CONTROL YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Precise Humidity Verification of Environmental Chambers
Environmental Chambers are widely used for the testing of a huge range
of products, such as electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals and food packaging.
Historically, wet/dry bulb psychrometers and capacitive relative humidity
probes have been used both for the control and validation of such chambers.
However, neither is particularly suitable for the highest level of validation
of chamber performance. Now, for the first time there exists an alternative
in the form of a cooled mirror transmitter offering improved measurement
capability and a flexibility that can be applied over a wide range of
environmental conditions with ease.
In the past, a cooled mirror dew-point hygrometer was regarded as an
expensive laboratory reference device that would be used for the calibration
of lower specification instruments, such as psychrometers and RH sensors.
Limitations in electronics and in the design of early cooled mirror sensors
rendered them inflexible when presented with extremes of temperature and
humidity. The design and development of Optidew has addressed these limitations
and resulted in a cooled mirror dew-point hygrometer that is stable, fast
responding and accurate over the whole operating range of an environmental
chamber, from the driest conditions (typically -40 oC dew point) to saturation
at the highest operating temperatures, automatically and without any need
for user intervention.
The pedigree of the cooled mirror dew-point hygrometer as a calibration
reference device is well established and Optidew follows in a long tradition.
Four-wire resistance temperature measurement, precision digital control
and high quality sensor components with a corrosion-resistant hard gold
mirror ensure reliable and accurate performance. Calibration traceability
to International Standards (NPL and NIST primarily) along with the option
for direct UKAS calibration make it suitable for verification of chamber
performance, humidity profiling and for the calibration of chamber humidity
control loop sensors.
But can Optidew replace those psychrometers and RH probes as the main
measurement and control device for an environmental chamber? The results
of independent tests suggest that this is possible. The combination of
Optidew's own intelligent control system and the improved sophistication
of microprocessor based environmental chambers means that such an advanced,
fundamentally-based measurement system can now be applied with success
to the control of enclosed environments.
Find out more about Optidew by clicking here
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