Climate Chamber: Testing individual components against cold, heat, and humidity

For individual component-level environmental testing, Daktronics technicians use a climate chamber to analyse component performance levels under a variety of extreme climatic conditions such as cold, heat, and humidity. From varying temperatures spanning between a frigid -80°C and a blistering 170°C to sweltering humidity levels of up to 95 percent RH (relative humidity), the climate chamber puts each new Daktronics product through a series of punishing environmental tests before product release, providing valuable data to help aid continued component improvements.

Environmental Simulator: Display-level environmental testing

While module-level testing provides crucial information on individual component performance, Daktronics understands the big picture of what harsh conditions can do to the entire display. To assure that our displays are as tough as their components, Daktronics technicians use a massive environmental chamber to put entire video boards through a variety of stress tests before product release. With more than 4,550 square feet of enclosed testing space, the chamber uses powerful heat lamps, massive cooling fans and an adjustable humidity simulator to mimic a variety of different environments, pushing displays to their absolute limits while ultimately assuring a high-performance product engineered to perform in a variety of uninviting conditions.

Thermal Shock Chamber: Prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures

While exaggerated climate testing provides valuable data on product performance, Daktronics technicians do not overlook the gruelling effects of long-term temperature shock. Using three isolated chambers (two hot and one cold), the lab’s thermal shock chamber alternates product components between extreme heat (200° C, 392° F) and intense cold (-73° C, -99.4° F) for periods of up to a month, providing valuable insight into a component’s capacity to handle prolonged temperature extremes.

Salt Fog Chamber: Measuring the corrosive effects of salty precipitation

While extreme temperatures shifts and intense humidity can meddle with a product’s long-term performance, prolonged exposure to salty coastal air can cause just as much trouble, promoting corrosion within unprotected components. The Salt Fog Chamber allows lab technicians to punish Daktronics products with a 5 percent salt solution at a sweltering 35° C to measure a component’s capacity to withstand the corrosive effects of salty coastal air deposited through cooling fans and ventilation devices.

Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) Chamber: The next generation in environmental testing

The most advanced testing unit of its kind, the reliability lab’s HALT Chamber uses a punishing combination of extreme temperature changes and intense mechanical vibrations to stress a product to complete failure, providing valuable insight into a product’s estimated lifetime.

Brash temperatures shifts between -110° C and 200° C challenge a component’s ability to handle harsh climate changes, while menacing mechanical vibrations at rates of up to 5,000 Hz literally push components to their absolute breaking point. Test results provide our technicians a detailed portrait of a product’s vulnerable areas, allowing our engineers to implement continued improvements throughout the product development cycle.

IP Validation (Water/Dust): Cabinet Testing For a Weather-Ready Solution

To assure that Daktronics products can hold tough against even the harshest weather, reliability lab technicians perform IP (Ingress Protection) testing to assure proper defence against water and dust intrusion. Using high-pressure water jets, reliability lab technicians drench entire display enclosures with up to 100 litres (26 gallons) of water per minute from multiple angles to make sure that moisture cannot and will not interfere with critical components.

Supplemental dust testing places products in an airtight enclosure, using a high-power vacuum to help gauge and avert dust penetration. These procedures, combined with the experience gained over thousands of display installations across the world, position Daktronics products among the most reliable and consistent in the industry.