Environmental Testing

Environmental testing is an important feature of product design and development. Environmental testing is conducted to measure the performance of a product or equipment under specified environmental conditions. Environmental testing reveals weaknesses in a product’s design or performance that could take place in service, especially at extreme climatic conditions such as variations in temperatures, air pressure, precipitation, winds, vibration, etc. A product must be able to operate in a wide variety of environments and environmental analysis is performed to help decide a product’s ability to adapt to each of these environments. During the testing phase, if the product does not meet a certain environment specification, then failure analysis must be done and the product is to be made more robust for its operation in all possible environments.

The testing involves simulation and stimulation of mechanical stress and weather conditions that products are exposed to during their lifetime. Simulation imitates the conditions a product would meet in its normal use environment and the environmental stresses applied to the product during simulation do not exceed its intended use. Burn-in, temperature cycling and environmental stress screening (ESS) are some of the commonly used simulation techniques. On the other hand, stimulation, which is also known as accelerated testing, incorporates stresses to bring the products to their breaking points, to determine the products’ weaknesses and to improve the quality before market introduction of the products. A few of the stimulation test types are Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS).

Why is environmental testing important?

To ensure the product meets consumer expectations and to boost trust in the product and manufacturer credibility.

To help comply with international regulations to avoid penalties and financial losses.

To gain easy access to global markets.

To identify shortcomings in the product design and to improve the quality at an early stage so that the products have the build quality to work flawlessly in all conditions.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Considering your product will be subjected to a multitude of challenging environments in its lifetime, a comprehensive range of environmental testing options are offered including:

HALT and HASS testing

Life testing

Production monitoring

Shock and vibration testing

Testing during design and development

Transport simulation

Climatic testing

Humidity testing

Thermal shocks

Temperature cycling test

Five-point margin testing

On-going reliability test

Low pressure test

Accelerated life test

Weathering

Corrosion testing

Condensation testing

Salt-spray test

Ingress protection certification (e.g. IP 65)

Dust protection

Water protection

Combined environmental testing

Extremes of temperature, altitude, humidity & temperature cycling

Shipment and package evaluation

Solar simulation

Hose down/leak

Explosive atmosphere

We provide state-of-the-art testing capabilities to also test large objects like wheelchairs, mobility scooters, industrial piping components, motorcycles, glass windows and doors and other machinery. You may choose from our extensive range of services to ensure the quality and reliability of your products while following the international codes and standards.