Ok, so they don't hose down NAS boxes?
It’s always great fun to go behind the scenes and see how new bits of kit are built, but QNAP had something different in mind when we met them out at Neihu in Taiwan as part of the Dragon Tour 07. This time, instead of seeing how a new piece of tech is built and progressed to the production line, we were treated to a look at the quality control testing of new kit… and QNAP seriously goes to town on its gear.
QNAPs parent company is ICP Electronics, Inc., one of the top three industrial PC builders and suppliers and, being that big, it has some serious kit to stress and test QNAPs range of NAS solutions. However, the first test, intriguingly labelled as the Hosedown Test Lab, isn’t used on QNAPs range of NAS and DAS boxes, that’d just be silly…
Click for larger imageYou see, ICP Electronics is one of the main builders of industrial PCs and often those PCs need to have some level of water resistance and in the Hosedown Test Lab they check the screens waterproofing. Yes, I know it’s got nothing to do with QNAPs gear but hey, how often to you get to see a guy hosing down electronics with a measured amount of pressurised water?
Click for larger imageThe idea is that the LCD panel (or whatever) is bolted into the aperture, blasted with water and then they see what the leakage is like and whether the thing still works. Maybe we should add it to our list of testing?
Click for larger imageLike I said, QNAPs kit doesn’t get a hosing down but the products are subjected to all the other tests ICP do on the industrial PCs… and this is where you can see ICP has made a serious commitment to rigorous testing which QNAP is taking full advantage of…