Ted Kalal
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Ted Kalal has a very broad background in electronics covering design, quality and reliability engineering. In the last twenty-five years he has focused on reliability from a practical point of view. He sees warranty cost as the main driver for reliability efforts. Even though there are many aspects to reliability and many tools to investigate reliability, he has found that his customer simply wants to:
Area of Concern |
User Specific |
|
|
Commercial |
Military |
Life Cycle Costs |
Lower |
Fixed life |
User Satisfaction |
Improve customer satisfaction |
Ease of use |
Delivery |
Reduce time to market |
On time delivery |
Maintemance |
Lower maintenance cost |
Reduced |
The goals and objectives of HALT are to precipitate design weaknesses that are identified using multiple stress techniques. Typically temperature and vibration used singly and in combination are applied to the units in test, but additional stressors can also be used, i.e., varying input voltage levels and frequency, timing variations, etc. Early discovery of the weaknesses foster rapid design improvements and speed time to market.
HASS is a somewhat lowered stress technique that helps identify product weaknesses that arise from escapes during the manufacturing process. Once the HASS has identified the manufacturing related defects and they are corrected, the HASA sampling method ensures no escapes without the unnecessary expense of 100% HASS. The Proof of Screen method sets the right stress parameters to ensure that the HASS stress levels set are not excessive while ensuring no subtle defects are shipped.
Ted Kalal has an AS degree in Electronics, three years in the Applied Math and Physics school and a BA in Business Administration (University of Wisconsin). He has been a contract engineer for over twenty five years and later has been a reliability manager and/or director for the past eight.
He has written technical articles and two books:
- Improving Product Reliability – Strategies and Implementation, published by Wiley in July, 2003.
- The Permanent Temp, a self help book for the long term contract engineer – Published by Trafford in July, 2006
- Understanding the Role Precision Plays in HALT™ - Published Q306, in Evaluation Engineering, Sept, ’06 - by Ted Kalal & Mark Levin
- Selecting the Right HALT Chamber, Quality Magazine, July, 2003 – by Ted Kalal & Mark Levin
- Analytical Biochemistry 20, 40-50 (1967). "A Gas-Flow System for Control of the Temperature of an Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Sample at Temperatures Between 80 and 273 Degrees Kelvin". Raymond Hansen, Ted Kalal & Helmut Beinert.
- Electronics, Designers Casebook, (4/68). "Pulse Width Varied by a "Switched Ground". Ted Kalal.
- Electronics, Designers Casebook, (12/66). "Zener Diode Controls Variable Phase Shifter". Ted Kalal
- Pat # 4,878,143; Oct. 31, 1989. "Line Current to Time Interpolator". Ted Kalal & Richard Kowitch.
His specialties are:
- Performs assessments of quality and reliability departments, their processes, tools, and staff; and provides training where neeeded.
- HALT/HASS, a three day in house seminar designed for new customers of HALT equipment.
- Design Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (DFMEA). A three day, in house seminar where he teaches the tool to customers and partakes in the actual DFMEA.
Major Employers (alphabetically listed):
Abbott Laboratories - New Product Development Designer; 1 year.
Allen-Bradley - Reliability/Quality Engineer; 2 years.
Flextronics – Dir. Product Assurance & Reliability Engineering; 1+ year
General Electric Medical Systems - Reliability, Vendor Quality, Component Engineer; 8 years.
Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette Univ. - Instrumentation Designer, 2 years.
Ohio Medical Products (now Omeda) - New Product Designer; 3 years
RTE Corp. (now Cooper Ind.) R & D new product Development; 2 years.
Schlumberger, ATE Division - Reliability Manager, 1.5 years.
Teradyne, Inc. VTD Division – J2 Platform Reliability Manager, 5 years.
University of Wisconsin, Enzyme Institute - Instrumentation Designer; 3 years.