A Beginners Guide – Installation of Your Environmental Test Chambers

A number of industries around the world rely on advanced technology to bring you the products you use every day. One of these critical pieces of machinery are environmental test chambers, used to simulate changes and stresses that a product or component may encounter during its lifetime. A necessary process, it enables businesses and companies to find flaws and weaknesses within their products before they launch – meaning they can offer us, their consumers, a more durable product with a more accurate warranty. At the same time, these companies can save money on fixes in the future and build a reputation for quality.

If this sounds like something your business would be interested in, or you’d just like to learn more about these chambers, then we’ve compiled a guide on installation, so you can be better prepared upon arrival.

What do they do and who uses them?

Before considering installing environmental test chambers, it’s important that you know what their uses are and who can best benefit from them. As their name suggests, they generally mimic the natural conditions that a product may experience, including sudden temperature changes, exposure to humidity and moisture, structural vibrations, salt spray and UV rays. These machines are usually specified to certain conditions. Our test chambers are most commonly used by pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, automotive and aerospace, biotechnology and defence technology, electronics and energy generations – just to name a few.

Installation and preparation guide

Once you’re confident that your business can benefit from test chambers, there are a few things you can do in preparation for, and during, the installation process.

Utilities:

All of our models will require some form of electrical power, in most cases 3 phase power is required and depending on your application access to water as well. The water is used for cooling the condenser, purifying the humidity system and oil-free compressed air – your installation specialists will be able to instruct you on your chambers exact needs.

Chamber Placement:

Where you put your chamber within your factory or workplace is incredibility important. Obviously, it has to be close to its power supply, but it should not be within 30-45cm of the wall. You need to take care to ensure it isn’t placed in a way which could lead to warm air exiting the chamber being drawn back inside. Where possible, we suggest leaving a space of over 75cm on each side for servicing. Depending on the size and weight of the chamber careful consideration to floor loading is important, chambers can be heavy so locating them on a cement floor is recommended, if installing them in elevated floors understanding and calculating the structural capacity of the floor is recommended as well.

Heat Load:

It’s no surprise that these units can produce quite a bit of heat when in constant use – so it’s important that your location is able to handle the heat dissipation. For example, a water-cooled chamber will produce 350 watts per hour, whilst an air-cooled chamber will produce over 10,000 watts per hour depending on the size of the chamber. Therefore, adequate air conditioning of the chamber’s location is recommended.

With machines of this calibre, it’s best to have them installed and serviced by professionals. Whilst this guide will give you a rough idea of what needs to happen, what you need to do in preparation, and what the installation specialist will be looking for, if you’re considering investing in environmental test chambers, then we recommend using the experts from start to finish. Contact our team today.