Setting New Testing Standards for Military and Commercial Applications | YORK, PA
For the first time, military operations specialists and commercial equipment manufacturers can test for adverse effects of desert conditions in repeatable real time conditions. The new MIL-STD-810 Desert Wind™ Blowing Sand and Dust Environmental Simulator from Air Dynamics Industrial Systems Corporation is the world’s only unit that can test for either blowing sand or dust environments. It provides a significant advancement in predictive test and evaluation platforms and sets new standards for testing in a single chamber design. The result is an ability to more precisely plan operations and produce durable equipment for adverse global conditions.
The patent-pending Desert Wind™ technology that simulates arid environments where blowing sand and dust is present, allowing repeatability in real-time, is the first of its kind.
Because the new simulator addresses these complex environmental challenges more thoroughly and accurately than other approaches, it already has been accepted by the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as part of a contract for the U.S. Department of Defense and by Canada’s Aerospace Technology Center.
“Commercial and military activities in desert climates place special demands on personnel and their support equipment,” explains Air Dynamics President Daniel Lehman. “The ability to simulate the deleterious effects of operating and storing equipment in the desert is critical to the operational readiness of military forces and reliability of commercial products.”
Unlike early test chambers that were unable to deliver correct particle concentration/velocity and predictive field performance, the Desert Wind™ Environmental Simulator features clean sheet technology. It provides real-time monitoring, data logging and advanced reporting of all test parameters in a repeatable controlled environment. It outperforms the European design which is only configured for dust testing.
The Desert Wind™ chamber meets and exceeds MIL-STD-810G standards and is adaptable to meet other specific sand and dust test requirements. The patented technology is intended for desert environment testing and certification of military equipment and commercial applications in the automotive, wind turbine, solar panel, and aerospace manufacturing industries.
“Until now, there has not been a simulator that can provide real-time recorded outputs of each critical parameter of a blowing sand or dust environment,” explains Desert Wind™ product manager Aaron Lehman. He adds, “U.S. military and commercial manufacturers have been trying to simulate these conditions since Operation Desert Storm in 1991. This new technology does that and allows them to capture data necessary for predictive failure testing and analysis.”
Following a planned installation this spring at its Montreal headquarters, the Aerospace Technology Center will introduce the advanced technology to its partners and clients throughout Canada. The non-profit organization, supported by Canada’s Ministry of Education and Office of Economic Development, Innovation, and Export, acts as an interface between private industries, research centers, and aeronautics-related companies.
“Desert Wind™ is the best technology we have found for testing and calibration laboratories,” says Aerospace Technology Center Director of Innovation & Development Stephane Carpentier. “We will use it within the aerospace and military sectors to assist the creation of parts development and provide part of the certification needed.”
Once training is completed at Air Dynamics in York, PA, the Desert Wind™ simulator will be completely disassembled, shipped, and reassembled at the Center in Montreal. The chamber is a fully integrated, pre-programmed, thermally protected system. It has a high temperature capability up to 200°F/93°C and features automated controls for temperature, velocity, concentration, and humidity.
About Air Dynamics Industrial Systems Corporation
Air Dynamics is a custom integrator and manufacturer of indoor contaminant control systems and hybrid air and material moving systems for commercial and military markets. In addition to environmental simulators, the company also engineers and provides pollution control systems, centralized industrial vacuum systems, environmental process cooling, energy optimization, and new product development/engineering/design.