In the aerospace, automotive, home-appliance and materials-science sectors, products must routinely undergo prolonged and repeatable exposure within the −80 °C to 0 °C range to verify functional integrity and service life under extreme cold. Nature cannot supply a continuous, controllable and stable sub-zero environment; consequently, low-temperature test chambers are employed to create an artificial cryogenic duty.

With the continuous updating of GB/T 4208-2017, IEC 60529:2013, MIL-STD-810H and other domestic and international protection-class standards, “rain testing” has evolved from a simple “water-proof check” into a systematic evaluation covering sealing reliability, material weatherability, structural integrity, electronic compatibility and more.

During the past twelve months, several third-party testing bodies and OEM laboratories reported the same problem: when running dust tests in accordance with GB/T 4208, IEC 60529 or MIL-STD-810, the batch cycle has stretched from 48 h to 72 h, even 96 h, while energy consumption has risen by more than 30 %.

In generic reliability standards such as GB/T 2423, IEC 60068 and MIL-STD-810, “damp heat” is treated as an independent climatic stress. The goal is not merely to verify moisture resistance, but to accelerate and expose failure modes triggered by water adsorption, condensation, “breathing” and electrochemical migration.

This guide regulates the daily start-up/shut-down, parameter setting, sample loading, process monitoring and maintenance of laboratory constant-temperature and humidity test chambers (hereafter “the chamber”), ensuring personnel safety, equipment reliability and data traceability.

In the field of environmental reliability testing, thermal shock test chambers are widely used to evaluate the adaptability and lifetime degradation of electronic components, materials, and complete products under rapid and extreme temperature transients.

In an era of vigorous development of artificial intelligence technology, intelligent control has become an indispensable component of rain test chambers. This technological innovation not only significantly reduces labor costs but also plays a pivotal role in improving equipment operating efficiency.

To establish a standardized and quantifiable daily maintenance process, reduce unexpected downtime, extend the equipment’s economic life cycle, and guarantee the traceability of temperature and humidity values.

A thermal-shock chamber (TSC) is not an off-the-shelf climatic box. Its only purpose is to generate controlled temperature gradients and rapid transfer rates that reveal thermo-mechanical defects. A poor choice will distort test data, delay R&D, fail certification audits, or even trigger a product recall. This paper translates field experience into an engineering checklist for R&D, Quality and ESS engineers.

Salt-spray corrosion testing is the primary accelerated method for validating the corrosion resistance of materials and their protective coatings. Whether a chamber can continuously generate neutral (NSS), acetic-acid (AASS) or copper-accelerated acetic-acid (CASS) salt fog for 48 h–1 000 h determines the repeatability and reproducibility of the test.