Altitude Test Chambers
Combined Temperature and Low-Pressure Testing to 65,000 Feet Simulated Altitude
Aircraft, satellites, rockets, and high-altitude payloads experience a combination most ground-based test equipment can't reproduce: extreme temperature alongside significantly reduced atmospheric pressure, occurring together rather than one at a time. A standard temperature chamber, however wide its thermal range, tells you nothing about how a component behaves at 65,000 feet of simulated altitude, where reduced pressure changes convective cooling, outgassing behaviour, and the electrical breakdown characteristics of exposed connectors and components.
Sonacme's altitude test chambers combine high/low temperature control with low-pressure simulation in a single enclosure, covering ground-level conditions through to 65,000 feet simulated altitude. This lets a test programme reproduce the actual combined environment a component will see during ascent, cruise, or high-altitude operation, rather than testing temperature and pressure effects separately and hoping the combination doesn't introduce an interaction the individual tests missed.
The equipment is built to meet DEF STAN 00-35 Parts 3-11, 3-12, and 3-13 (the UK defence standard's high-temperature/low-pressure and low-temperature/low-pressure test methods), MIL-STD-810G Method 500.5 (Procedures I, II, and III, the US military low-pressure/altitude test method), and RTCA/DO-160C, the airborne equipment environmental qualification standard's altitude section — the core set referenced across satellite, rocket, airplane, and helicopter component qualification programmes. A fully welded 2mm SUS304 stainless steel inner chamber provides the structural integrity needed to maintain a reliable low-pressure seal across repeated test cycles, and both prefabricated and fully customised configurations are available where a programme's chamber volume or fixture requirements fall outside standard sizing.
