The Photonics Cluster laboratories have a suite of environmental testing equipment. Two Weiss Gallenkamp environmental chambers are large enough to test entire luminaires. These chambers can cycle temperature and relative humidity, in a range of -40ºC to +180ºC, and a humidity range of 0 to 95% relative humidity. The chambers have a capacity of 185 litres and can be programmed to run soak tests for several weeks. The Cluster’s data logging software means that these tests can be run without user intervention.

The environmental testing laboratory also incorporates a tensile strength tester. This allows breaking strain measurements and testing to ascertain that samples will withstand set tensile forces. This is often used in determining the mechanical properties of materials such as concrete, plastics, metals, ceramics, polymers and composites.

The third feature of the environmental testing facility is the Dactron shaker. This is a vibration testing facility that can test materials, assemblies and components for resistance to vibration and can be programmed to simulate conditions which the item under test might be exposed to in service. When combined with the laser scanning vibrometer, this system allows the user to develop a full picture of vibration related stress failure in a system.