Vibration and environmental testing facilities

Citation

(2003), "Vibration and environmental testing facilities", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 75 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2003.12775aab.022

Vibration and environmental testing facilities

Vibration and environmental testing facilities

Instem Technologies, a UK provider of outsourced manufacturing services, has opened facilities for vibration and environmental testing at its plant in Hythe, Hampshire. Vibration and environmental testing are core elements in the range of services that Instem offers and now the facilities at Hythe that house these systems are being extended to customers that do not outsource their manufacturing to the Company.

Environmental testing can be used in two areas, namely pre-production development assessment to design-in reliability of product operation and to investigate and resolve problems experienced in production and on established products already in service. At Instem Technologies, vibration testing is performed on a Ling Dynamic Systems V730/335 unit complete with slip table to enable testing in three axes. The range of vibration testing includes Sine, Random and Transient up to a force of 2,000 lbf.

The two environmental chambers offer customers the use of equipment manufactured by Montford Instruments for both temperature and humidity testing.

The temperature-testing chamber is programmable to suit a variety of profiles over a temperature range from −70°C to +125°C and provides boost heating and cooling using Liquid Nitrogen. The temperature and humidity-testing chamber has a temperature range from −45°C to +100°C and a humidity range from +5 per cent to +90 per cent RH.

Until now, the environmental testing facilities at Hythe have largely been used in the development of recording equipment, including reel-to-reel tape and the current generation of optical and magnetic recording media, i.e. DDS, DVD and HDD for communications and instrumentation recorders. The decision to offer non-contract customers access to the test laboratories is a new departure for Instem Technologies. The Company has extensive manufacturing facilities at Hythe, and this development creates a significant resource for developers and manufacturers of complex electronics, electromechanical and scientific instrumentation products.