The Importance of Environmental Test Chamber Airflow
Airflow is a fundamental component of environmental testing, ensuring accurate, repeatable, and efficient results. It influences everything from temperature uniformity to contamination control, making it essential for reliable product testing. Without proper airflow, chambers may struggle to maintain stable conditions, leading to inconsistencies that can impact the validity of your results.
Uniform Air Temperature
Every test chamber, no matter its type, needs to circulate air. This “forced convection” helps ensure test chamber airflow uniformity within the chamber. A well-built chamber will be precisely designed to optimize temperature uniformity to allow for effective and efficient airflow to be dispersed throughout the chamber.
Inaccurate Results Protection
If your chamber isn’t designed correctly, poor airflow can lead to incorrect or inconsistent results. Inaccurate results could result in faulty testing that prevents your product from going to market or causes mechanical problems when used by consumers. Protect yourself and your product first!
High and Low-Temperature Changes
Oftentimes, changing the temperature of the device under testing (DUT) is essential to fully understanding how it performs within a wide range of environments. Without proper airflow, though, it can be challenging to change temperatures quickly. When airflow is optimized, rapid temperature shifts are easier to control.
Sterile Environment
Contamination can set back your testing and affect the hygiene of your lab. Proper airflow and ventilation, though, can help keep your chamber sterile and safe, preventing the buildup of dust, smoke, bacteria, and more.
The AES Test Chamber Difference
At AES, we design and build high-quality, American-made test chambers. With the support of proprietary baffle and fan design combinations, which optimize temperature conditions within the workspace, our test chambers maximize heat transfer and encourage faster temperature changes and accurate simulation.
We work closely with you for every project to understand the type of chamber needed for your product and testing requirements. When designing the chamber, we ensure the airflow has enough volume to support the refrigeration system. Since temperatures increase and decrease rapidly during testing, we want to guarantee that the chamber can freely expand and contract without the pounds of force becoming too overwhelming. To prepare for reactions, we calculate the volume-to-product ratio, determine the type of product testing, and the live load (also known as the dynamic load) the product will give off. These calculations provide us with accurate measurements for developing a precise airflow, allowing the chamber to breathe and place less force on the chamber walls during testing.
Even after your chamber is in use, we recommend following testing best practices. The product volume ratio to chamber space should typically be 1:3 to allow for proper air circulation. If the DUT takes up too much space, it can block airflow, reducing test accuracy. Larger DUTs may also generate heat, requiring chambers with higher airflow capacity to compensate. Additionally, it’s essential to get regular circulation system checks. These checks help check for contamination or areas where airflow isn’t properly distributed. After each system check is complete, don’t forget to return the test chamber to its precise location, allowing an 18- to 36-inch space for optimal airflow. All air flowing through the chamber needs a path to exit the chamber effectively, and if a chamber is too close to its surroundings, it can generate too much heat, affecting the airflow inside the chamber as well, causing it to work harder than it should.
Let’s Build Something Innovative Together
Whether you’re an EV manufacturer or a pharmaceutical manufacturer, AES is here to support you. Across industries, we partner with companies to create new and innovative test chambers that can move your vision forward. We invite you to take the next step with us by browsing our variety of test chambers. We embrace the big and small challenges of labs like nobody else.