Temperature and Humidity Testing
Temperature and humidity testing is the umbrella term for different environmental tests such as high-temperature testing, temperature cycling testing or moisture resistance testing. All of these tests serve different purposes and have different temperature and humidity conditions. For example, temperature and humidity cycling testing is conducted by exposing a component to extreme temperature highs, gradually lowering to temperature lows, and back up to temperature highs again. This cycle can be repeated thousands of times in the case of reliability testing.
Components and devices are subjected to temperature and humidity testing to determine the resistance and effect of a part to environmental extremes. Again, depending on the type of test, the purpose will be different. Moisture resistance testing, for example, will measure the amount of moisture absorbed and surface wetting from the device. This can help determine deterioration, corrosion, or detrimental changes to the device.
Environmental testing labs will have a temperature and humidity chamber capable of maintaining the required conditions and cycles. A device to monitor the temperature conditions is usually required. Also, a measurement device for electrical or optical components is needed for in-test or after-test measurements.
Any component that needs transporting will be subjected to some degree of high temperature. Whether it is road, rail or ship transport, all parts will be exposed to some sort of dry or humid high temperature. It is common to conduct low-temperature testing for these products as well.
Many standards and specifications require some temperature or humidity testing. One example is humidity testing from the DoD environmental testing standard MIL-STD-810 . Humidity testing per MIL-STD-810 has different humidity procedures depending on the operation or natural exposure of the device. RTCA DO-160 requires extreme temperature changes and the effects of differing coefficients of thermal expansion.
Experior Laboratories’ environmental testing range from small to large temperature chambers with and without humidity control. Temperature chambers range from -170°C to +300°C and 5%RH to 98%RH. All chambers feature portholes for routing supply lines and/or signal cables to and from the equipment under test and all are equipped with electronic data acquisition monitoring to allow real-time charting of climatic conditions through data files and spreadsheets. Our testing facility features walk-in chambers up to 800 cu. ft. for both temperature and humidity testing. Extra-large access doors provide convenient access for large test articles.
Cryogenic Testing
Temperature and Humidity Chambers
Walk-In Temperature and Humidity
A walk-in chamber is also available for large equipment. Such is the case in GR-1081 which is a requirements document for splice-able fiber optic connector testing.
High-Temperature Endurance Testing
Experior Laboratories now offers Temperature Endurance testing that complies with test standards such EN 2997 Method 301 and is required for components in a high temperature environment. The test method demands components to transfer from one hot environment to an even hotter one, i.e. +175C to +230, in no more than 10 seconds.
Supported Test Standards:
MIL-STD-750 | AIAA-112A |
MIL-HDBK-2164A | AECTP 400 |
MIL-L-50794 | NAVMAT P-9492 |
ATPD-2404B | DNVGL-CG-0339 |
AIAA-S-111A | ASTM E145-19 |
SAE AS7974 |
Fast Ramp Temperature Testing
On Accelerated Life tests with thousands of cycles, these ramp rates can save months of test time.
Experior Laboratories has several accelerated life thermal chambers with high-flow blower motors and liquid nitrogen boost designed to transition temperature as quickly as possible, and are ideal for tests with demanding ramp rates.
Each of these chambers is equipped with passthrough ports for instrumentation and vacuum jacketed facility LN2.
Chambers have redundant high-flow solenoid valves and redundant overtemperature controllers for reliability. Dry GN2 purge is available if needed.
Additional Specs:
- LN2 Boost with High Velocity blowers and boost heater rail
- -185C to +200C at >30C/min minimum (Peak rates ~ 70C/min)