About
European Test Services (ETS) B.V.European Test Services (ETS) B.V.
maintains and operates the test centre of the “European Space Agency” (ESA) based in the Netherlands. ETS provides test facility services to industry in the domains of shock, vibration, acoustic noise, thermal vacuum, space simulation, EMC and more.
ETS is a joint venture that is equally owned by IABG mbH (Ottobrunn, Germany) and Airbus Defence & Space SAS (Toulouse, France). Since its establishment in the year 2000 ETS has become one of the major providers of testing services for the European aerospace industry. The ETS team covers the required core competences for the management and operations of the test facilities, the related infrastructures, the integration-, checkout- and storage areas as well as office accommodation for the test centre clients.
ETS works in close cooperation with ESA’s directorate for technical and quality management that provides further quality and engineering resources in case needed. To cover the required core competences for the management and operations of the test facilities and the related infrastructure, IABG as well as Airbus provide highly-skilled and experienced personnel. This includes all permanent personnel and support on short notice during peak workload periods. Being hosted at ESTEC, ETS can utilize the broad expertise available within ESA test engineering and infrastructure support. Due to this approach ETS provides flexibility and continuous tailor-made resources to the full satisfaction of its clients.
Over the years ETS has proven its competence and experience by accomplishing tests and test related engineering activities for industries as aerospace, railway, marine and others. The large variety of facilities enables ETS to test small units up to large and complex structures. ETS is consequently expanding its activities on the commercial market and has become a well-acknowledged address for testing.
Test Centre
The ESA test centre that is operated by ETS is one of the largest space test centres of its kind. All test facilities are under roof and are located in ISO class 8 clean rooms with a total area of 3500m2.
The ETS organisation
reflects the experience gained by ETS in test centre management, maintenance and operations. The organisation is focussed and optimised to the current customer needs and comprises four main elements:
- The management team
- The commercial & projects team
- The administration team
- The technical team
The management team consists of:
- Jörg Selle: managing director
- Pierre-Olivier Foray: quality & infrastructure manager
- Alexander Kübler: commercial & projects manager
- Tiago Filipe: manager mechanical
- Alejandro Valverde: manager thermal
- Camille Knobloch a.i.: manager data-handling & emc
- Grazyna Poweska: financial & administration manager
The commercial & projects team consists of the commercial & project manager and the test programme managers. The team is responsible for marketing, sales and all larger test campaigns.
The administration team consists of the financial & administration manager, controller, procurement officers and assistants.
The technical team consists of qualified and experienced personnel for the operation and maintenance of the test facilities and test centre infrastructure assigned to the following domains: Mechanical testing, Thermal testing, EMC testing, Infrastructure and Data handling.
Quality Assurance
The objective of the ETS Quality Management System is to define and continuously improve the procedures and processes relevant to the provision of testing services and facility maintenance activities in compliance to the requirements and with complete customer satisfaction.
The ETS Quality Policy defines the actions to meet the above objective which include:
- Certification regarding the Quality Management Standard ISO 9001, version 2015
- Certification regarding the Aerospace Standard EN 9100, version 2016
- Certification regarding the Space Test Centres Quality Assurance Standard (ECSS-Q-ST-20-07C)
- Training of personal to maintain an adequate qualification level
- Internal and external auditing
- Systematic and exhaustive treatment of all non-conformances in order to prevent reoccurrence
Quality records are maintained and analysed to report and detect trends in due time to enable initiation of preventive and corrective actions.
Test Organisation
The test organisation is characterised by three parts:
- Project Management (ETS test programme manager as focal point)
- Test Preparation, -Execution & -Reporting (ETS test responsible as focal point)
- Quality- & Safety Management (ETS QA Manager as focal point)
The ETS Test Programme Manager (TPM) is the focal point to the customer during the overall test campaign. For each individual test the TPM delegates the technical responsibility to the ETS Test Responsible (TR) who is the technical focal point towards the customer’s test director and who reports to the TPM.
The ETS Technical Managers (TMs) manage the maintenance and calibration of test facilities as well as the planning of test facilities and test team resources. The TMs report to the TPM.
The ETS Managing Director (MD) acts as contracts officer. The ETS Quality Assurance Manager (QAM) provides a direct and independent interface to the customer’s quality / product assurance manager.
References
Below you find our main customers and a summary of major tests performed at ETS/ESTEC:
