For more than forty years, ATEQ has been well-known in the quality testing industry as a company that manufactures highly accurate industrial leak testing instruments. Many applications that ATEQ has tested have been in the automotive, industrial and medical industries, but within the last few years ATEQ has taken its expertise into the consumer electronics industry.
One of the hottest trends in the electronics industry is waterproof products. To be classified as waterproof, each opening on a device must be thoroughly leak tested to ensure that it meets the desired IP (Ingress Protection) Certification standards. For example, if a smartphone achieves an IP67 waterproof rating, that means the device is fully protected against dust getting into the phone and can withstand being submerged in water for up to 30 mins in 1m depth.
ATEQ’s leak testers use pressure decay air leak testing to measure pressure drops, which determine the air leak rates within the device. There is a certain relative air to water correlation ratio that can be used to essentially say, “if only a miniscule ‘x’ amount of air can leak in or out of the device, then the device is waterproof”, since air molecules are much smaller than water molecules.
After successfully providing custom waterproof testing solutions to several major smartphone and smartwatch manufacturers, ATEQ was encouraged to broaden its reach into this industry by exhibiting at the world’s largest annual tradeshow, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, for the first time. It was determined that there is a large growing global demand for companies like ATEQ, that can provide waterproofing consulting and testing equipment to electronics manufacturers.
To demonstrate the concept of leak testing electronics, ATEQ will be displaying a new demonstration game at their ADM booth using the Hydra four-channel leak tester and smartphones. Five smartphones will be connected to a custom testing fixture which is connected to the Hydra. The contestants must guess which phone is air-tight. The phone they select is then put in the center of the fixture to be tested. When pulling the test lever, the Hydra pumps compressed air through the connected tubes into four potential leak zones (headphone jack, charging port, speaker port and microphone), measures the pressure in each compartment, then sees if there is a pressure drop-which signifies a leak. Those who guess the correct non-leaking phone are entered in a contest to win a grand prize!
