Development of an accelerated life test procedure for cooling fan motors

Reliability of automotive parts has been one of the most interesting fields in the automotive industry. Especially, a small DC motor was issued because of the increasing adoption for passengers' safety and convenience. For several years, small DC motors have been studied and some problems of a life test method were found out. The field condition was not considered enough in the old life test method. It also needed a lot of test time. For precise life estimation and accelerated life test, new life test procedure was developed based on measured field condition. The vibration condition on vehicle and latent force on fan motor shaft were measured and correlated with each other. We converted the acceleration data into the load data and calculated the equivalent load from integrated value. We found the relationship which can be used for accelerated life test without changing the severity by using different loading factors.