made up the part about the rocks, glass, and razors, but they really do put the phones into rotating bins. The phones smashing up against each other seems to put enough wear and tear on them.

Sadly, none of the photos of these torture machines were worth showing you. I can, however, show you some bins where poor abused phones are stored after testing. In the first photo below you can easily see where the color has been worn away on the one Z500a that is in the bin.

I saw a couple of other phones that were in absolutely horrible shape. I just couldn't bring myself to photographing them. Brought a tear to my eye....

This device shown below is pretty interesting. It is a robotic arm that is programmed to do the types of things that we humans do that involve more complex movements. A good example is long-term testing of the power connector on the bottom of a handset.

The Sony Ericsson engineers will program the robotic arm to attach and remove a power connector from the bottom of a handset. Over and over and over again. The idea is to test the components for a number of uses far greater than they will likely see in a normal lifespan.

Plus it gives the engineers an excuse to play with a robotic arm, and you certainly can't discount the importance of that.

Ever wonder just how tough the hinge on your phone is? Well, that's what this little throwback from the Spanish Inquisition is for. It tests things like the phone hinge for torsional strength, seeing just how far it can be twisted and turned before it fails.

The contraption shown below is part of the vibration testing suite in Sony Ericsson's labs. At the top of the metal block, there is a pair of spots for placing mobile phones. Then, when powered on, the entire metal block is vibrated every which way through a connector that is hidden inside that black rubber cover on the top of the white drum.

We've all done it at one point or another: dropped our mobile phone.
Well, that's exactly what this system shown below does, but in a more controlled way. The phones are placed on the metal platform in any number of ways, from any number of heights. Then, as the platform drops from beneath them, they fall gently to that beat up looking cement block.

Look closely at the photo of the cement block. Imagine how many phones would have to have dropped on it to make it look like that.

The first photo shows a handset resting on the machine, ready for dropping. I wasn't supposed to have seen that particular model, and neither were you, so I blocked it out. The second photo shows the cement landing pad, and the third photo shows a Z500a bouncing off of that cement cushion during an actual test.

Of course there is more to physical abuse than just twisting, tumbling, and dropping. Let us not forget freezing and baking.

The photo below is of a quaint little device that can take a phone from 85° C (185° F) to -40° C (which happens to also be -40° F) in as little as 10 seconds.

Think about that. That's quite a bit more extreme than jumping into a cold swimming pool, and we all know how bad that can be. We're talking about going from near boiling temperatures to hyper-freezing temps in mere seconds. As you can imagine, this is tough on just about anything, not just mobile phones.

So please, keep your hands clear of the box at all times.

A bit more on the temperature abuse that the phones go through. The first photo below blasts hot air at mobile phones in an attempt to get the electronics to overheat.

The other photo, the last in this part of the Sony Ericsson Tour, is a box that combines extreme heats with a lot of vibration to make things very uncomfortable for the phone that is placed inside.

Tune in next week for part III, the final installment of our tour, where you will see some of the RF and camera testing equipment.

On 2004-10-31 13:36:54, Ing. FijoK wrote:
Great photos. How you find these photos?

On 2004-10-31 14:50:06, bobafett wrote:
@axxxr any info of the inner condition of that lab? Temperature, do they test outdoor situations at a fone usage etc?

On 2004-10-31 14:55:29, Vlammetje wrote:
at times I really feel ppl on wap should refrain from asking questions until they have seen the images that are part of the story.