An Introduction To Climatic Test Chambers And How They're Used
Prototype evaluation, research & development testing, production testing, accelerated stress testing, reliability testing, failure analysis, etc. these are some of the types of testing where climatic test chambers are used. In fact, a climatic test chamber can be used for any such application that requires the simulation of a particular climate.
Environmental Simulation:
Climatic test chambers can simulate virtually any kind of climatic condition that may include Temperature, humidity, altitude, vibration, solar, wind & rain, dust, etc. Normally thee interior workspace in these test chambers start from 1.2 cubic feet. The temperature capabilities also starts from as low as -300 degree F for cold chambers, and it can even go up to +1000 degree F, if the temperature conditions are extreme high. The interiors come with powder coated finishing and are normally made of stainless steel.
Next we'll take a look at a few of the more common types of climatic test chambers available on the market.
Highly Accelerated Life Test
If your requirement is to locate a product weakness and assess its life, this test chamber can be a perfect choice. It combines various element tests like temperature, shock and vibration in order to determine the life span of a product.
Highly Accelerated Stress Screening
This climatic test chamber is used for production units. It performs its function by fast temperature cycling.
Temperature chambers
These test chambers tests the effects on a product over a range of temperature conditions by simulating temperature. It combines climatic conditions, such as humidity, altitude, and vibration, etc in order to perform its functions.
Humidity Chambers
Humidity chambers are used to simulate humidity and consequently tests the effects on the product over different humidity conditions. This test chamber can perform its function either with or without temperature.
Bench up Test Chambers
These test chambers are different in a way that they require very little floor space. These are basically used to perform testing on small products.
Thermal Shock Chambers
In this climatic test chamber, the temperature rapidly changes from extreme cold to extreme hot climate. This way, it performs its function by shocking and stressing the product thermally.
Liquid-to-liquid Thermal Shock Chambers
In this test chamber, the product is transferred through the hot and cold liquid without any contamination and the test is performed by immersing a part or assembly in hot and cold liquid.
Air-to-air thermal Shock Chambers
These climatic test chambers are available in various configurations, such as two-zone, three-zone, and double duty. It performs its function by transferring the product from a hot chamber to a cold chamber.
There are many other types of climatic test chambers available on the market, including altitude chambers, climatic stress screening chambers, walk-in chambers, drive in chambers, etc.
