Objective: After determining thermal excess as the root cause of the connectivity issues: perform a thermal analysis to characterize the thermal impacts and make any design changes necessary. 

Skills Used:

• Root Cause Analysis

• Design of Experiments

• Thermal Analysis (hand calculations confirmed by experiment)

• Material Selection

Process:

• Determined issue was being caused due to thermal excess.

• Performed thermal analysis to characterize thermal effects.

• Established testing limits to prevent thermal damage for all testing connectors.

• Determined material replacement.

Final Solution:

• Changed material form Delrin to PEEK to increase testing capabilities.

• Established testing limits (i.e. maximum amperage, and testing time) to prevent equipment damage.

• Re-designed connector with heat sink to increase allowable thermal load.