Retlif Expands Solar Testing Capabilities
Environmental Chamber with Roof Mounted UV Lamps and Control-Monitoring Equipment(Photo: Retlif Testing Laboratories)
Interior of Environmental Chamber - UV Lamp and Variable Speed Fan (Photo: Retlif Testing Laboratories)
Sample UV Lamp Spectral Content (Photo: Retlif Testing Laboratories)
Independent testing and strategic compliance organization Retlif Testing Laboratories has inaugurated phase one of an expansion program to offer more solar radiation testing, including both heat and photochemical testing, to military and commercial product manufacturers.
The first of two planned dedicated Solar Radiation Test Chamber upgrades has been completed at Retlif’s Harleysville, Pa. testing laboratory, with phase two scheduled for third quarter 2018 at Retlif’s Ronkonkoma, N.Y. headquarters.
The new chamber and expanded capabilities provide the irradiance and spectral content to replicate field conditions required by a number of standards in maritime and military applications. For example, they are fully compliant with test procedures, cyclic exposure, and steady state exposure, as defined in the widely used MIL-STD-810, Method 505.5.
“Solar radiation is damaging to all systems and equipment operating or being stored in outdoor environments,” said Retlif executive vice president, Bill Hayes. “The demand for more radiant energy testing has been growing at all Retlif laboratories, which has become the driving force behind this phased expansion. The dedicated test chamber is a proprietary design involving state of the art hardware from leading manufacturers such as Ametek, Osram, Kipp & Zonen and Omega Monitoring Equipment. The new environment is driven by SpectrILight III data acquisition software designed to Retlif specificity standards.”
