Defense power supply programs don’t have room for qualification failures. A failed MIL-STD-810 shock or vibration test late in the development cycle means redesign, retest, schedule slippage, and cost increases. ACT addresses this risk upstream, using high-fidelity mechanical simulation to identify and resolve structural weaknesses before any hardware is developed.
Suppliers without this capability are gambling on a first-pass qualification. ACT is not.
The conventional approach to mechanical qualification is to build a prototype, run it through shock and vibration testing, identify what failed, redesign those elements, and then retest. For straightforward designs in forgiving environments, this may be acceptable. But for high-density defense power supplies subjected to the full MIL-STD-810 test suite, it is a costly way to work. ACT works differently.
ACT engineers use Autodesk Inventor for 3D modeling and ANSYS Mechanical to evaluate designs before physical hardware exists. Every structural component and every circuit card assembly is analyzed for safety margins under simulated shock and vibration conditions, and resonant frequencies are identified through dynamic modal analysis. The results show which components are at risk and what the response of the unit will be at each natural frequency.
That information is actionable immediately. Design modifications can be evaluated in simulation, compared against the baseline, and verified for improvement without touching any hardware. Then alternatives can be assessed in the time it would take a competitor to manufacture and assemble a single prototype. ACT starts the physical build process with the most effective solution already validated.
A simulation capability is only as valuable as its accuracy. ACT validates its analytical models by comparing predicted natural frequencies against measured data from its in-house shaker table. In most cases, the results correlate well, so the simulation is a reliable predictor of how the physical unit will behave.
This is a significant differentiator. Many suppliers treat simulations as a front-end formality, a box checked during design review that has little bearing on what actually happens during qualification testing. At ACT, the simulation and the physical test result are expected to agree, and when they do, the engineering team has high confidence that design changes evaluated in simulation will perform as predicted when implemented in hardware. That confidence is what makes the simulation so useful as a risk management tool.
The validated model also has value after the initial qualification. If a design change is required mid-program, ACT engineers can evaluate the structural impact in a simulation before modifying any hardware. This safeguards the schedule and eliminates the risk of introducing a new mechanical failure mode through an unanalyzed change.
Resonance is among the most common causes of mechanical qualification failures in power supply designs. When a structural component or a circuit card assembly has a natural frequency that is excited by a frequency in the MIL-STD-810 test profile, the response amplitude can far exceed the input level. Components crack, solder joints fail, fasteners loosen. The failure often does not appear during the test itself but emerges as a functional failure when the unit is powered on.
ACT’s modal analysis identifies these resonant frequencies at the design stage. Engineers can then evaluate structural changes that shift the natural frequencies out of the critical range, add damping, or stiffen the assembly to reduce response amplitude. Each iteration is simulated and compared against the baseline before any design change is incorporated, ensuring that the unit entering the prototype phase has a high degree of confidence that it will meet the environmental requirements.
For the customer, this translates directly into NRE cost control and schedule predictability. A qualification failure at a government test facility incurs the cost of rescheduling test time, shipping hardware, and potentially delaying a program milestone. ACT’s simulation-first approach can prevent that scenario.
ACT’s mechanical simulation is paired with an in-house shaker table that allows ACT engineers to conduct physical shock and vibration testing under their own roof. This combination is uncommon among power supply suppliers and is a meaningful advantage for customers.
Suppliers without in-house test capabilities are dependent on third-party test facilities for every qualification event. Scheduling, shipping, and test setup all introduce delays that compound across a development program. Since ACT controls this process internally, simulation, design iteration, prototype build, and physical testing all happen within ACT’s facility, which compresses the development timeline and keeps the program moving forward.
The in-house shaker table also enables the model validation step that makes ACT’s simulation credible. Natural frequencies measured on the shaker table are compared with simulation predictions as a standard part of the process, not an exception. This closed-loop approach between simulation and physical test is what delivers the accuracy of the analytical models.
ACT’s integrated approach is built around the goal of first-pass qualification success. Problems are found and resolved when they are cheap to fix, during the design phase, rather than when they are expensive, during formal qualification. The result is a more predictable development schedule, lower NRE cost for the customer, and a power supply that arrives at qualification already proven analytically.
If your program has demanding shock and vibration requirements and you want a supplier whose design process can meet them reliably, contact ACT. We’ll show you how our simulation and test capabilities can save your project time and money.
