Your company’s leak test results could be impacted by a variety of often overlooked factors!
If you’re in an industry that requires air leak testing, then you likely understand how just about every for-sale product leaks. This is why a lot of businesses ask themselves different types of questions, like what’s considered to be an acceptable amount of leakage?
For most businesses, baseline accuracy is the most important part of their leak testing, followed behind repeatability and cost-effectiveness. Here at Zaxis, we understand how challenging it can sometimes be for businesses to create reliable, accurate and repeatable leak tests when they’re not using our state-of-the-art equipment. We also know from experience how a lot of business teams aren’t aware of the often overlooked factors that can sometimes change test results.
Below are the most common factors that can potentially impact your company’s leak testing!
Part Stability
When your company is creating leak testing conditions, it’s crucial to remember the importance of environmental stability. This means minimizing any variations in things like humidity and temperature, which can both potentially have huge impacts on your leak test results. Even things like HVAC systems and open windows can potentially change your testing conditions enough to produce inaccurate results!
One common example of part stability impacting leak test results is when a business does their leak testing near open shipping/bay doors. Another common dilemma is when people test their products in the morning, only to later see temperature changes during the afternoon.
Avoiding excessive humidity is also very important for leak testing, so it goes to show just how much businesses have to focus on their part stability while conducting their leak tests!
Fixture & Seal Designs
Improperly seated or faulty seals will also potentially have a negative impact on your company’s leak testing results. If you utilize pressure decay testing, it’s possible that you can expect to see volumetric changes when you have floating seals.
In terms of fixture design, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using the right cylinder and seal sizes for your pressure tests. The goal is to create about 1.5-2 times the amount of opposing forces on the part your testing, and the Zaxis specialists will be sure to support you when your seals are preventing you from maintaining fixed test positioning.
Part Porosity & Ballooning
It’s also important for business teams to be extra careful about part porosity and ballooning parts during leak testing.
Porosity refers to a part’s ability to absorb pressure, and ballooning refers to a part’s ability to mask leaks. In order to thoroughly take these potential variations into account, you’ll likely need to take extra time to stabilize your test pressure—which will subsequently help compensate for porosity.
You’ll also want to increase your leak test’s stabilization time, because this will make it easier to achieve a repeatable pressure drop during the actual testing times. It’s also a good idea to allow your parts to relax in between leak tests, because this helps to eliminate issues like residual pressure and inaccurate readings.
Leak Test Cycle Times
It’s also incredibly important for businesses to maintain the consistency of their leak testing by allowing for sufficient cycle times.
For example, if you’re using pressure decay testing, it’s likely that you won’t see substantial differences between good and reject parts if you’re not giving yourself enough stabilization and test times.
And if you’re using vacuum decay leak testing, you’ll always need to make sure that you’re maintaining a repeatable vacuum level by simply giving yourself an adequate amount of time!
Increased Test Pressure
When your leak test pressure gets increased, it means that you’ll subsequently be increasing part stress. The smart thing to do in this situation is to counteract the increased test pressure with a higher safety ceiling.
It’s also important to remember that increased test pressure will inevitably generate more heat, and this added heat can sometimes inadvertently impact your test results. This is one reason why you should increase your cycle times to allow for high heat levels to dissipate prior to recording pressure drop measurements.
Leak Test Device Sensitivity
Business leaders also have to keep in mind that leak testing equipment has various sensitivity levels, which can impact your test accuracy depending upon how accurate you need your results to be.
The good news is that the Zaxis air leak testers come with state-of-the-art components and digital display gauges that always ensure pinpoint accuracy!
System Calibration
Leak test systems absolutely must be properly calibrated to a baseline standard in order to accurately determine whether or not a part passes or fails. There are two common types of system calibration that you should know about, including:
- Single-point calibration
- Two-point calibration
Two-point calibration is largely considered to be more accurate than single-point, and this is because it allows you to more easily measure pressure changes as compared to a known good part—all while maintaining a second value oriented around a leak standard.
Reach Out To Zaxis To Maximize The Accuracy Of Your Leak Test Results!
The above factors are just some of the many issues that could potentially impact your company’s leak testing results, and this is why it’s so important for companies throughout various industries to put their trust in renowned leak testing specialists and equipment.
Zaxis has been a leak testing industry leader for several decades, and we’re incredibly proud of our multi-function leak testers that have supported countless companies around the world.
Reach out to us online or give us a call at 801-264-1000 to get in touch with our leak testing experts today and let us know how we can help maximize the accuracy and efficiency of your test results!
