While environmental test chambers have long been critical to the development and success of new technologies, they’ve historically been left behind when it comes to their own advancements.
Things are changing, however—and fast. The AESONE CONNECT family of products has helped companies keep pushing forward despite social distancing requirements imposed by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the technology can do for teams.
In fact, the larger and more dispersed your company, the greater the benefits from remote dashboard monitoring for your environmental test chambers.
Here are several ways it can change the game for you:
Streamline Your Processes
With traditional test chamber technology, the testing and reporting process typically goes something like this:
- You go to the test lab to enter your test profile with all of your desired steps and desired parameters on each individual chamber—typically on a small screen with a software system that was not built with user experience in mind.
- You start the test. If you wish to monitor progress or change parameters during the test, you must remain on the premises and check in on each individual chamber.
- To examine results, you first have to export each data set for each separate test chamber, before collating and manually distributing a report to team members.
- All this is only if the chambers are all in the same place: It becomes exponentially harder and more time consuming to manage with each additional location you add.
With remote dashboard monitoring, the process becomes both simpler to manage, and more effective for monitoring your results. Here’s what it looks like with AESONE CONSOLE:
- Set up your test profile steps on a full-screen monitor, laptop, or tablet, wherever you happen to be.
- Build profiles simply with side-bar visibility and pop-up dialogue window functionality so you won't miss any parameters.
- Optimize profile organization with the ability to clone, edit, save, and move between profiles and between test chambers.
- A single technician in each location can physically arrange the device under test within the workspace.
- Approved dashboard viewers monitor the tests while they're in progress, while administrators and editors can adjust factors such as temperature and humidity, from any location.
- Store up to eight years of historical data on AESONE XCHANGE hardware, and view it at any time from within the AESONE CONSOLE dashboard, making manual data collation, storage, and dissemination a thing of the past.
- Administrators set different levels of access for specific users and teams, from read-only up to an administrator.
- Choose the login authentication that best fits your team’s needs, and access can be set to expire automatically on any time frame an administrator defines.
- Lock down test chambers whenever needed, right from the dashboard, to prevent users from altering the test.
Securely Share Chambers Across Teams
In many cases, different product teams, and even companies, need to share the same chamber or chambers. Traditionally, this introduces a layer of security risk that can be eliminated with a remote dashboard. Because AESONE CONSOLE lives on your company's network—through a standard, well-documented JSON API—you won't rely on a third-party security system to keep your data protected.
The Test Chamber Game Has Changed
Each of these innovations means that the days of test chambers operating as standalone devices are coming to an end—along with the frustrations and unnecessary repetition involved in dealing with those devices.
Networked chambers create a variety of benefits and efficiencies, including easy collaboration for distributed teams; the ability to share across teams, product lines, and even companies; and enhanced security features.
In addition, remote dashboard monitoring provides a single, secure hub for controlling all of your chambers—including older models and those manufactured by other companies, which can be retrofitted with AESONE CONNECT Hardware and Software. This enables better management of testing processes, quicker feedback and decision-making, and greater visibility for key stakeholders across your organization, regardless of your current setup.
Test chambers have been integral to the development of many of the key technologies of the 21st century; for the first time, networking and remote access bring state-of-the-art technology into the chambers themselves, improving chamber management, productivity gains, and the potential to reimagine how and where testing takes place.
Associated Environmental Systems possesses the experience and expertise to ensure your environmental testing continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Our AESONE CONNECT Operation & Data Management Dashboard provides advanced, remote access, with enhanced security and real-time monitoring, while streamlining processes. Contact us today to receive a quote.
