© ebm-papst, Gernot Walter

When it works, it works

All good things come to those who wait. With our prod­ucts, this is not just theo­ret­ical. We prove it in prac­tice in our endurance tests, setting records in the process.


When it comes to the service life of a product, many compa­nies rely on calcu­la­tion and simu­la­tion. This data often does not live up to reality, however. At ebm-papst, we not only rely on theory but also prac­tical find­ings. To this end, we thor­oughly test our prod­ucts in the labo­ra­tory with accel­er­ated tests and endurance testing.

But of course we cannot do without theory completely. After all, we cannot wait for a ten-year test phase before launching a new product. This is why our endurance tests are carried out at temper­a­tures of 40 and 70 degrees Celsius as heat accel­er­ates the wear process. The fail­ures are assessed in accor­dance with the Weibull distri­b­u­tion. From the distri­b­u­tion, we can calcu­late the point in time at which ten percent of the tested spec­i­mens have failed and when the wear of the bearing system starts.

“Some customers are not much older than our record fans which have been going since the 80s.”Robert Wasmuth – Head of Reli­a­bility and Testing in St. Georgen

Testing at different temper­a­tures enables us to deter­mine an “aging factor” which we can use to deter­mine the life expectancy for other temper­a­tures. Test spec­i­mens which are still running are not switched off, but we keep an eye on them. This enables us to get an even more precise under­standing of the service life over many years and gain insights into the right use of bear­ings and lubri­cants. These lessons learned are essen­tial for the devel­op­ment of new prod­ucts as the service life of our prod­ucts is heavily depen­dent on the correct choice of bearing system.

No end in sight: The AC fans break records in endurance tests. (Photo | ebm-papst)

But what do the endurance tests mean for our customers? Above all reli­a­bility. Ulti­mately, our prod­ucts repeat­edly demon­strate perse­ver­ance in the labo­ra­tory. And anyone who does not believe this can come and visit us to see for them­selves. “And then people are often aston­ished,” says Robert Wasmuth, Head of Reli­a­bility and Testing in St. Georgen. “As some customers are not much older than our record fans which have been going since the 80s.” This shows that you can truly rely on the ebm-papst product data.

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