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Temperature Chambers for R&D
As the world consumes its more easily extracted energy resources, industry has been forced to advance to some of the least hospitable places on earth in search of sequestered energy supplies. In recent years in particular, interest in recovering oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbons from beneath frozen tundra in Canada, the deepest depths of the Gulf of Mexico and other out-of-the-way places has surged. Arguments about the sustainability and ethics of these kinds of exploration and extraction continue. What is not in dispute is that if these efforts are
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The developers of such equipment are not going to go to the bottom of the ocean or to the frozen tundra to test their equipment. Instead, they turn to environmental test chambers which can help them predict how their products will respond to certain sets of conditions. Temperature chambers in particular, especially in the case of product research for products that will be used in very cold or very hot climates, can be used to test the functionality of a product in the presence of unfavorable working conditions. These products can be as small and as simple as fluoroelastomeric bumpers or bushings, or they can be as large and as complicated as engines. In either case, temperature chambers can be used to measure products responses to a range of temperature conditions. These can be set to temperatures far below zero or temperatures high enough to induce melting or boiling. Without these kinds of test chambers, it would be difficult for industry to accommodate the varied needs of companies that require access to equipment that can function without disruption in harsh climates.