Environmental Test Chambers Industry Information
IQS Newsroom Articles on Environmental Test Chambers
Environmental test chambers replicate environmental conditions such as
high temperature or humidity, allowing engineers to evaluate the
effects that environmental changes have on products placed within the
chamber. An environmental test chamber evaluates product quality and
identifies flaws and weaknesses in products before they go to market.
Environmental testing falls under two categories: climatic and
mechanical. Climatic testing evaluates the effects of natural
environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and
precipitation upon an object, although test chambers accelerated the
rate of effect these conditions have in order to test products within a
reasonable time frame. Mechanical testing evaluates the effects of
causal environmental conditions such as vibration, shock, dust or salt
spray upon an object. How products respond and function after these
tests determines whether they are ready for the market or need further
development. Several specific types of environmental test chambers
includes altitude chambers, humidity test chambers, salt spray chambers, temperature chambers, thermal shock chambers, vacuum test chambers and military/defense regulation AGREE chambers. Sizes of test chambers vary, ranging from benchtop test chambers to walk-in test chambers.
Environmental test chambers are utilized in all industries, from
automotive
and engineering to construction and medical, pharmaceutical, food
processing and packaging. Manufacturers test consumer items such as
cars, cigarettes, makeup, medicine and medical instruments. Electronics
and home appliance manufacturers use rigorously test their products
under harsh environmental conditions to reveal flaws and malfunction
susceptibilities before the product goes to market. There is a growing
demand by customers to have extended warranties and maintenance on
products. Manufacturers would be at high risk in offering these
long-term warranties and service contracts without test data to back up
product performance guarantees. Some manufacturers in industries where
there is no pressure to prove long-term reliability consider forgoing
the thousands of hours of costly product testing, but testing products
in test chambers is recognized across the manufacturing industry as
good practice, and product manufacturers that refuse to rest products
before release risk product malfunction in the market and,
consequently, future business loss.
Environmental test chambers test products in a variety of ways, depending
on the product application. THB (Temperature/Humidity/Bias) testing is
one of the most common tests used for integrated circuit chips, because
the test chambers can hold 1851/4F/851/4C and 85% relative humidity condition
while bias loads are applied to the samples. The HAST (Highly Accelerated
Stress Test) uses high temperature (over 2121/4F/1001/4C), high relative
humidity (about 85%) and high atmospheric pressure conditions (up to
4 atms) to test products such as integrated circuits. HASTs greatly
decrease the time needed to achieve useful test results, especially
in evaluating non-hermetic packaging of solid state equipment in humid
conditions. High temperature
chambers are used to assess potential product
failure such as damage, junction thermal resistance increase and depolymerization.
Products are subjected to temperatures of about 3021/4F/1501/4C for more
than 1,000 hours, after which electrical measurements are taken. Mixed
flowing gas chambers subject products to a mixture of pollutant gases
in a controlled temperature and humidity environment in order to assess
the damage to a product after long-term use in office and light to heavy
industrial settings.
Terms regarding thermal shock testing are often used incorrectly. Liquid-to-liquid
thermal shock is a process in which a product is alternately dipped in
non-toxic, noncombustible, chemically inert and low viscosity fluids
maintained at a specific temperature. Air-to-air, or two-zone, thermal
shock is the transferring of a product from a hot chamber to a cold chamber
or some other sudden change in air temperature, and vice versa. Sometimes,
in a transfer, there is an intermediate step in which the product is
exposed to room temperature conditions, which is called three-zone thermal
shock. Simply changing the air as quickly as possible in a single chamber
is more accurately referred to as thermal cycling or stress screening.
|
|
|
Environmental Test Chambers
and Environmental Test Chamber Manufacturers Image Provided by Hastest
Solutions |