Artificial Ageing Chambers

Equipment Guide > Artificial Ageing Chambers

Equipment

Artificial ageing chambers, also known as accelerated ageing chambers, provide a controlled environment designed to simulate the natural ageing process of materials at an accelerated rate.

By doing so the effects of ageing over a shorter period of time can be assessed, which helps in predicting the lifespan, reliability, and potential failures of materials.

To fully understand the ageing characteristics of a material can take years of experimentation and be expensive.

Artificial ageing chambers enable a better understanding of how materials age by exaggerating the key parameters effecting the ageing. Analysis can be done in weeks or months rather than years.

Description

The Institute has a suite of temperature and humidity controlled artificial ageing chambers that can be set according to specific testing requirements to replicate real-world environmental conditions or to create extreme conditions that are likely to cause accelerated degradation on a materials properties.
Materials can be assessed using a variety of characterisation techniques to understand any changes in the materials structure. Mechanical testing can also be performed on the material to evaluate if there has been any degradation during the ageing process.

Applications and Capability

Temperature capability = -50°C to +180°C
Humidity capability = 10% to 98% Relative Humidity (RH)
3 x Chambers, each 56 litre volume capacity
The chambers are fully programable meaning that cycling between hot and cold as well as dry and humid conditions can be performed

Applications

Various types of materials can be tested including:

Testing of metals, polymers, composites, ceramics, concretes and powders to assess the effect of humidity and temperature on the ageing of these materials.
Assessment of the ageing properties of finished assemblies, this is commonly performed on electronic devices.

Advantages

Artificial ageing chambers provide several advantages, including time and cost savings compared to real-time ageing tests. They enable researchers to quickly evaluate the long-term performance of products or materials, identify potential weaknesses or defects, optimise designs, and make informed decisions about product lifecycles.