Benchmarking a drone against MIL-STD-810H before it exists

Why we built a scorecard that runs heat, cold, vibration and shock levels on the CAD model, and what it can and cannot tell you.

Environmental qualification is where many airframes meet reality for the first time. A part that looked fine on the screen cracks on the shaker table, or a battery cooks in a hot-day soak. By then the tooling is cut and the schedule is tight.

Benchmark moves a first look at those tests to the start. It takes the levels in MIL-STD-810H, the methods for high and low temperature, vibration and shock, and runs them as load cases on the model you are designing.

What the scorecard shows

Each row is one test case: the method and table it comes from, the level used, the worst part and its margin. The verdict is pass, marginal, fail or not assessed. That last one matters. When a case needs data a screening solver does not have, the scorecard says so instead of guessing.

What it is not

A benchmark is not a qualification test. The standard is passed on a shaker, in a shock machine and in a chamber, with levels tailored to the item's real life cycle. What Benchmark gives you is a ranked list of the parts most likely to fail those tests, early enough to change them.

• Run it after every major change
• Fix the part at the top of the list first
• Take the scorecard into your test planning