The Global Leader in Reliable Energetic Solutions

 

Environmental Test Facility

Growth continues at Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Company with the completion of full function environmental test facilities and significant improvements to other test capabilities at our Simsbury, Connecticut facility. These new capabilities will allow EBA&D greater agility in product development and understanding.

Test Lab

Performs destructive and non-destructive testing of energetic materials and devices. On-site facilities incude multiple test areas capable of testing up to 2 lbs of explosive material and environmental test chambers capable of testing product at temperatures from -309o to 600oF. Data acquisition and backup equipment is capable of acquiring up to 8 channels of data for timing, pressure, force, shock, current and voltage measurement. Initiation equipment is capable of firing non-electric and electric (HBW, EBW) devices and controlled all-fire and no-fire testing of electric devices. Other test capabilities include water pressure, electrostatic discharge, impact sensitivity, insulation resistance, bridgewire resistance, AC & DC witholding and electrical bond.

Vibration Facility

Vibration Equipment
The vibration equipment is ideal in simulating extreme random vibration environments with limited band splitting. Qualification tests demonstrated 140 grms random profiles with 40-pound mass simulators in 3 axes.







  • Random and Sine testing
  • SRS Shock
  • Classical Mechanical shock pulses
  • Performing vibration testing at temperatures ranging from -65 °F to +160°F in the X, Y and Z axes
  • Vibration and transportation handling testing prescribed by Military specifications such as MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD- 331 and MIL-I-23659.

Pyrotechnic Shock Facility

Pyroshock Vault

The Explosive Test Lab (ETL) is able to perform pyroshock testing of several tens of thousand of Gs. EBA&D's on-site pyroshock capability enhances our ability to quickly evaluate design changes and refinements.

Updated Environmental Conditioning Capability

EBA&D completed acceptance and qualification of three new environmental conditioning chambers, and a new conditioning chamber data logging system.

Chambers

EBA&D has added new Thermotron Temp/Humidity chambers with a range of -191°F to +250°F, and one Thermotron Thermal Shock chamber capable of -100°F to +350°F.

Data Acquisition System

Environmental Test Equipment
A new National Instruments SCXI data acquisition system monitors and records temperature, humidity and altitude of all chambers with full NIST traceability.

EBA&D's facilities meet the rigorous demands of MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-331 and MIL-I-23659 for:

  • Temperature cycling
  • Long-term hot and cold storage
  • Temp/humidity storage and cycling
  • Temp/altitude storage and cycling
  • Thermal shock

Mechanical Testing

For tensile test capability, EBA&D installed Instron 5565. The 8 foot frame is equipped with a 1000 pound load cell and Instron's new Merlin test-profiler software.

The Explosive Test Lab has the capability to conduct up to a 12 foot drop in accordance with MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-331. Tensile testing is performed in a 1000 pound land cell, 8 foot frame with dedicated test profiler software.

Explosive Testing

EBA&D's sites have several explosive test areas capable of testing up to 5 pounds of explosives. Development of enhanced blast explosives at EBA&D is supported using an instrumented test cell. Our facilities are also capable of small scale explosive tests instrumented for velocity of detonation, small scale gap testing, high speed video and many other requirements for explosive testing.

EBA&D is also capable of testing small rocket motors for ballistic performance.