Design, fabrication, and testing of a high-load, low-cost thermal chamber

This paper aims to present the design, fabrication, testing and validation of a high load and low-cost thermal chamber used in accelerated ageing mainly for pneumatic cylinders. The maximum static design load is around 5kN, enough to satisfy the testing conditions imposed by most of the ongoing projects and it is verified using finite element analysis (FEA). The main aspects considered during the design are modularity, ease of manufacturing, and, of course, good thermal properties. The chamber is built on a metallic frame with 50 mm mineral wool walls which is a good thermal insulator. A 2kW heater is used to heat the thermal chamber and a custom tuned control algorithm is used for temperature control, with multiple approaches being presented. The maximum temperature range foreseen for the thermal chamber is between ambient and 85° C which is obtained with the current setup. Considering all the above, the cost of the materials was about 1000 Euros.