Within the environmental test chamber industry space, you’ve more than likely encountered terms such as environmental chamber, climatic chamber, thermal chamber, and test chamber. After weeks or even years of hearing these various terms, you may wonder what the difference is. Do the terms matter for the type of testing you’re looking for?
There is no difference between these terms. They are completely interchangeable. Though the term environmental chamber is more commonly used, understanding which form of testing is most suitable for your needs is essential when it comes to identifying distinct chambers.
Common Environmental Testing Chambers
At Associated Environmental Systems (AES), we created a suite of test chambers designed for various industries, from EVs to aerospace to pharmaceutical companies and many more. Each chamber addresses a wide range of requirements, pushing devices under testing (DUTs) to their physical limits and imitating all real-world conditions they’re likely to encounter. Learn more about our most common types of environmental chambers.
Temperature And Thermal Chambers
If you’re searching for a chamber that can provide precise control necessary for temperature cycling, temperature chambers, also known as thermal chambers, are an ideal fit. These temperature chambers are commonly used to test various products, including shipping and aircraft materials or medical devices.
Temperature chambers rely on sophisticated heating systems to ensure reliable testing conditions and in line with industry standards. Performance chambers typically feature a range of -70°C to 180°C (-94°F to 356°F). The chambers’ airflow design enables fast-reacting heaters to retain fierce control of the temperatures within the chamber to achieve a precision of ±0.5°C. They come in a range of volumes, from benchtop models of less than 1 cubic foot to walk-in chambers or drive-in chambers.
Temperature chambers also feature air-cooling or water-cooling systems. While air cooling is less expensive, its pull-down rate is typically slower than the water-cooling option. Alternatively, water-cooling setups are more efficient but require a more complex installation and permanent water source. You can further enhance cooling efforts by integrating liquid nitrogen (LN2) or carbon dioxide (CO2) into your system. These facilitate even more rapid pull-down rates.
As far as safety features, temperature chambers have an adjustable high/low control feature that prevents temperatures from rising above or falling below a specific limit during testing. Additionally, these test chambers benefit from an internal high-temperature safety feature and refrigeration system with an over-pressure safety circuit. These components combine to create an environmental testing system that identifies the durability and safety of leading technologies.
Quite popular today, customers purchase battery test chambers to test leading technologies like consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and wearable devices, which include the capability of creating temperatures to which the device will likely be subjected in its lifespan. Our battery test chambers are optimized for temperature-only testing or temp and humidity chambers with extensive safety features. We also offer patented and patent-pending battery testing fixtures that seamlessly integrate within the test chamber to allow for testing of different cell types.
Humidity Chambers
Many standards require humidity components in addition to temperature. Humidity chambers, similar to temperature or thermal chambers, range in size (from benchtop to walk-in models) and performance. Like temperature chambers, humidity test chambers range in size from benchtop to walk-in models.
A standard humidity chamber will accommodate testing conditions between 10% and 95% relative humidity (RH), the amount of moisture achievable at a given temperature. For example, RH at 5 degrees Celsius varies dramatically from RH at 32 degrees Celsius. For those needing more extreme RH levels, up to 98% RH can be achieved using a high humidity sensor, while as low as 5% RH can be achieved with a desiccant air dryer.
Additionally, humidity chambers rely on a vapor generator system to create humidity conditions within a workspace, with exacting control. These vapor systems consist of a closed stainless steel or copper tube. Another component then heats water that becomes vapor or steam and passes through the tube, combined with conditioned air in a plenum, before traveling into the internal workspace.
Humidity chambers are also capable of steady-state or stability testing. While some testing standards require certain rise and pull-down rates, if that is not necessary, inquire about a stability humidity chamber designed for long-term consistent testing.
Salt Spray, Salt Fog, or Corrosion Chambers
Many industries that benefit from temperature and humidity testing also leverage salt spray test chambers (also known as salt fog or corrosion chambers). Designed to imitate the effects of corrosion, salt spray chambers help engineers establish user expectations for the lifecycle of DUTs, the durability of materials, and reveal potential failure points without introducing possible contaminants. Salt spray tests are utilized in testing a variety of elements, including:
- Organic coatings
- Paint coatings
- Zinc and zinc-alloy plating
- Coatings not applied electrolytically, such as zinc flake coatings
- Phosphate surfaces with subsequent paint, primer, lacquer, or rust-preventive
- Electroplated chromium, nickel, copper, and tin
- And more
The most advanced salt spray chambers created today consist of a transparent workspace contained by premium Lucite ® ️plexiglass. This enables engineers to view testing from 360-degree angles unobstructed. Spray mechanisms atomize conditioned water and a salt solution as a fog or mist, which is then injected into the workspace, typically at a steady ambient temperature near 35°C (95°F).
Thermal Shock Chambers
Thermal shock chambers enable users to conduct thermal shock testing, which simulates the extreme temperature changes a product might be exposed to during real-life use. The chamber achieves this by rapidly moving DUTs between extreme temperatures. They feature at least two zones with a pneumatic basket that transfers the DUT between them. Some thermal shock chambers feature a third ambient zone to accommodate standards that require DUTs to cool to room temperature.
How Can We Help?
Whether you call them environmental testing chambers, climatic chambers, or test chambers, the accuracy and performance of the chamber will always remain the same. AES is an experienced climatic chamber manufacturer who will get you the services you need to achieve success. Get started today by reaching out to a sales engineer. We look forward to partnering with you.
