Ensure Product Reliability in Any Climate: From Freezing Cold to Extreme Heat

Temperature testing proves a product still works, and still survives, at the hottest and coldest conditions it will meet in operation, in storage and in transport. Some of the methods we support include IEC 60068-2-1 and 60068-2-2, MIL-STD-810 Methods 501 and 502, and RTCA DO-160 Sections 4 and 5. The distinction that governs the whole test plan is whether the product is running while it is at temperature. Megalab is accredited by A2LA to ISO/IEC 17025 for temperature testing from -68 C to 180 C, in chambers from bench scale up to a walk-in that takes a pallet or a complete machine.

Cold makes plastics brittle, thickens lubricants, drops battery capacity and shifts the value of every component on a board. Heat softens adhesives, accelerates every chemical process inside the product, and pushes semiconductors toward their limits. Repeated movement between the two fatigues the joints between materials that expand at different rates.

None of this shows up in a functional test on a bench at room temperature, which is where most products are proven before they go to qualification. It shows up in the field, in a fleet, after shipping. For most manufacturers the test is not optional: it is written into a customer specification, a market approval, or a standard the product has to meet before it can be sold.

This is the distinction that determines the sample count, the fixturing and the price, and specifications routinely conflate the three.

• Operating temperature testing runs the product powered and functioning through the extremes, with performance measured at each step. It needs power feeds and instrumentation through the chamber ports, and usually a functional check at each plateau.
• Storage temperature testing, sometimes called non-operating, takes the product unpowered to more severe extremes than it would ever see running, then returns it to ambient and checks that it still works.
• Transport conditioning is a storage profile applied for a defined period to represent a shipping leg, often ahead of a packaging or drop test rather than as a test in its own right.

A specification that gives a single temperature range without saying whether the unit is powered is incomplete. Send it to us and we will tell you which reading it supports before anything is quoted.

• Low temperature and cold soak: IEC 60068-2-1 Test A and MIL-STD-810 Method 502, holding the product at the cold extreme until it is stabilised through its mass.
• High temperature and dry heat: IEC 60068-2-2 Test B and MIL-STD-810 Method 501.
• Temperature cycling: IEC 60068-2-14 Test Nb and MIL-STD-883 Method 1010, ramping between extremes at a controlled rate. The slow counterpart to thermal shock, which transfers the sample between two chambers in seconds instead.
• Cold start: proving the product will power up from a fully cold soaked state rather than merely continue running once warm.
• Freeze and thaw: MIL-STD-810 Method 524, cycling through the freezing point so any moisture already inside changes phase.
• Icing and freezing rain: MIL-STD-810 Method 521 and RTCA DO-160 Section 24, building an ice layer and confirming the product still operates or still releases. Separately accredited, and it matters for outdoor telecom, rail and EV charging equipment.
• Accelerated ageing: ASTM F1980, using elevated temperature to represent real time shelf life.

Humidity is a separate control variable with its own methods and its own chambers. If your specification pairs temperature with relative humidity, see humidity testing.

Accredited temperature testing runs from -68 C to 180 C, with relative humidity control from 5 to 98 % RH on the temperature and humidity chambers. Some chambers are temperature only and do not control humidity, so a combined profile is scheduled differently. See humidity testing if your specification pairs the two.

Chambers run from bench scale up to walk-ins that take a forklift-loaded pallet, a rack or a complete machine, and all of them have port access through the wall for power and instrumentation. A sample up to roughly 48 inches goes in a reach-in; beyond that it goes in a walk-in chamber. The temperature range narrows at walk-in scale, so send us the dimensions with the profile and we will confirm which chamber it books into before you ship anything.

Accredited by A2LA to ISO/IEC 17025 under certificates 5179.01 and 5179.02. See our accreditations.

• The standard and method, or your internal specification
• Whether the product is powered during the test, and whether it needs functional checks at temperature
• Sample dimensions, weight and quantity
• The temperature extremes and how many cycles or how long a soak your specification calls for
• What has to pass through the chamber wall: power, signal, coolant, air
• Any fixturing, mounting orientation or thermocouple placement the specification requires

Send us the specification and we will confirm the requirement and quote it.