Environmental Test Chamber Work

Posted by Farhan Shaikh on June 6th, 2021

How does an environmental test chamber work?

When you know that a given product will be used or installed outdoors and that it needs to withstand the harshest of elements, guessing or hoping for its success simply won't do. You need a solution that can help you determine the item's resilience.An environmental test chamber can provide some much-needed intelligence. Used in a variety of industries – especially among automakers and parts manufacturers – an environmental test chamber is an enclosed space that essentially recreates conditions to determine how a subject will respond to those simulated conditions Environmental Test Chamber. These may include extreme heat, sub-zero temperatures, relative humidity, dew point or wet environments in which corrosion tends to thrive.

How does an environmental chamber work?

Describing how environmental test rooms go about assessing an item's resilience all depends on what the user wants to find out. For example, say the test subject in question is an automobile and the manufacturer wants to see if the high-grade aluminum it was installed with will be able to withstand corrosion, which typically develops over time as a result of wetness or acidic substances (e.g. road salt). To recreate such corrosive effects, an environmental test chamber may use salt spray, which coats the item in a fine mist by leveraging compressed air and a nozzle that channels the salt spray. This can be done at regularly occurring intervals to expedite the corrosion process, which under normal circumstances would happen on a much slower, more progressive basis.

The rate at which corrosion takes place can provide manufacturers with insight as to what additional treatments may be needed to increase the aluminum's resilience to chemical breakdown. A given make or model's resistance to corrosion can not only enhance the visual appeal of a motor vehicle, but the life of it as well. The lifespan of light cars and trucks on the road has risen consistently for several years in a row. Indeed, according to IHS Markit, the average age in the U.S. among light vehicles is 11.8 years.

"Better technology and overall vehicle quality improvements continue to be key drivers of the rising average vehicle age over time," said Mark Seng, directors of IHS Markit's automotive aftermarket division