Dangers of an Expired Cypress

[champu 1]

Quote

It would be interesting to read some military specs regarding lifespans

MIL-HDBK-338 Electronic Reliability Handbook

It's a thousand page document that takes you through how to talk about reliability, how to calculate it, how to spec it, how to design for it, collect data about it, and how to manage programs around it.

[riggerrob 643]

Cypres "expire" ... are retired ... twelve years after they are manufactured.
Airtec has done exhaustive testing and announced some of their conclusions at the 2009 PIA Symposium.
Two problems arose: fatigue failure of soldered joints and degradation of explosives.
When metal circuit boards are hated and cooled, the expand and contract. Eventually soldered joints fail.
I forget the exact numbers, but one component (cutter?) becomes unreliable after 12 years and the other component (electronics?) becomes unreliable after 15 year.
The bototm line is you will be hard-pressed to find any rigger who will sign on top of a Cypres more than 12 yeas old.

When other manufacturers promise longer service lives, it is largely a marketing ploy. I expect that - after ten years - Vgil and Argus and the next new AAD manufacturer will start requiring factory inspections.

[wdriessens 0]

From the very beginning, the Argus requires an inspection every 4 years. I assume you have not read the manual ! Making such negative comments is NOT fair.

[riggerrob 643]

Sorry,

Since I have only installed one new Argus, I have not read the Argus manual in detail.

... project for coffee break: read Argus manual.

Right now I am swamped with replacing Type 1 cutters in a huge pile of Vigils. Can you understand my distraction?

[Halfpastniner 0]

If it is just the cutter that is unusable after 12 years, seems like it might be a good marketing ploy to allow a bonus few years with a new cutter.

But if Vigil does start requiring service I will be the one laughing at my cypress-hating friend!

BASE 1384

[riggerrob 643]

I was wrong.

You are correct.

Page nine of the Argus manual says to perform a functional check every four years.

[wdriessens 0]

There is more to be found in the "AAD Design and Test Report A" available on the websie of the Argus.

See pages 40 to 42.

http://www.argus-aad.com/images/PDF/aaddesignandtestreporta.pdf