Understanding MIL-STD-810G
The MIL-STD-810G is huge and often very technical, as you’d expect from a document whose purpose is to provide testing for everything that may be used by the US Department of Defense. The operative term, therefore, is “tailoring.” Tailoring the tests to fit the conditions a specific item or device may encounter through its service life. That means it’s up to manufacturers to knowledgeably pick and choose the tests to be performed.
It also means that simply claiming “MIL-STD-810G approved” or MIL-STD-810G certified” or even “designed in accordance with MIL-STD-810G” means absolutely nothing. Not even “passed MIL-STD-810G testing” means anything unless accompanied by an exact description what testing was performed, to what limits or under what conditions.
So how do we go about ruggedness testing that truly matters? First by determining, as the MIL-STD-810G suggests, the conditions that a specific device will experience in its service life. Let’s think about what could happen to a rugged handheld computer.
It could get dropped. It could get wet. It could get rattled around. It could be exposed to saltwater. It could get crushed. It could be used in very hot or very cold weather. It could get scratched. It could be used where air pressure is different.
That’s the important stuff. There may be other environmental conditions, but for the most part, this is what might happen to a handheld. And it must be able to handle those conditions and events while remaining functional.
