How Sand and Dust Testing Can Help Improve the Durability of Electronic Devices

Sand and dust testing, also known as sand and dust resistance test, is a destructive testing equipment that simulates the natural wind and sand climate on products. It is suitable for testing the sealing performance and reliability of product shells.

After testing, the performance of the product can be evaluated to determine whether it meets the requirements, for use in product design, improvement, identification, and factory inspection. Improving the durability of electronic devices through such sand and dust tests.

The purpose of the research and development of sand and dust testing equipment is to conduct a dust sealing test on the shell of electronic and electrical products, mainly used for testing the IP5X and IP6X levels specified in the shell protection level standard.

Suitable for testing the sealing performance and reliability of product shells, testing the sealing performance of electronic and electrical products, automotive, motorcycle components, door locks, seals, etc. in the environment during use, storage, and transportation. Whether the dust level meets the protection standards.

The sand and dust test chamber uses artificial simulation of dust environment to test the dust prevention ability of the product. The entire air duct is made of stainless steel plates. The bottom of the air duct is connected to the interface of the conical hopper. The inlet and outlet of the fan are directly connected to the air duct. The diffuser at the top of the studio is connected to the studio in an appropriate position to form an O-shaped closed vertical dust blowing circulation system, ensuring smooth air circulation and even dust dispersion.

The sand and dust testing device generally consists of a laboratory and auxiliary equipment. Auxiliary equipment is a sand and dust gas-solid two-phase flow that ensures and controls the required sand and dust concentration, wind speed, temperature, and humidity in a given cross-section air duct based on the working state of blowing sand and dust. Conduct sand and dust environment simulation tests on the samples to be blown according to national standards.

In order to ensure that the space is filled with sand and dust test chamber can be fully circulated, the cross-sectional area of the test piece (perpendicular to the airflow direction) should not exceed 50% of the effective volume of the test chamber, and the volume of the sample should not exceed 30% of the effective volume of the test chamber.

In China, the weighing method is widely used to calculate the concentration of sand and dust. The sampling and weighing method is a reliable and accurate method for measuring dust concentration, but the measurement time is long and cannot continuously measure dust concentration and output electrical signals.

Therefore, intelligent instruments and computers can be used for real-time monitoring of dust concentration.
During the experiment, the measurement of wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity should be carried out continuously, and the measurement sensors should be placed to avoid damage caused by direct impact of airflow containing sand and dust. If necessary, some protective devices can be added for shielding.

The dust flow in the laboratory should approach laminar flow before acting on the sample, and the sand particles should be almost uniformly suspended in the airflow. Due to the severe corrosion characteristics of sand, do not allow sand to flow through fans and air conditioning equipment.

The laboratory should have heating, cooling, and dehumidification functions, and the wall materials of the laboratory should have wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and anti-static functions.

Performance characteristics of sand and dust testing equipment and instruments:
1. The equipment is in the form of an overall frame (rotary) structure, with the test chamber body located in the middle of the equipment, a fan at the rear of the equipment, a rotary circulation air duct connected to the test device, a sand inlet device at the upper air outlet of the test box, a temperature control and dehumidification system located at the lower rear of the chamber, and an instrument control system located at the bottom left of the test chamber.

2. There is a rotating sand and dust feeding device at the air inlet of the studio to meet the needs of sand blowing and dust blowing. The cyclone separator is located at the air outlet of the sand and dust chamber.
3. The circulating air duct is equipped with heaters, dehumidification devices, etc.
4. There is an observation window on the chamber door. The test chamber is a single door, sealed with double-layer aging resistant silicone rubber.
5. The outer wall material of the test box and rotary air duct is made of cold-rolled steel plate after rust prevention treatment and sprayed. The inner wall is processed and formed using SUS304 stainless steel plate, and the frame is made of 5 # channel steel after rust prevention treatment and sprayed;
6. The refrigeration and humidity system adopts a fully enclosed compressor, air-cooled condenser, finned convection evaporator, and bell type temperature and humidity control system.
7. The temperature and humidity control adopts an intelligent controller, and the relative humidity adopts a direct reading sensor.

Why do we need to conduct a sand and dust test?
Sand and dust may become physical factors that promote the deterioration of materials or equipment components, including chemical composition or both. They may also become wear materials for moving parts of equipment, and stationary surfaces may even be damaged by wind blown sand and dust.

This effect depends on the physical and chemical properties of dust particles and the properties of the contact surface. Therefore, the covering layer on the metal surface may accelerate corrosion, while the accumulation of dust on the insulation surface may damage its electrical performance.

Requirements for sand and dust test:
To avoid blockage caused by sand and dust used in the experiment, the humidity of the test chamber must be maintained below 25%.

It is not required that the testing equipment can monitor relative humidity. As long as the air inside the test chamber is heated, it is sufficient, and the heating temperature depends on the laboratory temperature and relative humidity. It may not be feasible in humid and hot weather conditions, therefore it is not recommended to test at temperatures exceeding 40 ℃.
In this case, the laboratory needs to use air conditioning or a dehumidification system.

SC-015 Dust-proof Test Chamber (Sand Dust Chamber) is applied to physical and other related performance tests for electronic and electrical products, lamps, electrical cabinets, electrical components, automobiles, motorcycles and their parts and other products under simulated dust climate conditions. After the measurement, it is judged whether the performance of the product meets the requirements through verification, so as to facilitate the design, improvement, verification and factory inspection of the product. Comply meets IEC60529:1989 +A1:1999 +A2: 2013 <Degrees of protection provided by enclosures (IP Code)>,IEC60598-1,  GB2423.37-89 (Test L: dust test methods), GB4208, GB/T 4942.2-93(protective casing grade of low-voltage apparatus), GB7000.1 <Luminaires Part 1: General Requirements and Tests> 9.2.1, 9.2.2 and Figure 6, DIN40050 and IP5K0. The dust test chamber is applicable to the IP5X and IP6X dustproof test of the products.

Dustproof Testing Machine SC-015

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