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PCB Vibration Tester for Formula SAE Vehicle

Company: Nittany Motorsports

Major(s):
Primary: ME
Secondary: IE
Optional: EE

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

PCBs in many applications, including in FSAE cars, are often subject to vibrations of varying frequencies and magnitudes. When the PCBs vibrate, the soldering on them can crack and lead to poor connections. This has happened repeatedly in the past to the battery management system PCBs on Nittany Motorsports. Because of the risk of failure, it is important to be able to verify that the solder joints will not crack under the vibration loads they typically experience before they are put into use. The goal of this project is to provide a way to perform this verification. A PCB vibration tester and sufficient documentation to be able to remake it solely from the documentation. The tester should have a way to attach PCBs to it. It should be able to vibrate the PCB from 10Hz-2000Hz in accordance with ISO 16750-3. It should be able to vibrate the PCBs in three mutually perpendicular directions. Each direction may require the PCB to be mounted differently if needed, but it should be possible. It should be able to run for 2 hours without interruption. It should be able to vary the intensity and frequency of vibration. It should have a way to measure the vibrations that the PCB is seeing.