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Improving the Safety of a Pyrotechnic Igniter through a controlled experiment
Author(s) -
Milman Benjamin,
Sirota Issachar,
Steinberg David M.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
propellants, explosives, pyrotechnics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.56
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1521-4087
pISSN - 0721-3115
DOI - 10.1002/prep.19950200603
Subject(s) - computer science , quality (philosophy) , new product development , product (mathematics) , reliability engineering , automotive engineering , booster (rocketry) , risk analysis (engineering) , process engineering , business , engineering , mathematics , aerospace engineering , marketing , philosophy , geometry , epistemology
One of the important goals of quality management in today's competitive marketplace is to build quality into products and processes at the development stage. The use of statistically controlled experiments, in which several parameters are studied simultaneously, can help accomplish this goal efficiently. This paper describes a case study that illustrates the utility of controlled experiments in product development. The customer required improvements in the safety of a pyrotechnic igniter used in one of the products they purchased. The safety improvements could be met by replacing the “match‐head” initiator by a type IA/IW no fire initiator. However, there was concern that changing the initiator might degrade other important product performance characteristics. A controlled experiment was designed to compare three different initiators, the booster charge and the main charge. The experiment quickly and efficiently pointed to a superior initiator and the optimal charges to maintain high performance with enhanced product safety.