Large electrodynamic shaker facility

The NRC's large electrodynamic shaker facility in Ottawa delivers vibration and shock tests that are essential for aerospace component manufacturers developing products destined for integration in commercial or military aircrafts.

Our capabilities

The shaker facility is used for vibration and shock tests on a variety of aerospace components to meet industry standards such as MIL‑STD, ISO, ASTM, RTCA or to satisfy proprietary or exploratory requirements. 

This Unholtz‑Dickie SA30‑R16A shaker has the capability to generate 10,000 lbf (peak) for sine, 10,000 lbf (rms) for random and 20,000 lbf for shock tests within the frequency range from 5 Hz to 2000 Hz.  It is complete with a 1 m x 1 m slip table and a 1 m x 1 m head expander to test in 3 orthogonal directions independently.

Simcenter Testlab closed‑loop software is used to control the specified vibration conditions accurately using one or more control accelerometers. Vibration input profiles include sine sweep, sine dwell, random, sine‑on‑random, random‑on‑random or customized profiles.

In addition, various shock profiles such as half sine, terminal peak, triangular or shock response spectrum, etc. could be performed using this shaker facility.   

Why work with us

The NRC's tests let you reduce your component R&D risk, overcome product development challenges, improve component designs, gain qualification data to support standards certification, move on to mass production, and open initial doors to selling components to major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). 

Our vibration facilities are registered to the ISO 9001 quality management system and produce quality test results that continually exceed our clients' expectations.

We offer fee‑for‑services testing that includes the support of researchers, technical experts and engineers. Depending on the nature of the client's request, we also offer research and business opportunities that can translate into collaborative agreements or consortia work.

Our services

• We can generate test profiles and conduct vibration and shock tests for specific conditions—using different durations, forces and temperatures—based on given standards
• We help you to meet commercial and military standards, satisfy product development requirements, and ultimately move your products along the commercialization path to fully qualified components for commercial aerospace and military OEMs
• Our test procedures or vibration input profiles include:
  • sine sweep
  • sine dwell
  • random
  • sine‑on‑random
  • random‑on‑random
  • customized profiles
• We offer various shock profiles, including:
  • half sine
  • sawtooth peak
  • triangular
  • shock response spectrum
  • and many more 
• If necessary, third parties may witness the tests. For example, standard authorities may send representatives to ensure that tests are carried out in such a way that the resulting data is meaningful for certification purposes
• The vibration and shock tests also provide data to support manufacturers' proprietary or exploratory requirements for products 

Areas of expertise

We provide advice and consultation to industry, other government departments and NRC labs in mechanical vibration test requirements, test plan generation, test implementation (such as mounting and fixturing) and analysis of test data in support of qualification of hardware to mechanical vibration. Our experienced, professional and dedicated research staff is on hand to support clients' testing requirements from start to finish, from design of experiments to the creation of reports. Testing is tailored to our clients' projects, and we customize testing approaches and assist our clients in interpreting results.